About the Nurturing Home

The Nurturing Home is a place to explore a natural, developmental approach to the preschool years! It was created as Your Guide from Birth to Five was being written and houses several free resources that can be used with the book.

I’m Kim, pictured left with my youngest daughter and first grandchild. In a way, my lifetime represents how fast preschool expectations have changed.

You see, when I was five I didn’t attend kindergarten. Neither did my friends or relatives. When I was five I’d never even heard of kindergarten! Back then I was counting the days ‘til I could follow my older brother to school and begin first grade with Mrs. Gump. At that time the first grade you entered was—well, first grade.

So while you might think that preschool has been entrenched forever, it’s actually a pretty new concept! In just my lifetime, we’ve changed from starting school at age six, to starting school at age five, then four, then three, and now even two. But that’s not all. We also send our littles for more and more hours of the day.

My oldest child attended kindergarten for half days, but when my second turned five, kindergarten was transitioning to full-time.  Just those few short years ago, it was controversial to have five-year-olds in school all day! Since then, things have progressed from controversial full-time kindergarten, to completely-accepted three-year-old preschool. What’s next? And why?

I started my career as a pediatric physical therapist helping children move through the developmental sequence when they had physical challenges. Next, I marveled at the beauty of development as a mom, watching my own three grow and change through the preschool years.  For over four decades I taught private piano lessons which gave me a front row seat to a variety of children’s learning styles, and I served several years as both a local and district children’s director in my church denomination. Finally, my husband and I have served with an educational non-profit (statewide homeschool organization) for the past twenty years. I’ve studied and experienced early childhood education from many angles, building on my child development background. It’s been no surprise to learn that science confirms what common sense makes clear and the Bible promotes: children do best in the context of home and family. And that culminated in a strong desire to share what I learned with young parents who desperately need direction amidst a world that clamors to take kids out of the home earlier and earlier. 

If you’re wondering what to do with your own littles, I’d love to invite you over for tea and a chat, Titus 2 style. Your Guide from Birth to Five is the next best thing. I’d really like to share my heart with you—from what I know about child development to what I know about brain growth. Even more important, I’d love to share what I believe is God’s perfect plan.     

“Kindergarten” is a German word meaning “a child’s garden.” It’s German because that’s where the idea of kindergarten originated. But “home” was first God’s idea. That’s why we talk about the “kinder garden of home”: a place of belonging, a place where kids grow and flourish.

Be kind to your child. Grow them in the kinder garden of home!