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The Curious Educator Collective

Reflection. Curiosity. Courageous Pedagogy.

10/10/2026

Channeling my inner Alexis Rose every time someone asks if I "just play all day." EW DAVID!

10/07/2026

There's something so generous about the way children share their thinking. They offer us little windows into how learning feels from the inside, often in passing, often while their hands are busy with something else.

For me, that's the heart of pedagogical documentation. Not capturing what happened, but slowing down enough to wonder alongside them, and letting what we notice shape what I believe. To be changed by children's complex ideas.

Swipe through, then I'd love to hear: has something a child said ever shifted the way you think about learning? ❤️

10/06/2026

This week on The Curious Educator Conversations, I sat down with Jennifer Johnson to talk all things forest school. 🌿

"We don't need to fill them up."

That line from Jennifer captures so much of what forest school has taught me.

When children are given time outdoors, in all seasons and all weather, they show us exactly who they already are. They climb, test, build, wonder, and problem solve. They notice the tiny beetle under the log and the way the creek changes after rain. They know how to take risks, care for each other, and listen to the land.

Forest school asks us to step back and trust that. Our role isn't to fill every moment with instruction. It's to guide, observe, and help children recognize the gifts they carry: their curiosity, their courage, their deep connection to the natural world.

🎧 Listen now, link in post

10/04/2026

"Why do you keep asking us questions when you know all the answers?"

Sonnyboy was four when he asked Jacqui Cousins that. He had a point.

In Listening to Four Year Olds (1999), Cousins sat with over 130 four-year-olds and asked them what their days felt like. What came back was a clear-eyed review of us. Our language. Our pace. Our transitions.

"Hurry up." "It's tidy up time." "Time to stop." "What colour is it?"

None of these phrases come from bad intentions. They come from schedules, ratios, and systems that ask us to move a group of children through a day on time. But children don't experience the schedule. They experience the interruption. The building that has to come down. The thought they never get to finish.

And when Cousins asked what felt good? Children didn't name activities or resources. They named people. People who are calm. People who teach them things. Friends. Cooking and eating together. Time to find things out.

This isn't a guilt trip. It's an invitation to listen.

This week, pick one phrase. Notice when you say it, who it's really for, and what you might say instead that keeps a child's thinking going. Then ask the children in your room what they like, what they don't, and what they'd change.

And let their answers change your day. 💛

Which phrase are you listening for this week? Tell me in the comments.

📖 Cousins, J. (1999). Listening to Four Year Olds: How They Can Help Us Plan Their Education and Care. National Early Years Network.

09/30/2026

Today is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (September 30), also known as Orange Shirt Day. 🧡

A day to honour the children who never came home, the Survivors, and their families and communities.

For those of us in early childhood education, this matters in a very specific way. Call to Action #12 from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission asks for culturally appropriate early childhood education programs for Indigenous families. Our sector was named directly. The question is whether we are answering.

I'm sharing what I've been carrying on my own learning journey, not because I have it figured out, but because I think we need more educators willing to be honest about where they are and where they're going.

If you're not sure where to begin, start by reading the 94 Calls to Action, learning whose land you live and teach on, and seeking out Indigenous creators and knowledge keepers to learn from (and support).

Save this for the days after today, when the orange shirts are put away and the work of Truth and Reconciliation is still waiting.

Song on the post is: Susan Aglukark is an Inuk singer-songwriter whose music blends Inuit folk traditions with country and pop influences, making her one of Canada’s most celebrated Indigenous artists. Over a career spanning more than 25 years, she has released seven studio albums and earned numerous honours, including three Juno Awards, the Humanitarian Juno Award, the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, and appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada. Her breakthrough album This Child produced the hit single “O Siem,” making her the first Inuk artist to achieve a Top 40 hit in Canada. Beyond her music, Aglukark is a passionate advocate for Indigenous and Inuit youth, mental wellness, and food security in Northern Canada. Through her music and community work, she promotes messages of resilience, self-respect, healing, and hope that resonate with audiences across cultures. She currently resides in Halton.

09/29/2026

TW: sexual violence, sexual assault, institutional dismissal.

This story has broken my heart.

I've been following the Cornell 7 case, and I can't put it down. I read the allegations and felt them in my body. I see myself in her. I see every girl and every woman I know.

What breaks me most isn't only what happened that night. It's everyone who could have stopped it and didn't. It's the silence. And it's knowing how often the systems we're told will protect us choose to look away instead.

I keep coming back to one question: where did those people first learn that silence was the safer choice?

I believe the answer starts long before university. It starts in block corners and on playgrounds. In "boys will be boys" and "don't be a tattletale." It starts with us.

That's why I believe early childhood education is violence prevention work. Every time we honour a child's no, name feelings with boys, and believe a child who tells us something hard, we are growing a different kind of adult. And a different kind of system.

This work doesn't undo harm. It doesn't make anyone's story smaller. It sits right alongside it.

To every educator carrying their own story: I see you.

For her. For the girls in our classrooms. For all of us. 🤍

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Barrie, ON

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http://www.jessicakarpathios.com/

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