To Live With Our Heads on a Pivot I recently returned from Calgary where I took part in the Alberta Family Child Care Association's annual conference. I came b...

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently made changes to their long-standing recommendation that children be screen-free during their first two years of life. #PlayBasedLearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool

Learning While the Adults Loiter With Intent I don't know where the pogo sticks came from, but there were two on the playground. I imagine that we benefited from someone...

Few things impede learning more than the "keep your eyes on your own work" mentality: it makes children dependent upon the adults rather than one another which is the most natural and motivating way to learn new things. #playbasedlearning #Earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool

The Blind Spot "(M)athematical physical laws don’t describe reality; they describe idealized objects in models." Nancy Cartwright I've just...

We do not serve children by making them to ignore what their senses tell them. We do it by setting them free to take the real world in their hands which is the only way it will ever have meaning in their heads and hearts. #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool

When I Brought Slot Cars to the Preschool I was probably 8 years old when I awoke on Christmas morning to discover that Santa had left my brother and me a slot car se...

As often happens with manufactured toys, even cool ones like a slot car set, the play value wore off quickly. #PlayBasedLearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool

Play as an Act of Resistance If there is one lesson I have always wanted the children in my life to learn it is to question those in authority, like thei...

I want the children to listen to what I'm saying and if what I'm saying defies the evidence before their own eyes, ears, or reason, I want them to know that it is not just their right but their responsibility to call me on it. #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool

Training for the Unexpected In science journalist David Toomey's book  Kingdom of Play , he writes about an animal geneticist and ethologist named David...

There is no agreed upon definition of what play is among scientists, but this notion of "training for the unexpected" has become central to our current efforts to understand what play is all about. #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool

Death Play Last week I wrote about talking with children about death . Actual death. The kind of death talk that comes up when there is...

It's important that young children have permission to play with anything about which they have questions. #playbasedlearning #earlychildhoodeducation #earlylearning #preschool

Talking About Death Many of us are uncomfortable talking about death, especially to preschoolers. Of course, the subject comes up quite frequent...

If you work with young children for any amount of time, you will find yourself discussing death. #playbasedlearning #EarlyLearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool

Play, Reflect, Play, Reflect I knew that we were going to be spreading a new layer of wood chips over the surface of our junkyard playground, but it surp...

The diggers paused to reflect on that, then decided amongst themselves that this was exactly what they were going to do, dig to the molten core to release the lava. #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool

What Kind of Human Being Creates a Peaceful World? Last week the President said, “We can’t take care of daycare. We’re a big country. We’re fighting wars.” As play based educa...

As play based educators, our work is rooted in building a more peaceful world through how we educate our children. #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool #peace

"All Wise People Change Their Minds" As a boy, we would occasionally catch my mother in what we saw as inconsistency. Instead of denying it, she would reply, "Al...

This is a moment for them to show us their intelligence. #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool

Talking About Death Many of us are uncomfortable talking about death, especially to preschoolers. Of course, the subject comes up quite frequent...

If you work with young children for any amount of time, you will find yourself discussing death. #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool

Play, Reflect, Play, Reflect I knew that we were going to be spreading a new layer of wood chips over the surface of our junkyard playground, but it surp...

"You better not dig too deep because then you might get to the lava and it will erupt on us." The diggers paused to reflect on that, then decided that this was exactly what they were going to do, dig to the molten core to release the lava. #playbasedlearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool

What Kind of Human Being Creates a Peaceful World? Last week the President said, “We can’t take care of daycare. We’re a big country. We’re fighting wars.” As play based educa...

As play based educators, our work is rooted in building a more peaceful world through how we educate our children. #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool #peace

It's Like Learning to Ride a Bike She who succeeds in gaining the mastery of the bicycle will gain the mastery of life.  ~Susan B. Anthony I recently watched ...

"She who succeeds in gaining the mastery of the bicycle will gain the mastery of life." ~Susan B. Anthony #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #EarlyChildhoodEducation #preschool

"We are What We Learn" "Be yourself," writes Oscar Wilde, "everyone else is already taken." Lao Tzu, the seminal Chinese philosopher, is quoted as ...

