Gentle stories and emotional tools for the child
you teach, love, and know better than anyone

A growing number of families are choosing a different path

Homeschooling continues to grow across the country — and research shows why. Studies consistently find that homeschooled children perform as well as or better than their peers academically, while also showing strong outcomes in confidence, emotional development, and family connection.

This program was designed with that environment in mind — giving families simple, meaningful ways to support their child’s emotional world alongside their learning.

Learning at home creates space for something deeper — and these stories are made to live inside that space.

Designed for homeschool families who are already carrying a lot

These books and printable supports were created to make social-emotional learning feel more natural, more gentle, and easier to weave into your everyday home rhythms. Whether you are helping your child name a feeling, settle their body, feel included, or find their voice — these tools are meant to support the relationship you already have with them.

Everything you need — already inside what you do

Growing Collection of Picture Books

Warm, animal-centered stories that address purpose, belonging, family, neurodiversity, anxiety, big emotions, and resilience — each one written to be read slowly, savored, and returned to again and again.

Young Toby Home Resources

Regulation tools, breathing cards, emotion charts, and calm-corner supports your child already knows from the stories — ready to use at home, on your schedule, without any extra preparation.

Built for the Way You Homeschool

No required order. No lesson plan to follow. Each book stands alone and fits naturally into morning read-alouds, quiet time, bedtime, or any moment your child needs it most. Flexible by design.

Trauma-Informed by Design

Every tool was created by someone who has lived what these children are living — a trauma survivor, foster mother, and adoptive parent who built what was missing because her own children needed it.

The Books

Each book targets a specific SEL theme and can be used as a standalone read or as part of a series. Tap any book to purchase on Amazon.

More than a book series.

A complete SEL ecosystem for children ages 3–8, PreK through Grade 5.

The Little Pebble Books is a complete, CASEL-aligned social-emotional learning program for children ages 3–8, spanning PreK through Grade 5. It is not simply a book series. It is a comprehensive ecosystem of stories, regulation tools, educator resources, and family supports — all built around a single guiding belief:

This program was built from lived experience.

This program grew because of my children. When my adopted boys came home from the system, they brought with them everything they had survived — PTSD, fetal alcohol syndrome, reactive attachment disorder, big feelings that had no words and nowhere safe to go.

And they were not alone. Over the years, many children came through our home through foster care — each one carrying their own weight, their own history, their own particular way of bracing for the next hard thing.

I also homeschool some of my children myself. I know what it is to sit across the table from a child who is falling apart before the first lesson has begun. To love them deeply and still not have the right words. To want so much to help — and to feel the weight of not knowing how.

And so I kept watching. At school, at home, at the table, in the quiet moments before bed — the same children, the same feelings, the same search for somewhere safe to land. I kept looking for something that would help. Something a parent could actually hold in their hands and use.

Not for my sons. Not for the children who had come and gone through our door. Not for the specific, tender, complicated place they were in. Not for the homeschool parent sitting across the table from a child who is falling apart and doesn’t know what to reach for next.

So, I stopped looking for what existed and started building what was needed. Not because I had all the answers. But because I had lived the questions long enough — and loved enough children carrying them — to know what the answers needed to feel like.

This program grew because families kept asking what came next.

Start Here — The Pebble as Your Launch Book

It introduces Penelope and Toby — the characters your child will return to again and again.

It establishes the ripple metaphor — small acts of kindness reach farther than we imagine — the emotional through-line of everything that follows.

It launches Pebble Breathing — a simple, powerful regulation practice your whole family can use throughout the day.

And it builds something between you and your child from the very first read.

And on every single page spread:

A ladybug is hiding somewhere in the illustration. Waiting to be found. Just like Penelope, it is small and easy to overlook — but it is always there.

Your child will ask you to read this book again and again — not just for the story, but for the search.

Start here if you’re new to The Little Pebble Books.

What The Pebble Establishes in the First Two Weeks at Home

Tools for the Difficult Moments at Home

When a child is dysregulated, they do not need a framework. They need something simple, steady, and safe to return to.

Because sometimes the body needs to move before the mind can settle.

Every tool was built for a real moment — the morning when feelings are too big, the transition that falls apart, the child who cannot find the words.

Start Here

When your child is overwhelmed, their brain is in survival mode. You cannot reason with survival mode.

But you can give the body something steady to hold onto — something that gently brings them back before the next moment, the next task, the next transition in your day.

You do not need to fix everything. You just need a place to begin.

🪨 Pebble Breathing

Start small. Have your child hold a small smooth stone — or simply cup their hands as if they are. Breathe in slowly. Breathe out slowly. Feel the weight. Feel the steadiness.

Let the body settle first. The mind — and the learning — will follow.

🐢 Turtle Shell Calm-Down

When feelings feel too big, we go small. Pull in tight like a turtle in its shell. Take a slow breath in. Hold. Then gently release. This works at the table, in their room, or anywhere they need it.

Your child is learning something important here — how to return to themselves.

🐦 Fly Like a Birdie

Some feelings do not want to sit still. Stretch your arms like wings. Breathe in as they rise. Breathe out as they fall. Use this between subjects, after something hard, or before a difficult moment.

They do not need to be calm to begin. They just need to begin.

🌊 Ocean Breathing

For the moments that need slowing. Breathe in as the wave comes in. Breathe out as it goes. Slow. Steady. Rhythmic. You can do this right alongside them.

No two waves are the same. Just keep breathing.

You do not have to do this perfectly. You just have to show up.

Small moments like these — again and again — are how children learn they are safe enough to learn.

Designed for homeschool families who are already carrying a lot.

The Little Pebble Books does not require a new curriculum structure or a separate lesson block. It fits inside what you already do — and makes it work better.

What the data says about SEL — and why it matters at home.

Full research summary available — covering SEL outcomes, trauma-informed approaches, and why emotional safety is a prerequisite for learning.

And while the heart of this work is what children feel — the research quietly supports it too.

Children in SEL programs show measurable academic growth, improved emotional regulation, and stronger long-term outcomes — whether they learn at home or at school.

The strongest impact is consistently in one area: children feeling safe, seen, and like they belong.

What Families Are Saying

Real words from the families where these books are already making a difference.

Bring Trish to Your Co-op or Group

Trish loves connecting with homeschool communities. Whether you are part of a co-op, a homeschool group, a library program, or a community organization — she brings warmth, lived experience, and practical tools into every visit.

Children and families leave with something they can use the same day — and keep using long after she’s gone.

Questions from homeschool families