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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“It is so hot!” moans five-year-old Manuel, who is sweating profusely in the sweltering heat. The temperature, which has climbed into the 90s every day this week, is taking a toll on everyone. “It is so hot!" Lauren sighs, echoing Manuel. "Can we have a popsicle?" (Lauren knows I'm a sucker for keeping kids happy […]
It’s another 90-degree July day and we've taken a deep dive into water play to keep our budding mathematicians as cool and contented as possible. Children are naturally drawn to water, which fosters curiosity, imagination, investigation, and experimentation. This is science, technology, engineering, and math all rolled into a calm afternoon of playful learning! Math […]
Where is Thumbkin? Where is Thumbkin? Here I am. Here I am. How are you today, sir? Very well, I thank you. Run away. Run away. Decades after learning that nursery rhyme as a kindergartener, I still have vivid and happy memories of sitting around the well-worn piano in my kindergarten classroom singing "Where is Thumbkin" […]
“Are you making a zoo?” Rosalie asks Gabriel. “I am making families, but we could make a zoo!" Gabriel answers. "Want to help me?” Research shows that animal figures score higher than any other type of toy for stimulating creativity, imagination, social interaction, and verbalization in young children. This holds true for girls and boys, […]
"Sally, look! My rock turned purple!" Three-year-old Eleanor can't contain her excitement as she changes the color of a rock with a swipe of her paintbrush. Ah, the joy of painting rocks with water. Yes, water! If there's one kind of painting I love—it's painting outdoors with water. If you struggle with the mess that […]
"Look! The people blocks are in a line and they crash at the bottom, just like when we play on the slide!" says Evelyn as she flicks the first block and watches the whole line of people blocks fall, one figure after another. Evelyn is having a lightbulb moment as she transfers knowledge gleaned from […]
This week, the children in our early childhood program are engaging in a time-honored tradition: building rock cairns! Have you ever happened upon a pile of rocks on a hiking trail and wondered what it was? It's a cairn, which means "heap of stones" in Gaelic! But there's a lot more to a cairn than […]
"Hey guys, look over here!" Harrison summons us over to observe his experiment. "My magnet sticks to the bike!" With a wave of their magnetic wands, the children have embarked on a STEM learning adventure! Opportunities like this allow children to learn independently as they explore and then share their discoveries with their fellow magnetic […]
After a neighborhood nature walk, my early learners can't wait to play with the treasures they've collected. Kindergarten readiness develops as children play with the objects that they find in their environments. Today, that play involves patterning. Learning about patterns is a fundamental skill for all learning. Pattern play helps children develop their critical thinking, […]
Cooking gives preschoolers a strong foundation in science, math, language, art and even reading. When we invite our children to create in the kitchen, we provide learning opportunities in many academic subjects. Recipe ingredients introduce opportunities for counting, adding, measuring, dividing and estimating. As children see how certain ingredients combine, react and change as they cook, […]