We spend our days exploring, getting messy, learning and growing through play.
10/14/2025
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! The Musical! - ArtPower Whatever you do, don’t let the Pigeon star in his own musical production! With a script written by Mo Willems, the creator of the #1 New York Times best-selling, Caldecott Honor award-winning “Pigeon” picture books, and featuring music by Deborah Wicks La Puma (Elephant & Piggie’s We Are in ...
06/13/2025
Anyone looking for a kid friendly way to participate in the protests tomorrow!
There is also an event planned for Civita Park.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DKbjBajRwKo/?img_index=3&igsh=czcydGc5bThsdmdm
12/26/2024
Over the past few years, I’ve started using old glue containers and mixing them with a bit of glue, a bit of paint, and some water. It makes color glues the kids can squeeze to their hearts content! Sometimes it turns into a lovely work of art. Sometimes a giant puddle that never dries 😂 Both are equally acceptable.
It's called process art, versus "product" art -- i.e., art where the "point" of it is the process that the child goes through, rather than the end result of it.
(In all honesty, this craft is halfway product art regardless because true "process art" usually doesn't have the pre-cut pieces for a specific end result. But sometimes it's fun to do premade craft activities, too, and sometimes they're a lovely gift from a lovely grandma and you need something to do over winter break anyway. 😉 )
There's more "proper" resources about process art vs product art on my website, but I just wanted to make a quick meme after a fun activity with my kids. And the end result on the left was my then-4yo, the end result on the left was my then-2yo. That may not look like your kids at their ages. The thought of giving a 2yo a bottle of glue might freak you out. Sitting there and letting her squeeze it all out in a puddle might require you to take deep breaths and squash down feelings of "you're just supposed to put a dot!" But I promise it'll actually be okay, and that's how they learn 😉
[Image description: Two pictures side-by-side. One has a young toddler squatting and squeezing puddles of glue out onto a green felt triangle shape. The other has the two "finished products" -- two green felt triangles with various circles and squiggles glued to them. Text around it reads, "idk who needs to hear this, but it's ok if your toddler's art looks like it was made by a toddler!" End description.]
08/23/2024
Hi Everyone! We are looking for new friends to join our daycare in Del Cerro (92120). Have one toddler and one infant opening. Play based, messy, fun explorations and learning! Come join the fun!
10/01/2023
If they mix play-doh colors, or if they mix paint colors and accidentally make brown for the 234th time, or if they squeeze too much glue out on the paper, or if they peel the paper off the crayons, or if they sharpen the pencil too much, or if they color with the marker too hard, or if they color outside the lines, or if they explore using any other craft or art supply in the “wrong” way…
I have a secret for you: they’re still learning from that. 😊
(Also, with the paint or the playdoh, if you’re tired of brown, you can always put out limited colors that don’t mix to make brown—i.e., only making harmonious/analogous colors available, such as red, orange, and yellow.)
While mixing play-doh may not actually affect the usability of the play-doh, some people balk at the idea of letting kids squeeze out too much glue or do something "wrong" in such a way that it could "use up" the material. And It's true that not all parents can afford limitless amounts of craft supplies.
It's also true that you can get playdoh or glue or crayons pretty cheaply, and it helps to know if your child is in a "explore everything, even quantities" phase more so than a "use materials carefully and sparingly to create a craft" phase.
It's ALSO true that regardless of what parents can afford, the point I was making -- that kids are still learning when they "waste" materials; that "waste" isn't an appropriate word at all because it's literally learning and growth -- is still true.
Children are inherently "wasteful" -- it's how they learn. It's part of learning to learn from the quantity of material just as much as it is to learn from the type of material. If adults don't have the means for them to have limitless amounts of x material, then I would *extremely strongly* recommend only making available to the child as much of the material as they are able to use all of at any given time. Because it makes sense that using too much -- more than the adult is able to be comfortable with them using -- causes an adult to stress. And adults hovering around stressing out is like, the opposite of freely playing and learning.
