Creative Minds Tutoring & Learning

09/08/2026

09/05/2026

So often these days we are quick to make judgments about little ones and their handwriting “abilities” without realizing that much of what is missing is PHYSICAL activity and play!! This therapy is designed to provide the structural needs to support handwriting. If we start when children are little and allow them to PLAY, explore and interact with the world around them in a more physical manner like children used to do, I believe we would see much less struggles with formal writing ✍️.

08/29/2026

What are we doing to our children?

We push them to perform before they are ready, measuring their worth by achievements instead of honoring their pace. We expect them to be everything at once (e.g. academic, social, athletic, artistic), forgetting that childhood was never meant to be a competition.

What children truly need is not more pressure, but more play. They need space to wonder, freedom to connect, and time to grow into themselves without hurry.

The greatest danger to childhood is not falling behind, but being forced to outgrow it too soon. If we want children to flourish, we must protect their right to simply be children.

08/25/2026

It’s that time of year again for so many near and far… whatever your education style is, I hope it is an amazing year!!

08/25/2026

We seriously need to look at, and reconsider the “pushing down”’of curriculum onto younger and younger learners. Preschool, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten should NOT be academically focused. In my opinion, much of the “primary” school years should be entirely revamped to more of a “play” and “exploratory” approach through second or third grade. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be reading to our children, learning language through exposure, play and exploration, while learning very basic foundations of mathematical concepts (counting, numbers, practical knowledge and reasoning). We have gone too far with pushing down curriculum and standards to young learners who are not developmentally ready which sets them up for failure and unnecessary stress.

When building a house, the foundation isn’t the most exciting part.

You’re probably more interested in the kitchen: the cabinets, countertops, appliances, and all the details you can actually see. And the kitchen matters. It will be useful every single day.

But nobody would suggest installing it before the foundation is finished.

Without a stable foundation, the floors shift, the cabinets pull away from the walls, and the countertops crack. It might look impressive temporarily, but eventually, everything built on top becomes unstable.

Academic learning works the same way.

Reading, writing, and math are important. But they depend on developmental foundations that have to be built first.

Executive function allows children to focus, remember information, control impulses, adjust their thinking, and persist through challenges. These skills develop through play, problem-solving, decision-making, and real opportunities to navigate frustration.

Language and comprehension develop through conversation, storytelling, responsive relationships, and meaningful back-and-forth exchanges. Reciting the alphabet does not automatically mean a child has the language foundation needed to understand what they eventually read.

Motor development and sensory integration support coordination, body awareness, attention, and the physical skills needed for writing. Children build these systems through movement, climbing, carrying, manipulating materials, and exploring their environments.

Self-regulation develops through supportive relationships and manageable challenges. When adults expect sustained attention, compliance, and academic performance before those systems are ready, children do not suddenly mature faster. They become stressed, overwhelmed, dependent, or resistant.

Academics are important and so is the kitchen.

But if you rush to install either before the foundation is ready, don’t act surprised when cracks start appearing down the road. Because they can, and they very likely will.

08/10/2026

I have very strong opinions on the pushing down of curriculum to younger and younger children. We are not doing children favors by expecting non-age appropriate skills at earlier and early ages.

We are worrying about the wrong thing when it comes to “kindergarten readiness.”

Many adults are concerned with whether a child can read, write, and meet "academic expectations" by the time kindergarten begins. Those questions feel responsible. They are also incomplete.

The more important question is this: Am I willing to compromise my child’s ability to regulate, attend, and remain emotionally available for learning in exchange for early academic exposure that research shows does not improve (and can undermine) long-term outcomes?

Kindergarten has shifted from a developmental bridge to an academically intensified environment. Increased sitting, constant direction-following, early benchmarks, and reduced play are now treated as normal. Developmentally, they are not.

Self-regulation, attention, working memory, and cognitive flexibility are still wiring in early childhood. These systems develop through movement, play, autonomy, and co-regulation—not through pressure or performance demands.

When academics are pushed before these systems are ready, stress increases, regulation stays external, and learning becomes fragile. Any early gains fade, while the long-term costs show up as disengagement, weaker executive functioning, and poorer academic persistence.

This is why research on delayed kindergarten entry consistently finds stronger self-regulation, attention, and emotional readiness for learning. Not because children missed academics, but because their brains were given time to build the foundation learning depends on.

06/20/2026

We need to stop thinking about education as simply a transfer of knowledge from teacher to student, and we MUST return to a place of providing opportunities for children to be children and simply explore their world without pressure to “learn”.

06/05/2026

If anything, we need in INCREASE recess time and up the age until which kids get a “recess” break in their day — that along with later school start times would do wonders for our children.

06/05/2026

Not “disabled”… DIFFERENTLY abled! We must recognize that distinction.

The decision that produced Elizabeth Bonker's commencement speech was made by her fellow valedictorians — the people who knew her, studied alongside her, and understood what she had to offer. They chose her to speak to the class. They made that choice knowing she would use AAC to communicate. The choice itself is a statement about what the people closest to her understand that the broader culture around disability sometimes doesn't: intelligence, insight, and the capacity to lead a meaningful address are present in Elizabeth regardless of whether she produces speech.
AAC — Augmentative and Alternative Communication — is the mechanism that made the speech possible, not the thing that limits it. The device, the symbol board, the eye gaze system — whichever method is in use — is giving language access to a person who has language. It is not generating the ideas. It is transmitting them. The distinction matters because the persistent assumption that non-speaking people are less capable is exactly the assumption that a non-speaking valedictorian commencement address exists to challenge.
Her speech addressed service, communication, and the value of every person — chosen themes, not prompted ones. The content of what Elizabeth said was hers. The platform was provided by the classmates who recognized she had something worth saying. That recognition is what communication access is supposed to make possible.