We teach them that while they should strive to be themselves, they can't do it in school, in church, in a theater, a museum, or, frankly, pretty much in any public space. #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool

Every Child is a Scientist "Let's build a tower to the ceiling!" (physics) "I made mud!" (chemistry) "We found ladybugs in the garden!" (biology) "Momm...

The great mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead wrote, "(A)ll training in science should begin as well as end in research, and in getting hold of the subject-matter as it occurs in nature." #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool #scienceeducation

What Makes a Good Preschool Teacher? Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable.  ~David W. Augsburger...

Is there anything that all good preschool teachers do? It's a question worthy of thought. #PlayBasedLearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool #teaching

The Blind Spot Karntakuringu Jukurrpa Long before the advent of alphabets and literacy, human wisdom was stored and passed along as stories...

Western science tells that sweet-smelling sights are not objective aspects of reality. Tens of thousands of years of human experience, and every young child, begs to differ. #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool

The Love of Children v. the Love of Money On the one hand, we have hundreds of  children being currently imprisoned in concentration camps by our federal government ...

I remain encouraged, even in a world that too often seems to love money more than children. #playbasedlearning #EarlyLearning #EarlyChildhoodEducation #preschool

Telling This Story of Life Itself A corpus callosotomy is a surgical procedure by which the bundle of nerves that connect the two halves of a human brain are ...

Our minds function best when engaging life itself. #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool

The Best Educated People on Earth Several of the kids were taking turns boasting about how strong they were. "I can pick up this whole table!" "I can pick up ...

No one has ever lived a joyful life unless they have spent it accomplishing meaningful things, shoulder-to-shoulder with others. #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #cooperation

As If They've Never Before Seen a Human Ready and Eager to Learn Jean-Michel Basquiat (Luna Luna) Over my decades as a play-based preschool teacher, I've never had to deal with a bored chil...

This is why I worry every time an adult dismisses a child's boredom as "a good thing." A little bit is necessary. A lot, like the degree to which many experience boredom in standard schools, can be deadly. #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool #boredom

Microscopic Utopias The boy was on his knees, sobbing. I don't know why, but I also did nothing because there was already someone caring for him...

Utopia is not a destination, but rather an act of one human caring for another in their time of need. Actual utopia is created in moments of kindness. #PlayBasedLearning #EarlyLearning #earlychildhoodeducation #Preschool

How I Think About "Disruptive" Behavior On Tuesday, I paraphrased John Dewey , writing, "Two children together can sustain behavior or a project that neither would ...

When children start feeding each other's behavior in this way, more often than not they are doing one of three things: 1) seeking intensity, 2) seeking collaboration, 3) testing the boundaries of the community, all of which represent healthy developmental impulses. #playbasedlearning #preschool

"I'm Batman!" F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, "(A)action is character."  As has often been the case, this artists was just asserting something ...

I'm not saying this is an easy thing to do, but becoming the person we want to be will never happen if we wait until we feel like that person. Action is character. The rest will follow. #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #EarlyChildhoodEducation #preschool

The Two Knucklehead Theory The boys were giggling amongst themselves, huddled together like conspirators. Earlier, I had tried to approach them, but wh...

How can you understand light without knowing about dark? #playbasedlearning #earlychildhoodeducation #EarlyLearning #preschool

This is Personal: Your Help Needed! Most of what I've written here over the past 17 years is grounded in my experience as both a parent and teacher at the Woodl...

Thirteen colleges across the state will lose their programs if this cut happens, leaving thousand of families without the kind of support they count on to not just raise their children, but to do so within the context of the kind of village that every child deserves. #playbasedlearning #preschool

Microscopic Utopias The boy was on his knees, sobbing. I don't know why, but I also did nothing because there was already someone caring for him...

Actual utopia is created in moments of kindness. #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool

How I Think About "Disruptive" Behavior On Tuesday, I paraphrased John Dewey , writing, "Two children together can sustain behavior or a project that neither would ...

Our job is to help them pursue those impulses in ways that work for everyone. #playbasedlearning #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #preschool #challengingbehavior