Testimonials
Professional Reviews of Growing Memories:
A Musical Audio Circle Story of Love, Loss, and Resilience
It was a pleasure experiencing the first chapter of Growing Memories. The story and language is simple yet thoughtful. The illustrations, music and sounds add a gentle tone while activating the imagination and enhancing engagement. The story is touching and beautifully put together.
This digital storybook provides adults with a practical framework for supporting children in understanding death and emotional responses to loss. The use of story, illustration, and music, connected to the world around them, creates a meaningful and engaging learning experience. There is an overall sense of calmness consistent throughout the chapter. The child-appropriate and thoughtful prompts encourage emotional expression, reflection, and learning. This is a gentle, compassionate, and valuable resource for adults supporting children.
Thank you for sharing your work, and for all the effort you put into creating a resource for children and the adults supporting them.
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Reviewed by:
Ami Armagost, MSW, RSW
Grief Therapist
AWC Grief Support
She/her
ami@awcgrief.com
www.awcgrief.com
Testimonial
Thank you for sharing this wonderful resource with me. I really appreciated the thoughtful flow of this resource. The lessons build naturally on one another, and the content feels very relevant and meaningful for children who are grieving. I especially valued how it incorporates learning from both students and educators. The inclusion of grief literacy and bullying also really resonated with me, as these are areas we encounter often in our work. I’m looking forward to exploring this resource more deeply over time and seeing how it can continue to support children and educators.
Reviewed by:
Ally de Ruiter
The Nightingale Centre
Ally de Ruiter is the Grow in Grief (GiG) Family Counsellor at The Nightingale Centre in Guelph, Ontario. She has more than 10 years of experience in grief and bereavement, working with children, youth, caregivers, and professionals in homes, schools, and community settings.
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Certified Child Life Specialist
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Early Childhood Educator
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Degree in Children’s Studies and Advocacy
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Master’s in Education
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Professor in the Early Childhood Education program at Conestoga College
GROWING MEMORIES
A Nine-Chapter Circle Story Journey
& Closing Epilogue for Children Ages 5–8
Connect with Laurel
Have a question about Growing Memories, the Community Circles, workshops, or how the program might support your child, family, school or community?
I welcome conversations with caring adults, educators, practitioners and organizations who would like to learn more.
If you are unsure where to begin or would like guidance navigating the website or program, please reach out. Sometimes a conversation is the easiest place to start.
I’m happy to help you find the information,
resources or pathway that feels right for you.
Laurel O’Cleary
Creator & Facilitator, Growing Memories
Email: laurelocleary@gmail.com
What is Growing Memories
Growing Memories is a gentle, nature-inspired grief-literacy inter-arts program that helps children explore loss, feelings, remembrance, and renewal through story, music, movement, reflection, and connection.
Created for educators, schools, bereavement professionals, and families, the journey combines a digital storybook with a professionally produced musical audiobook, circle songs, somatic regulation practices, and meaningful activities that give children safe, developmentally appropriate ways to understand and express their experiences of grief.
Private Professional Preview
Individual Access
Preview the nine-chapter story journey and closing epilogue, including grief-literacy discussion prompts,
reflection, music & movement, and body-breath
regulation experiences.
For Educators, Bereavement & Child & Family Professionals
Would you like to use Growing Memories in your classroom, school, hospice, palliative care program, healthcare setting, organization, or community?
Growing Memories offers a gentle, developmentally appropriate way to support children in exploring grief, feelings, memory, connection, and renewal- through story, music, nature, reflection, and circle-based experiences.
Please contact Laurel for more information
Explore the Resources
Explore the complete Growing Memories educational program, including the digital storybook, musical audiobook, educator resources, circle songs,
and body-and-breath regulation activities.
Created for Children & the Adults Who Support Them
Growing Memories™ is designed for:
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Kindergarten to Grade 3.
Ages 5–8 -
Schools & School Mental Health Teams
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Child & Youth Counsellors
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Bereavement & Grief Support Organizations
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Libraries & Community Outreach Programs
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Families & Caregivers
Crafting the Sound of Growing Memories
The original music features creative composition and performances by **Matt Holland** [matthollandmusic.co.uk], whose piano, trumpet, and flugelhorn arrangements bring depth, warmth, and emotional dimension to the storytelling experience.
Seasonal nature soundscapes were engineered by producer **Jappreet Singh** with Desert Fish Studios, adding an auditory connection to the changing seasons and the natural world woven throughout Growing Memories
Together, the live narration, original music, and seasonal nature soundscapes create a rich listening experience that brings the emotional world of Growing Memories to life through story, music, sound, and creative empathetic expression.
A Circle-Based Educational Program.
Growing Memories is a circle-based educational program that supports children’s emotional literacy, bereavement awareness, self-regulation, and social-emotional learning through story, music, movement, nature, and creative expression.
Chapter One: A Gentle Beginning
Chapter One introduces children to the world of Growing Memories and lays the foundation for the nine-chapter journey and closing epilogue. Throughout the story, children are invited to explore BIG questions about loss, feelings, remembrance, and connection in a gentle, developmentally appropriate way.
Chapter One can be experienced as a standalone introduction or as the beginning
of the complete Growing Memories 10 week storytelling program.
A Seasonal Grief Literacy Journey Through the Year
The nine chapters and closing epilogue can unfold across the seasons, creating an ongoing space to normalize the grief narrative, build grief literacy, and support emotional awareness and connection. Grief is not linear; it moves in cycles, with different feelings, memories, questions, and experiences surfacing at different times.
Growing Memories allows children and their caring adults to move through the resource at their own pace, returning to different chapters and conversations as they need to. Each chapter offers a different focus for exploring grief, while the natural cycles of the seasons provide a gentle rhythm for reflection, conversation, and connection.
This ongoing approach helps make grief a more natural part of everyday life, giving children repeated opportunities to notice, express, listen, and connect within a caring community.
Begin the Growing Memories journey and support children in discovering resilience through compassion, connection, and story.
How Growing Memories Works
Every Chapter Follows the Same Meaningful Rhythm
Read → Listen → Reflect → Regulate → Connect → Create
Each chapter follows a predictable rhythm that supports emotional safety, learning, self-regulation, and connection. Children move from story and listening into reflection, regulation, shared connection, and creative expression.
1. Read
Children enter Maya’s story through the illustrated digital storybook or follow along as they listen to the narrated musical audiobook.
2. Listen
Original songs, live acoustic music, and immersive nature soundscapes invite children to slow down, notice, imagine, and become present with the story.
3. Reflect
Thoughtful questions invite children to wonder, notice feelings, make personal connections, and explore the story together through circle discussion.
4. Regulate
Breathing, mindful listening, movement, and nature-based sensory experiences help children settle their bodies, notice emotions, and practise self-regulation.
5. Connect
Through circle-based learning, children develop empathy and belonging by listening to one another and sharing stories or memories if they choose. They discover that every voice matters and all feelings belong.
6. Create
Music, art, writing, dramatic play, and nature-inspired activities give children opportunities to express their understanding, honour memories, and extend their learning.
About the Author
Laurel O’Cleary, RECE, is a Registered Early Childhood Educator, grief companion and somatic practitioner. With more than 25 years of experience working with children and young people, her work is informed by early childhood education, bereavement support, nature connection and creative expression.
Laurel developed Growing Memories from her commitment to helping children and caring adults approach conversations about loss with compassion, curiosity and care.