Tara K. Haner

Mom of 4 | Theater Director/Mock Trial Coach, North High School | CA Licensed Attorney SBN 217025

[Tara K. Haner @HanerTara]

When I was little, I packed a bag to run away and my folks bribed me to stay using mac n cheese. And that tactic still works on me today.

[𝗠𝘂𝗵𝗲𝗲 ♛ @muheediva01]

Some people carry hurricanes in their chest and still offer you their umbrella.

[Mindset Machine  @mindsetmachine]

Failure isn’t the opposite of success.

Quitting is.

Fall, learn, stand up, repeat.

[Wholesome Side of 𝕏 @itsme_urstruly]

I love people who get excited about little things.
“look at this leaf.”
“look at the moon and the stars.”
“a crow came for the peanut I offered!!!”
Yes. More of this.

[Noctara @rumilyrics]

Believe that things can suddenly and miraculously change in your favor.

[Blake Burge @blakeaburge]

Underrated life advice: Let people be wrong about you. You don't need to correct every opinion. You don't need to win every argument. You don't need everyone to understand your choices. The people who matter will figure it out. The rest were never your real friends anyway.

[No filter Skin @NoFilterSkin]

Every month,
the uterus prepares itself
to nurture a life within it.

​And when that life does not arrive,
it lets go
of everything it had carefully built.

​Then, somehow,
it begins again.

​Perhaps resilience
was written into women
long before motherhood ever was.

[Lil G @SakPaseG]

Sometimes just sitting in the sun is enough for a good day. We overcomplicate joy.

[Vala Afshar @ValaAfshar]

To reduce your stress, try not to have strong and loud opinions about everything.

Smart people are selectively ignorant about most things, and focused on some things.

[JoFreedom @JoleneRell27961]

@ysuckme Or you could choose Grace and decide not to be like them! ✌️

[ً @artfuIchaos]

A green flag: they can be upset and still talk to you respectfully. That’s self control

[Dear Self. @Dearme2_]

Luxuries we forget that are luxuries:

1. Your mom still around
2. Hot water
3. Feeling healthy
4. Peace of mind & heart
5. Perfect weather days
6. Good food
7. Bills paid
8. Reliable transportation

[Freyy @Freyy_is]

i don’t think enough adults realize that saying “i’m sorry” to a child doesn’t make you weak. it teaches them respect, accountability, and emotional safety

[Dr. Julia Pappas @JuliaPappasPhD]

Ever met someone like this?

They are pretending to help you, while also actively sabotaging your progress.

Apply high discernment to every helping hand.

[🍂 @Lovandfear]

gently

[soosoorandom @sluvity_____]

Women who intentionally created slower, softer lives. What did you remove first?

[TeacherGoals @teachergoals]

What we do matters. 🧡

[𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐝 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 @DrBradJohnson]

Research in child development shows that young children build many foundational literacy skills through oral language, conversation, storytelling, play, social interaction, movement, repetition, and being read to consistently.

That matters right now because many states, including Georgia, are making a major push toward early literacy intervention and increased reading accountability in younger grades.
Literacy matters. Intervention matters.
But developmentally appropriate practice matters too.

The concern is not helping children read.
The concern is what often happens when academic pressure and accountability move further and further down into early childhood.

Historically, these pushes often lead to:
more testing,
more scripted programs,
more worksheets,
more skill drilling,
less play,
less creativity,
less imagination,
less movement,
and preschool slowly becoming “first grade earlier.”

A Pre-K child confusing letters and numbers is often developmentally normal at that age.

But when expectations are pushed down earlier and earlier, normal developmental behaviors like that can quickly become labeled as “behind,” “at risk,” or needing intervention.

At the same time, we risk removing many of the very experiences that actually help children build strong literacy foundations in the first place:
conversation,
storytelling,
creativity,
play,
human interaction,
and being read to regularly.

Reading stories aloud to children remains one of the strongest literacy practices we have because it develops vocabulary, comprehension, listening skills, attention span, imagination, and background knowledge long before formal academic pressure should dominate a child’s day.

This is not being against literacy intervention.

It is asking whether we are supporting literacy in ways that actually align with how young children learn and develop.

Because if we are not careful, early literacy policy can slowly become driven more by accountability systems, testing pressure, packaged programs, and textbook companies than by best practices in child development and learning.

[Tara K. Haner @HanerTara]

@NorthHighStars

[Tara K. Haner @HanerTara]

@DrBradJohnson Enter theater arts!

[𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐝 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 @DrBradJohnson]

We spend so much time worrying about children coming to school lacking academic skills.
But many are coming to school lacking relational skills.
Some children struggle to communicate face to face.
To handle conflict.
To hear “no.”
To work through frustration.
To cooperate, wait their turn, read social cues, or build healthy relationships.
And we should not ignore what is contributing to it.
Many children today are spending more time interacting with screens than interacting with people.
Less conversation.
Less eye contact.
Less play.
Less unstructured interaction.
Less practice navigating real human relationships.
But human beings are relational by nature.
Children learn communication, empathy, emotional regulation, accountability, confidence, and social awareness through real interaction with other human beings, not through constant technology, isolated screen time, and reduced human interaction.
Because schools are not just places of academic learning.
They are human environments built on interaction, communication, relationships, accountability, emotional regulation, and respect for others.
A child can often catch up academically.
But when children struggle with basic relational skills, it impacts behavior, learning, confidence, friendships, classrooms, and eventually the ability to function successfully in life and the workplace.
This is also why recess and play matter so much.
They are not distractions from learning.
They are some of the primary ways children develop the relational and emotional foundations that learning depends on in the first place.
Because when relational development suffers, academic development eventually suffers too.