I rebottle materials into smaller containers all the time so that I can truly let go of the fact that a kid "can't" use "all" my paint in a session. Sure they can, because I handed them a 3oz travel bottle filled with blue paint rather than the giant gallon jug of tempera paint I bought on the internet. They can absolutely use "all" of what they have been handed if that's what they're exploring right now!
Maybe 3oz is still too much to "waste" at once. Then an adult can squeeze out a tiny amount of glue into a bottle cap and give it to a child with a Q-tip or a paintbrush, for example. Or the adult can manage the glue application for a school project if necessary. Or the adult can obtain an empty glue bottle and fill it with something cheaper (flour+water? 99-cent shampoo? water mixed with some chalk powder? just straight up water in the bathtub or outside?) for the child to explore squeezing as much as they want to as part of process art and hand strengthening. Lots and lots of creative solutions!
[Image description: A screenshot of a tweet from Abbey Williams, MSW, LSW, whose handle is . The tweet reads, “Once you stop being stressed if they mix the play-doh colors, the second part of your life begins.” End description.]
08/11/2023
Something that I desperately wish that we saw more of in the US is letting kids learn literacy on their own terms, without the intense pressure that it often carries.
(I know that this is rampant outside the US, too. I just can speak the most authoritatively from within my own window of experience.)
Children grow up literally not able to remember a time when people weren’t trying to shove reading down their throats.
I did some cursory Google searching, and found that websites oriented at laypeople (i.e., not scholarly sources) suggested the following:
-two-year-olds should know the letters, and the ABC song.
-kids should know the letters of their name by two or three.
-four-year-olds should know all the letters of the alphabet, their order, and what sound they make.
-kids should know the whole alphabet before going into kindergarten at age 5.
This is not just me picking from one website, this is the whole front page of Google results (except for one blog, Busy Toddler, that I love!)
I actually believe that a LOT of the problems that we are suddenly seeing in spades in early childhood education are a result of intense academic pressure (especially around literacy) too early. A lot of the other things I’ve written here about—like form constancy in letters, or reversals, or pencil grasp—they’re things that kids get referred to OT for when they’re 5 or 6 or 7, when really the problem is that those things shouldn’t have been pushed on them so early in the first place. If they’d had the chance to develop at their own pace, they might’ve “gotten it” by 6 or 7 or 8 naturally.
One thing that I love about Bluey is that the kids are supposed to be 6 and 4 years old and there is barely ever a single word about literacy. Bluey asks an older girl (12) if she can “write letters and words” and the older girl writes a note that Bluey dictates to her (pictured). The family plays a guessing game about what sound (not what letter) words start with — “I know a food that we all like that starts with ‘buh’.” They sing songs and recite rhymes and poems and read books and tell and hear stories. They draw elaborate drawings and tell the parents what they’re about. But no one ever insists that they write them down.
I have been told that this is not necessarily actually representative of Australian early childhood education—but it is still a breath of fresh air to see represented on TV. I don’t have any problem with kids’ TV shows like Sesame Street or other educational programming talking about the alphabet casually, or what sounds letters make. I just have a problem with it when it bleeds into education and we start feeling like kids MUST know all of those things instead of treating it like interesting knowledge about the world to share with them.
The actual building blocks for literacy that little kids should be engaging in have nothing to do with knowing the ABC song specifically, knowing the letters by name, their order, or what sound they make, all before they ever go to kindergarten or kindy or reception.
Instead, literacy for little kids should look like:
*Reading books most days or every day.
*The kids getting the chance to “read” those books in the way that is appropriate for them at the time…this might look like “turning the pages really fast”, “wanting the same book over and over”, “pretending to read it to you or reciting it to you”, “skipping pages or going back pages”, “asking you what things are in the pictures” etc, and not always like sitting down and reading it cover to cover.
*Learning songs, rhymes, and wordplay.
