Welcome to the Raise Wildflowers newsletter, written by me - Jerrica Sannes.
I hold an MEd in Early Childhood Curriculum & Instruction from Arizona State University, a BS in Family & Child Development from Utah State University, and an AS in Early Childhood Education from Western Nevada College. I have over 15 years of professional experience working with young children and I am the proud former owner of a successful Reggio-inspired toddler school in Orange County, California. I’m also a full-time mother of two (ages 3 and 5) with a Christmas baby on the way!
After my toddler school closed in 2020, I began creating The Preschool Business Workshop. I also created and launched the original version of PlayBased: Beginner’s Guide to Hands-On Learning.
Meanwhile, I started noticing my then-three-year-old son exhibiting some pretty extreme challenging behaviors in response to certain popular children’s tv shows. I began researching the effects of screen-time and overstimulation on early brain development, sharing my observations and findings on Instagram, and eventually creating my popular free course: The TV Detox, as well as my extensive TV rubric which I use for scoring (mostly terrible!) children’s TV shows.
After posting a negative review of Cocomelon on Instagram, I unintentionally sparked an internet wildfire regarding toddler TV and forever tied my name to the horrid cartoon. Oops! This also led to an explosion of Instagram followers, hundreds of positive testimonials, and, of course, a great deal of backlash.
I quickly realized that the main problem is a widespread societal pressure for parents (mothers, in particular) to do more and be better - to devote every waking hour to playing with and educating their young children. This led me to creating and hosting my online course and motherhood event: Mother Wildflowers, with the goal of helping mothers support and understand unstructured play, and to ultimately do less, find delight in their children, and thrive in motherhood.
As a Child Development Specialist, my passion lies in play and high-quality childcare. I am not particularly passionate about children’s television, nor do I consider myself an expert on screen-time. This is simply a topic I stumbled upon in my own parenting journey. However, this Coco experience has showed me just how incredibly important the screen-time topic is for parents and educators of young children, and I’ve been seeking a space to share breakdowns of TV reviews and screen-time research outside of the harsh world of social media.
So, that’s why I’m here!
Why subscribe?
As promised, my screen-time content is always free. By subscribing, you’ll receive a weekly screen-time digest which will include:
a breakdown of a TV review
a snippet of research
a grown-up tip (since parenting in the digital world is hard)
other screen-time info and thoughts
Why pay?
By joining the paid subscription, you’ll receive:
An additional weekly digest on my favorite topic - PLAY - which will include sections such as:
toy reviews and recommendations
ideas for setting up an environment that supports unstructured play
tips for facilitating outdoor play
research regarding play and early learning
reading recommendations
Q&A
A monthly roundup of our family’s current favorite toys, baby gear, etc.
The ability to comment and ask questions (to be answered in Q&A)
Stay up-to-date, no social media necessary
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Be part of a community of people working hard to raise kind, happy and resilient children amidst humanity’s most challenging and overwhelming parenting era yet.
