What Happened When I Banned Nap-Replacement Screens in My Classroom When my preschool class transitioned from naps to quiet time, the first thing every parent asked was whether we would put on a movie. We did not. Instead, I built quiet time bins, individual shoeboxes filled with calm, self-directed activities, and handed one to each…
The Kitchen Drawer That Taught My Students More Math Than Any Workbook One Monday morning, our math manipulatives shipment was delayed and I had twenty-two four-year-olds staring at me expecting circle time. In a mild panic, I raided the staff kitchen and came back with a bag of dried pasta, a muffin tin, a handful…
The Craft Supply Hiding Next to Your Coffee Maker Walk into any dollar store and you can grab a pack of 200 white coffee filters for about a dollar. That single purchase will fuel more art projects than a twenty-dollar trip to the craft store. I discovered this years ago when a parent volunteer brought…
Rainy days, winter weather, scorching summers, or sick siblings keeping you homebound—every parent knows the challenge of a toddler with energy to burn and n…
She Played Alone for Forty Minutes and I Almost Cried My friend texted me a photo last month. Her 22-month-old was sitting on the kitchen floor, deeply absorbed in transferring dried pasta from one bowl to another using a large wooden spoon. The text read: “She has been doing this for FORTY MINUTES. I took…
The Rainstorm We Built on the Kitchen Counter It was pouring outside, field trip canceled, and my class of twenty preschoolers needed something big to match their disappointed energy. So I grabbed a clear glass jar, filled it with water, squirted shaving cream on top, and handed each child a pipette full of blue food…
The Ten-Cent Craft Supply That Became My Classroom MVP If I could only bring one craft supply to a desert island full of children, it would be pipe cleaners. Not paint. Not crayons. Pipe cleaners. I know that sounds extreme, but after watching thousands of kids work with every art material imaginable, nothing matches the…
You don’t need expensive materials or special training to bring Montessori principles into your home. The Montessori approach is fundamentally about respecti…
When music plays, children move. It’s instinctive. Rather than fighting this impulse, harness it. Music and movement activities develop coordination, rhythm,…
We Survived a Nine-Hour Drive Without a Single Screen Last summer, my family drove from our house to the beach, a brutal nine-hour stretch through flat, featureless highway. Before we left, I spent one evening assembling what I call the Road Trip Survival Kit: a dollar-store shower caddy packed with activities, snacks, and surprises, one…
