Early Childhood

Revolutionary Love

Welcome to our Early Childhood Learning Hub!

Here you will find resources to practice Revolutionary Love with children. Download our Parents’ Guide and Educators’ Guide.

Have you ever watched how children love? It’s committed, diverse, creative, and unpredictable. Children are devoted to love. How do we nourish and strengthen the wisdom that is already inside of them? Explore with us.

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Wonder

Grieve

Fight

Rage

Listen

Reimagine

Breathe

Push

Transition

Joy

Wonder

To wonder is to cultivate awe and openness to others’ thoughts, experiences, pain, wants, and needs. It’s looking upon the face of anyone or anything and saying: You are a part of me I do not yet know. Children remind us how to return wonder. From hidden snails to fallen leaves, they reveal ordinary beauty. Their challenging questions and tricky behavior also show us who we don’t wonder enough about. We can, over time, with children, expand our natural sense of wonder to those who need it most.

Grieve

Because we associate grief with significant losses— death, natural disasters, and war— grieving with children might sound intense. But grief isn’t defined by intensity. It’s a reaction to life saying no— no, you can’t have that job anymore; no, the world isn’t free of violence; no, you can’t have your father anymore. Young children grieve small things daily— no, you can’t have that toy anymore. Learning to grieve is a crucial part of growing up. We grieve with children, not to erase their feelings or give in to their demands, but to learn to accompany one another through the pain.

Fight

To fight is to choose to protect those in harm’s way. Our love becomes revolutionary when we fight for those outside our immediate circle. Both parents and children are deeply familiar with the practice of fighting for others. People become parents because they are willing to fight for the life of another. Children, whether it’s playing superheroes or arguing over the rules of tag, are often ready to fight for justice. Educators fight for children’s dignity. The web of connections within and between us is potent. The practice of fight asks us to lean into that web and extend it a little further.

Rage

Rage expresses our body’s fiery energy to protect ourselves and others. “Anger is the force that protects that which is loved. We cannot access the depth of loving ourselves or others without rage.” As we know, life with children includes a lot of love and life—routines, food, caregiving, and bathrooms—which can become sources of anger. We cannot love one another and escape the experience of rage. The good news is that learning to make safe containers for rage is an essential part of growing up and a powerful way to contribute to creating a culture of Revolutionary Love.

Listen

Whether it’s about eating vegetables or getting to bed on time, children do, at times, become fierce opponents. Learning to listen and understand the reasons behind their behavior is essential to creating rich relationships with kids. Valarie writes, “The most critical part of listening is asking what is at stake for the other person. I ask myself, What is this story demanding of me? What will I do now that I know this?” Asking these questions during challenging times allows us to discover our children’s deepest needs and is excellent practice for listening to our most feared adult opponents.

Reimagine

To reimagine is to explore a vision of a relationship, family, school, community, and world where we all flourish. In the world, that means looking at the cultures and institutions that radicalize and authorize our opponents. In our families, it means examining the practices, stories, and systems that cause family members to harm one another. Reimagining focuses not just on what we are fighting against but also on the future, schools, and families that we are fighting for.

Breathe

Breathing is the practice of taking conscious, deep breaths. It also creates space in raising children to slow down and care for our bodies, minds, and spirits. Breathing is how we sustain ourselves and our children — and let joy in. In the US, where parents aren’t ensured childcare, children lose hours of free play time, and teachers are overworked, choosing to breathe is a political intervention. It is a way to assert that our bodies, families, and work are worthy and beloved. This is how breathing becomes an act of Revolutionary Love.

Push

Children are delivered with a massive push, and as soon as they take their first breath, they begin creating their lives by breathing and pushing. To be born, grow up, live, and die requires immense courage to push. The forces our children push against are the very things that shape their lives. Pushing requires discernment about the right times to rest and the right time to push through painful sensations, emotions, and thoughts to birth new possibilities. As people who raise children, one of our important tasks is helping children learn to navigate when to push and when to breathe.

