Little Minds, Big Skies

Hi! I’m Reenie, and I’m so glad you’re here.

I’ve spent much of my life surrounded by young children—first as a mom, including years as a stay-at-home mom, and professionally as an early childhood educator, director, trainer, consultant, and coach.

I hold a master’s degree in Curriculum & Instruction with an emphasis in Advanced Early Childhood Education, and I’ve spent more than 15 years working professionally in early childhood education. For more than ten years, I directed an early education program, and I later spent seven years training, coaching, and consulting with early childhood professionals.

A big focus of my work has been brain development—understanding what’s happening in a young child’s developing brain and how that affects behavior, emotions, learning, and relationships.

I’ve also authored professional development coursework for early childhood educators, developed educational content and scripts for early childhood media projects, and have been published in the University of Montana’s Journal of Early Childhood Scholarship and Innovative Practice.

But here’s the thing all those years of education, research, and experience have taught me:

Little kids have some really big feelings.

They also do things that can leave the adults who love them wondering, Why on earth did you just do THAT? 😆

That’s why I created Little Minds, Big Skies.

I want to help parents, grandparents, caregivers, and early childhood professionals understand what’s happening beneath the behavior—not just how to make the behavior stop.

We’ll talk about tantrums, biting, hitting, big emotions, impulse control, play, learning, relationships, and all the wonderfully complicated things that come with growing a young brain.

My goal is to take what we know about early childhood development and the developing brain and make it useful in real life—without judgment, jargon, or expecting little children to behave like tiny adults.

Because when we understand what’s happening in a child’s little mind, we can give them a lot more room to grow under those big skies.

I’m glad you’re here.

Reenie, M.Ed.