Hi! I’m Melissa.
I am guided by a vision of a world where all children know themselves as whole and free, and where adults remember who they are and why they’re here.
I work with adults to ensure that children’s connection to their inner wisdom is nurtured and sustains as they learn and grow. And I support adults to deeply connect with the child-wisdom and creativity within themselves.
I love to learn, play, and collaborate with others. My work supports learning leaders, educators & schools, parents & caregivers, and creatives. I speak, teach, and lead conversations about children, attention, curiosity, creativity, energetics, and new possibilities for learning and school.
Notice. Wonder. Play. Delight. Love. Children.
This is where I attune as we design our collaborative work together.
Our attention is the bridge.
How we attune is what we create.
How do we get from here to there?
It’s all practice. How we practice matters.
What does it mean to live, learn, and grow in this world we are living in now? What do curiosity and creativity look like amidst the endless clutter and noise of digital landscapes? What might learning (and schools) become if we invested attention to our inner curriculum and released the hidden threads that bind us to old systems? How do we live into our promise of a more beautiful world for our children, our communities, and ourselves?
I work with humans who are asking the question: How do we actually do this?
Learning leaders (principals, founders, directors) who want the day-to-day learning within their organization to deeply align with the original, beautiful vision.
Parents and caregivers who want their children to stay connected to their inner wisdoms amidst the mixed messages of the outside world.
Educators (and other helpers) who know what matters for learning but feel tugged in many directions and need support to remember to trust themselves.
Creatives (writers, artists, makers) who want to bring something new into the world that reaches beyond current densities of thought.
Visionaries (beyond the boxes) who see a new way and have clear ideas for transformation but feel tangled in webs of logic that seem to “limit” what can “actually” happen.
Children know the aliveness of everything.
Children know how to express themselves whole and free.
Deep within, you know this, too.
My work lives within and between three layers:
holistic learning design - listening to children - aliveness of creativity
Holistic learning design invites the richness and complexity of whole beings who are full of feelings, messy with process, layered in modes of expression, and intrinsically motivated for curiosity and connection. I support design for: open-ended play, intrinsic motivation, nature connections, multiple modes of expression, spaciousness for all feelings, slow and deep attention, and notice-to-wonder inquiry. I work with schools, organizations, communities, and individuals. I specialize in learning for young children (ages 3-8), multi-age contexts, relational learning between children and caregivers, and adults learning about teaching, learning, process, or creativity.
Listening to children invites co-creative practice into new realms of multidimensional listening for deeper connection to the children in our lives and the child within ourselves. I design and facilitate listening experiences for groups, offer self-guided audio practices for individuals, and collaborate with others to study and explore fields of expanded attention and energetic presence. I am actively seeking new partners and collaborators.
Aliveness of creativity invites robust possibilities for how we create, whether this is an artistic form, business, community, school, technology, program, or new kind of expression. I’m deeply informed by my own creative practice with the aliveness of word-beings, ideas, objects, dreams, memory, light, water, and infinite landscapes of what’s real beyond what we can see. I offer creative mentorship for individuals, teach creative writing classes, and share playful workshops and immersive experiences for groups.
There’s deep richness inside each layer and endless possibilities in their overlaps.
Let’s grow a conversation about how we might collaborate inside or between these landscapes.
I’m a former Kindergarten teacher.
Through all that I do, the 5-year-old essence of me shines through.
For 23 years, I taught young children in K-5 public schools, developed interdisciplinary play-based curricula, and led school-based professional development. In 2017, I left my position inside one school, in one district and… stepped into the unknown where I allowed myself to dissolve, unfurl, and stretch into new ways of being. Through deep and tangly layers of personal noticing, unlearning, and revision, I found a truer understanding of who I am and what I’m here to create and share with others.
I have over 30 years of experience—study, design, teaching, leadership—in the art and applications of noticing for children, educators, families, communities, and creative practice. My work is rooted in foundations of noticing and notice-to-wonder process. This lives alongside my academic background in curriculum theory, cultural pedagogy, and creative writing, my experience with descriptive documentation, arts integration, open-ended play, and liberatory learning, and my more recent studies of energetics, somatics, and holistic wellbeing.
Over the years, I’ve worked with school teams, administrators, communities of educators, museums, libraries, arts organizations, nature centers, schools of education, creative writing departments, educational conferences, technology start-ups, media developers, informal groups of parents, and gatherings of creative humans.
Whether teaching a workshop, giving a keynote, designing a learning community, advising on product development, facilitating a practice protocol, leading a listening experience, or co-creating something entirely new, I always bring with me a deeply rooted knowing and delight for what’s possible in every small moment.
My approach is emergent, curious, and playful.
Our work together invites big questions into small moments, slowness into what feels too crowded, and depth into what hides below the surface.
Rich, rigorous process. Spacious listening. And lots of play, laughter, and unknowing along the way.
I don’t work with set templates or packaged programs. Each client, context, and moment is unique and thus, what we create together will emerge as we engage in a process that’s uniquely our own.
Everything we grow together roots from trust in what’s simple, small, and already beautiful and good.
trust
Everything based in trust. Trust for what’s already here and who we already are. Allow, open, release, receive, be.
play
Revise, dissolve, unfurl, flex, fall, unknow, shift perspectives, stretch, contradict, change your mind, giggle, mix metaphors with delight.
small
We notice what’s small to access what’s immense and to remember that we, too, are small. Everything in a button.
slow
The rich and layered space of slowness invites us to attune to who we are. This is beautiful, revolutionary, and essential.
love
Open-hearted, expansive, connected, merged. You are me and I am you; we are everything and everything is us.
unlimited
We are infinite multidimensional beings with endless potential for transformation. As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul (Hermes).
A free connection call is a lovely way to begin. 30-40 minutes. Zoom or phone.
We’ll meet each other and see what emerges.
B.S.Ed. | Elementary Education and Social Sciences, Loyola University Chicago
M.Ed. | Curriculum Theory, Curriculum & Instruction, Penn State University
M.A. | Creative Writing, Poetry, University of Cape Town
NBPTS | Early Childhood Generalist
Curriculum vitae and references available upon request.
For requests or permissions, please email: <contact@melissaabutler.com>.