In Sarah Perry's picture book classic If . . ., she surprises us with illustrated responses to prompts like, "If butterflies wore clothes," "If caterpillars were toothpaste," and "If toes were teeth." Whenever we read that book I suggest that the kids might want to try their hand … | Continue reading
When children pick up the hot glue gun, many are drawn in simply by the prospect of using this oft forbidden tool. Others have made a search of the junk box and are intrigued by something they've found there. In Angie's case, she had found the plastic housing for one of my asthma … | Continue reading
I once knew a two-year-old who was terrified of pinecones. In nearly every other circumstance, he was a bold, confident child, but when he spied a pinecone he froze in fear. One day, to his horror, noticed that there were cones on the branches of a scotch pine that lived on the p … | Continue reading
Physicists assure us that despite how it seems, there is no difference between the past and the future. The math tells us it's true, even as the perspective provided by the biology of human bodies simply doesn't allow us to experience the past (except through our unreliable memor … | Continue reading
As a boy, I was a collector. Baseball cards and comic books are the specific items around which I most often place the sepia halos of nostalgia, but those collections didn't start until I was eight and ten respectively. By then, I had already developed a theory of collecting. Beg … | Continue reading
Alfredo Jaar (Mahatma Grandi's "Seven Social Sins") A little over a decade ago a study led by Harvard psychologist Richard Weissbourd found that 80 percent of US children believe their parents are more concerned with their grades and test scores than such things as kindness and c … | Continue reading
My brother and I used to fight over who got to sit in the window seat on airplanes. We wanted to be able to look out. The world from 30,000 feet was an amazing thing. And it was all right there through these portholes with double panes. We weren't the only ones. Nearly everyone l … | Continue reading
Our dog Stella is over ten years old and it seems like she's still learning new tricks. In the past couple years, she seems to have taken more than passing interest in how humans use their voices and has been experimenting with her own. She's always barked, of course, but not lon … | Continue reading
Before moving to the Center of the Universe, the sidewalk in front of our old school was a long, tempting hill down which the children would regularly run after they had left with their parents. I couldn't see them do this because of the 7-foot high fence that surrounded our cour … | Continue reading
Most of the two-year-olds I've ever met could already sing at least part of the Alphabet Song. I didn't teach it to them. It's something that parents sing to their children at home, probably because it's one of the first songs they themselves learned. The tune comes from the mid- … | Continue reading
Keith Haring (Luna Luna) I know several people who have been directly impacted by the ongoing firestorm in Los Angeles, four of whom have lost their homes. I've been on a strict news break for the past few months. I didn't learn about the disaster until people I know told me abou … | Continue reading
Jean-Michel Basquiat (Luna Luna)Over my decades as a play-based preschool teacher, I've never had to deal with a bored child. I've worked with sad and angry children, frightened and frustrated children, and even children who were experiencing emotions that our language cannot ful … | Continue reading
Salvador Dalí (Luna Luna)My biggest "vice," one I thankfully share with my wife, is that we like to go out to dinner. If I die broke, that's where the money went. It's not necessarily the food. I'm not bad in the kitchen and, after 40 years of cooking for my wife, I'm confident I … | Continue reading
As you step onto a preschool playground or a play-based classroom, the first thing visitors are struck by is the never-ending swirl of bodies in motion. Adult visitors to Woodland Park have always stopped at the gate or doorway seemingly afraid to get in the way of as children mo … | Continue reading
A baby's first step is a moment that thrills us. We seen them, their entire body focused on this previously impossible task. That it's something they will spend their rest of their life doing without thought or special effort, isn't relevant. This is the moment we video tape if w … | Continue reading
"Teacher Tom, Arthur is calling us 'finger binger'." "Are you finger binger?" "No!" "Then I guess he's wrong." Most of the time, the children don't need us to get involved in their every day conflicts. "Teacher Tom, those guys won't let us in their factory." "How does that make y … | Continue reading
I've never written about the day I became a father. I think about that day and often tell parts of the story, but so far I've not found all of the words to do so, if words are even adequate. What I need to say is too complex to express in my normal way. Maybe it requires a novel. … | Continue reading
Any of us who have spent much time with very young children have had the privilege of observing one of them discover themselves in a mirror. It's confounding to them at first. That other child surprises them by being so close, so suddenly. When they realize it's themselves at who … | Continue reading
One of the children, probably inspired by a movie, used a stick to draw a "treasure map" in the sand pit. Other children gathered around as he told the story of what "treasure" is, what a "map" is, and the adventure upon which they were going to embark. The treasure, he explained … | Continue reading
We take memory for granted. Not our specific memories, of course. Most of us have memories we cherish as well as those we try to forget. Many of us spent these most recent holidays trying to re-create fond memories. Memoirs are a popular literary genre. And we think we know that … | Continue reading
When our daughter was little and frightening news of the world got to her, I would try to put things in perspective, "Most people, most of the time are having a fine day." This has been true throughout all of history, even when great tragedy is unfolding in one part of it. (And i … | Continue reading
The words "for auld lang syne" translate into modern English as something like, "for old time's sake." The song we sing on New Year's Eve is a Scottish poem, written by Robert Burns in 1788, and is a melancholy farewell. Every day, we say so long to so much, old times that will n … | Continue reading
"Teacher Tom, look at me!" The boy called out from where he stood, clinging to the trunk of one of our playground cedars. He was standing on a root that raised him no more than six inches off the ground. If he had fallen, it wouldn't have been a fall. "Baby steps" is the expressi … | Continue reading
My own child as well as all the nieces and nephews are young adults, which means that our Christmas Days have been evolving over the past few years into a less child-centric experience. We're here in New York to spend the holiday with our daughter. Yesterday's plan was a lazy, la … | Continue reading
