The Inventor's Desk

I Promise I Won't Be Scared: When Your Toddler Promises the Impossible

Your toddler promises never to cry at drop-off again, and means it. You know tomorrow morning. Both the sincerity and the limit are normal. One book and a free coloring page to name one thing they ...

The Walk That Takes Forever: When Your Toddler Stops at Everything

Your toddler stops every few steps to point at something you walked right past. The stop is your child looking. The point is your child asking you to look too. One book and a free coloring page tha...

Ten Words a Page: Dual Language Learners, Feeling Words, and the Free Audio

Many California children under five grow up with a language other than English at home. Here is how a ten-word page, a refrain, and a recorded voice fit the state's own foundations for language dev...

Who Made This?: When Your Child Asks and You Have No Answer Ready

Your child holds up a cup at breakfast and asks who made it, and "the store" does not satisfy anyone. Not knowing how to explain that everyday things were invented by someone is normal. One book an...

Hands Off or Hands On: When the Zipper Will Not Catch

You watched your child try the zipper three times and then fall apart when it still would not catch. Stepping in and waiting both feel right, and both feel wrong. One book and a free coloring page ...

A Friend's Difference Is a Fact, Not a Plot: Inclusion in Books 8, 14, and 19

The DEC/NAEYC joint statement on early childhood inclusion is seventeen years old and California is still funding it. Here is how the series handles a friend who is different, and why the differenc...

Happy to Furious in Four Seconds: When the Switch Flips Over Nothing

Your toddler was laughing, and now they are screaming because the cup is the blue one. The speed of it leaves you with nothing to say. Big feelings over small things are normal. One book and a free...

Two Names on One Creation: Problem-Solving Together in Books 11, 14, and 19

California's Approaches to Learning foundations end with a strand called Goal-Directed Learning, and one of its two sub-strands is Collaborative Effort. Three books are about nothing else.

The Why Phase Is a Skill: Curiosity and Initiative in California's Approaches to Learning

California's 2024 preschool foundations open the Approaches to Learning domain with Curiosity and Interest and Initiative. Books 1 and 3 are built on nothing else.

Cardboard and Tape Are the Curriculum: Play-Based Learning, DAP, and Books 5 to 8

NAEYC's 2020 position statement on developmentally appropriate practice puts play at the center of early learning. Here is what that looks like when the material is a cardboard box.