As I scan news headlines and scroll through social media feeds, my heart grows increasingly heavy for the world in which I’m raising my two littles. The violence and division that stem from issues of race and justice are particularly weighty. This heaviness has caused me to examine my own attitudes and actions regarding racial reconciliation and justice and forced me to consider how this impacts my parenting.

I typically let my kids pick out what books we read at bedtime each evening (I hold veto power over their choices if it's longer than I have the energy for). One of their go-to picks these days is the Little Golden Book classic Home For a Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown (author of the classics Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny). A cute story about a bunny in search of a proper place for himself, this book's first pages accurately sum up how I feel about this time of year:

This is a question that crops up in the minds of preschool parents each spring as the next school year is on the horizon. A child’s age is often the initial consideration for kindergarten enrollment (the state of Ohio mandates that a child must be enrolled in school by the age of 6), but there are so many factors to consider as we as parents and educators try to determine true readiness.