Heart Garden: A Parent Circle for Understanding Children from the Inside Out

Heart Garden is a monthly parent circle for caregivers who feel stuck, worried, or worn down by power struggles, school resistance, big emotions, or the quiet fear that something isn’t working — even though they’re trying so hard.

Heart Garden offers a gentle, guided space for parents to step back and learn how to make sense of children developmentally — through the lenses of attachment, emotional growth, and maturity — and how this understanding can support both parenting and homeschooling.

 How Our Time Together Will Flow (9:00–11:00)

9:00–9:20 | Arrival & Settling In
Families arrive, grab a coffee, say hello, and get settled. Children have time to acclimate and begin playing in the jungle space.

9:20–10:15 | Parent Circle (Child Supervision Provided)
Parents gather in the playroom for a guided Parent Circle while children continue playing nearby in the jungle under supervision, allowing adults the space to focus and engage fully.

Each session begins with a story about a child — similar to a case study — that parents can relate to. Together, we’ll explore what might be going on for that child and what a parent might try to help the situation.

From there, Miss B will expand the discussion with developmentalist insights into childhood development, paired with homeschooling perspectives that support learning, connection, and emotional health. Time for open conversation and questions will follow, and the Parent Circle will gently wrap up.

10:15–11:00 | Reconnect & Community Time
Parents rejoin their children in the jungle. Families are welcome to stay, play, chat, connect, and continue conversations in a relaxed, informal way.

 Who This Space Is For

Heart Garden is especially supportive for:

• Parents navigating homeschool stress or school refusal
• Caregivers dealing with defiance, aggression, anxiety, or emotional shutdown
• Parents who feel discouraged, overwhelmed, or unsure how to help
• Families longing for a calmer, more connected way forward

 You don’t need more pressure or perfection.
 You need a clearer way of seeing your child.

Heart Garden is a place to tend the roots — so growth can happen naturally.

 About the Hosts

Carrie Bourgo and Ryan Bourgo are the parents and educators behind Heart Garden, a parent circle created to support families in understanding children from the inside out.

Carrie is the Co-Founder and Lead Teacher of MindGarden Learning and holds a degree in Elementary Education. She has taught with a variety of homeschool co-ops and enrichment programs over the years and brings both professional experience and lived parenting wisdom into her work. Carrie is a mother of three children—ages 16, 14, and almost 7—and follows a developmentalist, attachment-based approach to parenting, alongside a non-faith-based interpretation of Charlotte Mason’s educational philosophy.

Her education in childhood development and attachment comes through the Neufeld Institute, where she has completed extensive coursework exploring attachment, maturation, emotional development, anxiety, aggression, attention, and adolescence. Carrie’s work centers on helping parents make sense of children’s behavior developmentally, so growth and learning can unfold naturally within relationship.

Ryan holds a PhD in Genetics and brings extensive experience as a public speaker and people leader. As a father of three, he offers a thoughtful and grounded male perspective on parenting—one that emphasizes presence, responsibility, and emotional engagement. Ryan is especially passionate about modeling what it looks like for fathers to be attentive, caring, and actively involved, in a culture that too often places the weight of parenting insight and accountability solely on mothers.

Together, Carrie and Ryan host Heart Garden as a shared offering. Their work reflects a belief that parents are not meant to carry confusion or fear alone, and that meaningful change comes not from pressure or perfection, but from understanding, relationship, and shared responsibility.