Early childhood education authors and experts share ideas, videos, tools, theories and best practices for creating successful learning environments and outcomes for young children.
Light and shadow are all around us: you don’t need to look far to find natural or artificial light making spaces more interesting. In the bright summer sun, you might see intense shadows coming through the trees and showing crisp outlines of leaf shapes, or simply illuminating leaves from behind, making them seem like they […]
Going outdoors brightens everyone’s mood, especially the moods of Lauren Magee’s 3 young children. This summer, Lauren’s Learning Lab heads outside for a much needed reset. Follow Lauren and her 3 year old, 7 year old, and 9 year old as they restore their sanity and reconnect to nature, one bug and mud puddle at […]
“A simple geometric shape could become any number of things to a child. It could be a truck or a boat or the car of a train. He could build buildings with it, from barns to skyscrapers. I could see the children of my as yet unborn school constructing a complete community with blocks.” –Caroline […]
There are a few approaches to offering materials to children for play and exploration. There are toys and materials that are accessible to kids in those bins, bags, and boxes. There are the structured plans: a craft or an activity, designed to be followed (roughly) step by step. Then there is something in the middle: […]
In this episode, mom, architect and teacher, Lauren Magee, continues her conversation with Yale University’s Dr. Carla Horwitz about Unit Blocks and what makes them the most essential toy during early childhood. Carla shares her passionate knowledge about block play and early childhood education and explains why blocks are the ultimate natural toy for young […]
We know that children are going to play, no matter what: through good days and bad days, celebrating their interests and digging deep into the unknown. No matter what materials we have around, kids will play with them. We can choose some of the materials, of course, when we buy or acquire toys. The other […]