*Hearing a rich variety of vocabulary from different places—parents, friends, audiobooks, shows, podcasts, etc.
*Drawing and assigning meaning to the drawings (aka, telling you about their picture). Also note that kids often draw “experientially” — they may not draw a static picture, the way adults do, but instead intend for the pen moving around to represent movement or, e.g., a car driving around. So we look at it and see “static scribbles” and they meant “the movement of wind in the trees”!
*Pretending to write, writing imaginary letters, writing the letters that they do know mixed up with imaginary letters, writing long pretend scrawls...all as part of play, perhaps to "take your order" in a restaurant or to "make a grocery list" or to "write a book", which also means...
*They need to have seen an adult model for them why writing is meaningful or important -- aka NOT in an academic context, but for life function or for joy!
*Talking about the sounds in words more so than the letters’ names (which are arbitrary). Exactly like the example in Bluey.
But really. There is so much more to life than academics. Even as important as literacy is. We don’t do that importance any favors by bulldozing our children with it before they’re ready for it. All we do is ensure that they can’t remember any part of their life where they weren’t under intense pressure to know letters and reading, and rob them of more play-based learning and giving their brains time to develop to be ready to learn those things.
[Image description: A still image from the tv show Bluey. Bluey, a cartoon blue dog, is sitting in the woods with her older friend, an orange dog with fluffy ears. They're sitting in front of a fairy village they've been creating out of acorns, leaves, flowers, etc and the background is beautiful mossy rocks and trees with drooping purple willow branches. Bluey is looking off into the distance and dictating a letter to the fairies with a delighted, dreamy look on her face as she thinks about what she wants to say. Her friend is focused on her writing with a pencil and a little notebook, smiling at Bluey's ideas. End description.]
03/17/2023
The genius of Dr. Seuss and Green Eggs and Ham
Green Eggs And Ham Book. How It Was Written & Why We Love It Do you know how Dr Seuss came to write his famous Green Eggs and Ham book? Here's some fascinating info about the book and its history.
02/26/2023
Yes! Play is valuable learning!
In the original post by Your Natural Learner - Leah McDermott she gave a fantastic caption:
"Can you imagine someone following you around trying to turn everything you did into a “learning” experience?!
“Oh, I see you mixed those ingredients with the mixer, Stephanie... why don’t we try doing it by hand now!”
“Hmmm pumping gas was fun, wasn’t it, John? Let’s read all about how the gas is used in the car!”
“I see you love unwinding by playing the guitar, Emily. Let’s enroll you in some lessons so you can be even better!”
“Interesting choice to end your email that way, Sam. Can you write four more signing offs to experiment?”
Just let your kids enjoy things. Not everything has to become a lesson or be any more than it already is.
You’re just putting undue pressure on yourself and possibly ruining an enjoyable experience for your child."
***
I truly believe that this stems almost completely from the fact that play is NOT seen as valuable.
Play is not seen as learning.
Play is not seen as developing crucial skills.
Play is seen as wasting time between "all the other stuff" we need kids to do throughout a day. So when they're some age that we think they need to quit wasting time and get around to the real life stuff...5 or 4 or 3...then we think they better quit playing and start doing more meaningful things.
(Not stop playing *entirely*, of course, we would never ask something so unreasonable! Just long enough for circle time...or to make them trace letters and shapes...or to quiz them on things they already know...)
If we actually saw play as valuable as it actually is, it would shift our entire lens on its head.
[Image description: A screenshot of a tweet by Your Natural Learner - Leah McDermott that reads, "It's such a weird adult instinct to want to turn everything into a more 'meaningful' experience, isn't it? Like...what if we just...let kids ENJOY THINGS?" with a "mind blown" emoji. End description.]
| Monday | 8am - 5pm |
| Tuesday | 8am - 5pm |
| Wednesday | 8am - 5pm |
| Thursday | 8am - 5pm |
| Friday | 8am - 5pm |