When do children begin to think?

Need a topic starter for your next playground date? Of course you do! Wrap your brain cells around RadioLab‘s podcast Voices in Your Head. It’s fascinating, especially the part where they discuss when children start to think. Do you agree with Vygotsky?

Magic Wands in the Toddler Classroom

Bob the Magician uses magic to teach English, and his latest brilliant teaching idea is using magic wands with the little ones. I think it’s a wonderful change of pace, and I expect him to inspire a whole new batch of adorable future magicians while he’s at it. (I call second dibs on tickets to [...]

Let the Children Play: Inspiring early childhood education

A few hours ago, thanks to PlayGroundology, I landed on Let the Children Play, a nifty new-to-me blog about “inspiring early childhood education”. Actually, nifty doesn’t even come close to describing this site. Jenny is very serious about play for children, and it shows in every idea. She works in an Australian progressive preschool and [...]

January, February, March

Do we have a traditional children’s song for the months? You know, like the alphabet song, but a months song. With a bazillion variations. The one everybody knows and the one you start humming when you can’t remember what month it is. Do we have a calendar song like that? We don’t??? Oh. Really no? [...]

Upside down is right side up

Years ago, a parent asked why I don’t immediately correct my students when they’re learning how to write their names in English. The somewhat professional answer is that writing is a complex process, and there is so much already going on in the brain at the moment that dealing with corrections often only adds to [...]