We've been bombarded with "last minute" gift idea promotions since at least mid-November, but now, finally, the last minute is truly upon us. As a public service I offer Teacher Tom's last minute gift ideas for children, most of which won't even require a trip to a mall or an Ama … | Continue reading
I've been awaking to darkness for the last few weeks. I’d have to say that the short winter days are one of the most challenging aspects of life in the northern tier, but things are turning around. The Winter Solstice occurred on the west coast of the US Saturday at 1:20 a.m., ma … | Continue reading
The small, landlocked South Asian Kingdom of Bhutan uses an index called "Gross National Happiness" to guide all of it's economic and development plans. They take it very seriously and the success or failure of every governmental policy is measured according to this index. One mu … | Continue reading
Imagine a colleague coming up to you as you're heading into a meeting. They say, "We've got a little problem," then proceed to give you the details. You know enough to be involved, but not enough to make decisions or offer any advice on the fly, so you reply, "I've got to be some … | Continue reading
"Good things come to those who wait." This was one of my mother's mantras. I think most of us, at some level, believe in the power of delayed gratification. If I forego my pleasures now, I'll enjoy even more pleasures in the future. For some it's even a moral value, one grounded … | Continue reading
Psychologist Paul Ekman theorizes that all humans experience what he calls six "basic emotions": happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and surprise. We can quibble over Ekman's list. For instance, many suggest that anger is most often a product of sadness or fear. Others are … | Continue reading
One of the single most depressing days of my life was when the professor in a university course I was taking called The Art of Rhetoric argued the case against altruism. He made his claim, then invited a classroom full of idealistic youths to try to prove him wrong. "What about t … | Continue reading
Anthony James The two-year-old stood at the bottom of the stairway. From her perspective it must have looked massive, probably unlike any stairway she had ever seen, wide enough for a dozen people to ascend shoulder to shoulder. We were in the multi-storied atrium of an art museu … | Continue reading
Psychology is half-baked, literally half-baked. We have baked the part about mental illness. We have baked the part about repair and damage. But the other side is unbaked. The side of strengths, the side of what we are good at, the side . . . of what makes life worth living. ~Mar … | Continue reading
I had an unopened travel package of tissues that had been in my backpack for I don't know how long. It had gone with me to Khazakstan, Vietnam, and New York City. It's there because I have a tendency toward mild allergic reactions to dusts, pollens, and recirculated jet cabin air … | Continue reading
Imagine two young women, identical in every way, right down to their aspirations of becoming great actors. The first women graduates from her prestigious theater program and struggles to get work. She gets a few tiny roles here and there, but the fame, fortune, and professional s … | Continue reading
"I didn't do it!" I'd seen the boy push his friend, knocking him to the ground. He was lying there still, whimpering. His mother had once told me, crossly, that she believed in punishment. She understood, however, that I was not going to resort to punishments, although she doubte … | Continue reading
During a recent Q&A webinar with Parent Map, I was asked by host Laura Kastner to define play. Specifically, she wanted me to react to definitions that assert that play is purposeless activity. Generally, when asked this question, I respond by comparing it to love: we can't argre … | Continue reading
"Let's pretend we're dinosaurs." Any sentence that begins with "Let's . . ." and especially those that begin with "Let's pretend . . ." are music to this preschool teacher's ears. "Let's be princesses." "Let's make a bad guy trap." "Let's play firefighter." They are invitations t … | Continue reading
One of the most universal play activities across any number of species is "play fighting," or as we sometimes call it, "rough-and-tumble play." The research available on this type of play is even more limited than on other types of play, but it appears that it represents some 20 … | Continue reading
A baby waved at me over its mother's shoulder. I'd done nothing to get its attention, yet, from across the crowded, busy room it picked me out, miraculously. As you might imagine, was at once filled with joy at being recognized by this unspoiled human. It made me feel special, go … | Continue reading
"The grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and, for children, it's tiresome always giving them explanations." This is perhaps the most famous line from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's novella The Little Prince. It's memorable and funny, to adults at least, because in this … | Continue reading
Growing up, it was rare to have watched any movie more than once, other than The Wizard of Oz, which was annually broadcast on CBS, like a holiday event, throughout my childhood. The exception to that for me was the movie The Swiss Family Robinson, which I saw at least three time … | Continue reading
Author and poet Diane Ackerman writes: "(I)t probably doesn't matter if we try too hard, are awkward sometimes, care for one another too deeply, are excessively curious about nature, are too open to experience, and enjoy nonstop expense of the senses in an effort to know life int … | Continue reading
The children at Woodland Park frequently go home with a plastic bag full of muddy clothing. The parents are often at loose ends over it the first time it happens, but soon learn to accept it. Some even learn to be grateful for it. Tomorrow is the day we've set aside in the US for … | Continue reading
I'm beginning my journey back to the US after a week in Vietnam where I've been a presenter and participant in an extraordinary event called the International Conference for Happiness and Well-being in Education hosted by TH School here in Hanoi. I plan to share some of my though … | Continue reading
Most of us are aware of the American psychologist Abraham Maslow because of his famous hierarchy of needs, usually portrayed as a pyramid. At the bottom, forming the base of the pyramid are physiological needs, like food, sleep, and breathing. The idea is that it is only once the … | Continue reading
The boy had shed his jacket onto the floor, leaving it in a heap right in the middle of the room. Under normal circumstances I would have said something like, "Your coat is on the floor; it belongs on a hook," then waited for him to think things through. But this was his first da … | Continue reading
Like a younger sibling, our school has always run on hand-me-downs. I've long believed that one of the functions of preschools in our society is to be a pitstop for things -- almost anything -- along its journey to the landfill or recycling center. Much of what populates the play … | Continue reading