The Story Garden with Mrs. Sandoz

I’m a sucker for quaint stories from around the turn of the 20th century, and Uncle Wiggily’s Adventures is one of my favorites. First published in 1912 and written by Howard R. Garis, these stories were originally meant to be small nightly read-alouds for young children. Garis introduces us to Uncle Wiggily, a gentle, well-mannered rabbit, and all of his little creature friends and relations. The stories are wholesome and cozy, with just enough adventure to keep young listeners wondering what will happen next. For the longest time, I assumed Garis was English—the stories feel so English in their tone and setting. But I recently learned he was actually American. I think it’s their whimsical, fairy-tale quality that led me to that assumption; they feel closely related to the work of Beatrix Potter. I’ve read that Garis wrote over 18,000 stories for children in his lifetime—an almost unbelievable number. He contributed to a newspaper six days a week for more than 36 years. In many ways,...

This one is for those of you who listen to Uncle Wiggily’s Adventures on The Story Garden with Mrs. Sandoz . I love giving my students and families of the podcast little challenges to try at home, and this one comes straight from the stories. The author of these quaint stories often mentions lemonade—it seems to be a favorite treat of his as well as the characters in the stories. It happens to be a favorite in my family, too. I have such sweet memories of making fresh-squeezed lemonade with my boys and then sitting outside in our forest or on our porch and drinking it. So, of course, we had to make some here as well. I’ve put together a simple recipe for you to print and use, along with a few gentle suggestions for parents on how to turn it into a writing activity with your littles.  Just click the image below do download a FREE pdf. Enjoy! Kristen

 After some gentle nudging from my students (and a little tug on my own heart), I’ve started something new— The Story Garden . This is a small podcast where my kindergartners—and any little listeners who would like to join us—can come and listen to stories. Some are old and well-loved, like Uncle Wiggily . Others are stories I’ve written over the years—first for my own boys, and now for the children I teach. My hope is simple. I want to give children a place to slow down, listen, and grow their imaginations. In a world full of fast-moving images, there is something quietly powerful about hearing a story and cultivating the pictures in your own mind.  Reading books aloud is a great way to germinate the love of reading in children. Like any good garden, this one will grow slowly—with care, intention, and a bit of wonder along the way. To learn more about the first story I am reading on the podcast click here.  If you’d like to listen, you can find The Story Garden ...

There’s something you should know about me... I identify as a spiritual person. However, I don’t believe my sole purpose on earth is to convert everyone I meet to my exact way of thinking. Instead, I resonate more with the belief that God's greatest commandment is to love Him and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. This spiritual perspective has led me to pursue careers focused on serving others. It also explains why I cherished my experience as a substitute teacher in the public school system. Substituting ultimately convinced me that I would thrive in a full-time teaching role. One of my last substitute teaching assignments was the day before Thanksgiving break in 2023. I took a position at a small rural school as a 5th-grade teacher for a class I had filled in for at least twice before. I was familiar with the students, and we shared a good rapport. However, this class had a difficult start to the year, facing a series of substitute teachers due to the teacher's fami...

“‘The time has come, the Walrus said, To talk of many things: Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax— Of cabbages—and kings— And why the sea is boiling hot— And whether pigs have wings.’"  -Alice in Wonderland When I was a kid we lived out in the sticks and only had a used VCR with a handful of tapes that my grandfather had recorded from his cable channels.  Several of those tapes had been recorded over his old porn movies, something we did not discover until middle school.  Yikes! That is a story for another time. One of the kid-friendly movies he had recorded for us was Alice in Wonderland.  I must have watched that movie 500 times. The time has come to talk of many things…At least that is what I should have written when I pushed the pause button on this blog in 2015.  I loved writing it, and I’m not sure why I stopped now.  Except that life was complicated and I had a two, a seven, and a ten-year-old I was trying desperately to care for while navigating chro...

Good Pictures, Bad Pictures Porn-Proofing Today's Kids   Two years ago when my then six and nine year old boys were inadvertently exposed to pornography by a neighbor boy I dove into educating myself on this topic.   Despite my best efforts to protect them from this exact type of thing, I had failed.   My heart was broken, yet I was determined to do what I needed to in order to help them through this.   According to Internetsaftey101.com seven out of ten youth have accidentally come across pornography online and American children begin consuming hardcore pornography at an average age of 11.   On top of that four out of five 16 year olds view pornography on a regular basis.   Fight the New Drug claims they often get emails from six year olds sharing about their addictions to porn. These are frightening statistics.   Part of me wants to discount them as being overly aggressive for shock value, but then I realize even if these stats are cut...