Transition

Transition is the excruciating moment just before birth when a baby’s head stretches the birth canal so that it feels like it will break. But it doesn’t. Instead, the body stretches, and new life is born. In that moment, it’s not just the baby that’s delivered then, but everyone who helps raise or educate them. Birthing doesn’t end when the child arrives. Adults in their lives are continually reborn through the humility of growing together. When we let the fire of transition transform us, we learn profound forms of love that allow our children to grow into the people they want to be.

Joy

Joy is the core practice that sustains all others. To let in joy is to give our senses to what feels beautiful, delightful, pleasurable, or wondrous in the present moment. Joy is the gift of love. It is the promise and fuel of childhood. It isn’t only for the easy times; it can also be a guiding principle for the most challenging moments with children. When we ask ourselves what the most joyful way to get our shoes on or the most joyous way to discuss race, it can help us co-create profound rituals with children.

Revolutionary Love Letters for Parents

Revolutionary Love came to life on the birthing table and was articulated during the early years of Valarie Kaur’s family life. Its wisdom is intimately wound up with the wisdom of parenthood. So, we created these Revolutionary Love Letters as a resource that invites families into the movement with inspiration and creativity. Whether you are a parent, grandparent, auntie, uncle, nanny, or family friend, we offer you these tools for teaching your children Revolutionary Love because they enrich family life while laying the foundations for a vibrant, just, and equitable society.

What’s Inside?

Eleven heartfelt and compassionate Revolutionary Love Letters that connect each of Revolutionary Love’s core practices to children, family life and the broader society. Each letter includes:

💌 Easy to implement experiences and rituals for bringing Revolutionary Love home.

💌 Tips for parenting with Revolutionary Love.

💌 Vibrant children’s book suggestions for each practice.

💌 Short and easy-to-read text for busy parents.

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We are happy to provide the complete set of letters to support Revolutionary Love in your family. We offer these letters on a sliding scale (pay what you can), beginning at $0. We recommend a donation of $20 for this labor. We welcome anything you are able to offer to support our education work.

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Early Childhood Educators Guide

Imagine every child learning Revolutionary Love in school—a generation that wonders about others and grieves with them— children who can transmute their rage into energy that brings about equity for others, themselves, and even their opponents. We don’t know what our children’s futures hold, but we do know learning Revolutionary Love helps them navigate their lives now and in the future.

Educators, directors, childcare professionals, and anyone raising young children (three to eight), we created this potent guide for you— packed with ideas, examples, and questions flexible enough to meet the needs of your program. We hope you use it to create precious pockets of Revolutionary Love in your community.

Eleven sections that offer and in-depth exploration of Revolutionary Love with over 200 pages of:

💬 Powerful language for talking with children about Revolutionary Love.

🗒️ Curriculum for facilitating discussions, storytelling, poetry, music, arts, and problem-solving to bring love to life.

🤍 Tips to embody Revolutionary Love in your relationships with children and parents.

💭 Reflections on how to bring school structures in alignment with Revolutionary Love.

⚪️ True stories from and examples from classrooms.

📖 Vibrant children’s book suggestions for each practice.

And more!

Get the Early Childhood Educator's Guide

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Name*

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We are happy to provide the Early Childhood Educator's Guide to support Revolutionary Love in your school and classrooms. We offer this guide on a sliding scale (pay what you can), beginning at $0. We recommend a donation of $60 for this labor. We welcome anything you are able to offer to support our education work.

Would you like to make a donation?*

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This hub is based on the work of Valarie Kaur, author of the book World of Wonder and Revolutionary Love Project founder.

Illustrations are by Cynthia Alonso, an award-winning illustrator, picture book author, and graphic designer from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

WORLD OF WONDER is a lyrical, rhyming picture book about a young child who learns to navigate the world with a sense of wonder, by activist and award-winning documentarian Valarie Kaur.

When we lead with love, we labor with joy.

The Revolutionary Love Project inspires and equips people to build beloved community where they are, centered around the ethic of love.