Raising Innovative Kids
Exploring how families can raise curious, capable, resilient, and compassionate children.
Raising Innovative Kids is an ongoing exploration of what helps children flourish. It brings together ideas from parenting, engineering, psychology, education, play, and child development to better understand how families can intentionally create environments where children grow into thoughtful, capable adults. Started in 2021, it has become a hub for articles on raising my kids as I face different challenges. I don’t pretend to have all the answers. Instead, this is where I collect the questions, ideas, and lessons I’m learning as both a mom and an engineer.
What Raising Innovative Kids is Building
I believe the future of a child is shaped long before a child enters the workforce. It begins at home. Children are naturally curious, creative, and eager to learn. My goal isn’t to raise perfect children—it’s to help raise children who know how to think, solve problems, work with others, recover from failure, and continue learning throughout their lives.
In many ways, Raising Innovative Kids is my attempt to answer one question: How do we intentionally build the next generation of exceptional humans?
What I’m Exploring
- Parenting with intention
- Curiosity and lifelong learning
- Character and values
- Emotional resilience
- Play-based learning
- Child development
- Family culture and traditions
- Raising independent thinkers
- Engineering thinking for kids
My story of how I got started
Long before I became a mother, I knew I wanted to build things that mattered. I assumed that would happen through engineering. Then I had children. Motherhood completely changed the way I define success. It shifted my focus from building better infrastructure to thinking about the kind of people we’re raising to inherit it. As I’ve watched my children grow, I’ve become fascinated by the environments that help them thrive. Why are some children naturally curious? How do confidence, resilience, empathy, and creativity develop? What role do parents, schools, communities, and play have in shaping the adults they become?
I don’t see Raising Innovative Kids as a parenting program. I see it as a lifelong exploration. The more I learn, the more convinced I become that investing in children may be one of the most important ways we can improve the future—not just for individual families, but for our communities, our organizations, and the world they’ll one day lead.
Related Projects
Local Work
Helping rural communities flourish through service, planning, and local leadership.
Exploration becomes application.
Want to work with me? Here’s how:
Speaking
Keynotes and conversations on intentionality, systems thinking, work, flourishing, leadership, and community.
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Strategic Advising
Helping leaders hear the people inside their systems and build exceptional organizations, programs, and communities.
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Frameworks
Clear models for turning complex ideas into practical decisions, systems, and next steps.
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Explore Writing
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How Motherhood Changed My Ambition
By May Anderson, PE • June 24, 2026First Written 2018. Updated 2026 My whole life I knew I wanted to be a career woman. As a child when I was asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Many of my friends responded enthusiastically, “A MOM!” I however, never understood this. I always wanted to be a career woman…. -
Introducing My Whole World
By May Anderson, PE • June 24, 2026My whole world is my family. They give my life purpose, meaning, and direction. For much of my life, I was ambitious because I tied my worth to productivity. I chased accomplishments, checked boxes, and measured success by what I could achieve. Over time, that changed. Today, my ambition is fueled by something different. I… -
What I hope to build
By May Anderson, PE • June 23, 2026Several years ago, I started a project called My Intentional Life. At the time, I was overwhelmed, juggling work, family, responsibilities, and a growing realization that life wasn’t slowing down. I kept asking myself a simple question: Am I building my life intentionally, or am I just reacting to whatever comes next? Shortly after pondering…
Still curious? That’s the point. See you in my notebook 🙂