View posts by our early learning expert to gain valuable insights into the developing brain and learn about activities that you can easily incorporate into your day to help every child succeed in kindergarten and in life.
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If you’ve ever gently said, “Okay, tablet time is all done,” and your child has morphed into a tearful, pleading mess or collapsed on the floor in a puddle of despair, you are not alone—and you are not doing anything wrong! Your child isn’t being dramatic, spoiled, or manipulative. It's just that your child's brain […]
When children spend a lot of time looking at screens, their eyeballs elongate. Yep, you read that right. To keep that close-up screen in focus day after day, the eye adapts by becoming longer, like a balloon being slowly stretched. And once an eyeball "stretches," it cannot revert to its former shape. Eye doctors worldwide […]
As your child prepares for kindergarten, one of the most important skills they can build is number sense. Number Sense is the ability to understand what numbers represent and how they relate to each other. Number sense is much more powerful than just being able to count high. A child with strong number sense knows […]
Let’s be honest— December is a beautiful mess. Whether your family celebrates Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, or just really loves twinkle lights and cookies, this season has a way of turning life upside down. With holiday parties, family interactions, travel schedules, cooking, housecleaning and holiday-gift shopping, life gets really busy. And if you’ve got young […]
"AUGH!!! Worms! Look, look! They're everywhere!" Eleanor is jumping up and down hysterically. Nothing will summon our crew faster than a good worm sighting. Oh, how we love worms! Last spring, we witnessed an unusual natural phenomenon as a mass of earthworms wiggled out of their subterranean community in the soil and squirmed onto the […]
If you struggle with the mess that seems to be an inescapable part of early childhood painting projects, I am right there with you! After years of dutifully setting up easels and wiping down paint-smeared hands, faces, shoes and surfaces in the messy aftermath of our creative endeavors, I finally had to face reality: The […]
“Noa, what are you doing?” questions Jose. “I’m giving this rock a swing!” giggles Noa as she embarks on her latest investigation into force and motion. “Are you sure that will work?" James asks. “I think the rock will fall off!” We all stop what we are doing to observe as Noa cautiously pulls the swing back a few feet and […]
Two-year-old Elizabeth screams with delight, “I made a ball, I made a ball!” Ah, it’s another magical moment with clay. Making shapes, discussing length, adding loose parts or subtracting pieces of clay to share with a friend. There's a whole lot of math, science and engineering in that ball of clay! Clay allows children to […]
“AUGGGHHHH!” I hear screams, a crash and giggles galore. The joy of Magna-Tiles® has returned to our ever-popular window-stacking play. When these colorful magnetic tile mosaics come crashing down from the window frame, the children respond with laughter and joy. By contrast, the collapse of three-dimensional block formations often elicits groans and tears. Something about […]
“How can children be ready for kindergarten if they spend their days playing outside?” As nature-based early childhood educators, we are often asked questions like this one by concerned parents who want to give their children the best start in life. It's important that parents understand the vast amount of learning that can take place […]