There's no doubt about it: change is just plain hard! On today's show, Susan shares how the end of the school year is always an emotion-filled time, evoking nostalgia and gratitude for times past, while simultaneously bringing up fears of uncertainty about the future. Susan and Lindsey reflect on the importance of ritual, and why Sunflower Creative Arts developed our special "Bridging Day" graduation ceremony to help children and their families come together to process this big change.

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The Sunflower Bridge Podcast is kindly sponsored by Switzer Musical Productions.

Susan and Lindsey discuss the value of calling a family meeting. It can be a way for each member of the family to get to share their "beef", feel heard, and propose solutions that work for them.

The Sunflower Bridge Podcast is a product of Sunflower Creative Arts, a nonprofit 501c3 organization in Delray Beach, FL. with the mission of empowering children and families to be Confident, Creative and Compassionate through Play, Nature and the Arts.

Find us on Instagram at @sunflowercreativearts, and follow us wherever you listen to podcasts so you'll never miss a show. 

At Sunflower Creative Arts, we value Process over Product. We've seen how children benefit immensely from having the freedom to direct their own learning. Rather than creating a model bunny out of playdough, for example, a Sunflower teacher might instead simply arrange the dough in lumps on a table, stash the molding tools underneath the table, then sit back and watch what the children's unbound imagination thinks of to do with the materials provided.

In this episode, Susan, founding director of Sunflower Creative Arts and Lindsey, co-creator and director of Sunflower Bridge discuss why we feel emphasizing Process over Product gives power to the idea that we were all born to create and express ourselves through the Arts.

Thank you so much for listening. Please send us an email at [email protected] or find us on Instagram at @sunflowercreativearts - we'd love to hear from you!

It may seem like the terms ‘potty training’ and ‘toilet learning’ mean more or less the same thing. The crucial difference lies in the role of the adult in the process. At Sunflower Creative Arts, our philosophy is that when the child is physically, developmentally, psychologically and emotionally ready to begin using the toilet, they will. So it is up to us, the caregivers, to create the conditions for children to succeed on their own timeline–preferably without resorting to bribery!

Join Susan Caruso (founding director of Sunflower Creative Arts) and Lindsey Mills (co-creator & director of Sunflower Bridge) for this light-hearted episode all about POOP.

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Imagination is a muscle that must be exercised to get stronger! In this episode, Susan (founding director of Sunflower Creative Arts) and Lindsey (co-creator & director of Sunflower Bridge) weave stories from their own childhoods about how having "nothing to do" was often the precursor to the most transcendent play experiences.

Do you have a story about a time when boredom bore real fruit for you or your child? 🍊 We would love to hear it. Please email us at [email protected], or send us a message (or even a voice note!) on Instagram at @sunflowercreativearts.

The Sunflower Bridge Podcast is kindly sponsored by Switzer Musical Productions.

Join Susan (founding director of Sunflower Creative Arts) and Lindsey (co-creator & director of Sunflower Bridge) for this light-hearted conversation about the crucial difference between entertaining vs. actually playing with children - and why dropping the clown act can be liberating for everyone.

The Sunflower Bridge Podcast is kindly sponsored by Switzer Musical Productions.

Are you enjoying the show? Give us a like, a follow or a review wherever you listen. We appreciate your support!

Joining Lindsey, co-creator and director of Sunflower Bridge on the podcast is special guest Feather Berkower. Feather is the Founder of Parenting Safe Children, a licensed clinical social worker, and one of the nation’s leading experts in child sexual assault prevention. She has dedicated her career — which now spans over three decades — to educating parents and youth professionals on how to make their communities “off limits” to child sexual assault.

Using her community-based approach, she has trained over 150,000 school children, parents, and youth professionals across the United States. Feather’s workshops empower adults to keep children safe from child sexual assault. She makes a difficult and highly sensitive topic way less scary, and consistently impresses audiences with her knowledge, commitment, and warmth.

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. We asked Feather to come on the show and help us understand how we as adults can be better allies in the fight to end child sexual abuse.

Check out her website to sign up for one of her upcoming workshops.

The Sunflower Bridge Podcast is kindly sponsored by Switzer Musical Productions.

Susan and Lindsey discuss coping with the discomfort of change. At a time when you’re feeling frustrated by a dynamic with your child, looking behind the behavior to find the need they’re trying (and failing) to express to you can awaken your compassion.

Are you enjoying The Sunflower Bridge Podcast? Please give us a follow wherever you listen, or consider giving us a rating or review! It really helps us spread the word. Thanks for listening. The podcast is kindly sponsored by Switzer Musical Productions.

Join us for our first-ever interview on the podcast with Stephanie Arsht, former Sunflower Creative Arts parent and current board member. Susan and Lindsey share a conversation with Stephanie about her times as a member of the Seedlings Preschool parent cooperative, how lessons from those days continue to serve her now, and how crucial the element of community support was to her personal growth as well.

Books Stephanie mentioned in the show:

-Jim Trelease's Read-Along Handbook

-Between Parent and Child by Haim Ginott

The Sunflower Bridge Podcast is kindly sponsored by Switzer Musical Productions.

Follow us on Instagram at @sunflowercreativearts!

Take a breath and LAUGH with us! On today's episode, Susan Caruso, founding director of Sunflower Creative Arts and Lindsey Mills, co-creator and director of Sunflower Bridge talk about how silliness is a superpower when it comes to being a parent.

Do you have a story of using humor to great effect with the children in your life? We'd love to hear it! If you record a voice memo of your story and send it to us, we might just play it on the show. You can reach us via email at [email protected] or on Instagram.