learning

January is national hobby month and the perfect time to try out something new! I enjoy plenty of hobbies, but I was feeling the itch to try some drawing, and a quick search through the library catalog revealed a number of options for a variety of skill levels. "Drawing Class - Animals" was one of the titles I grabbed and it seemed approachable. A step-by-step guide to drawing cartoon animals, the concept of using simple shapes to build up to a finished product was quite appealing, so I tested a few designs on a scrap of paper. 

Drawing a sheep, wild boar, and bison gave me a sense of the

Christakis begins with a very simple premise: that, for preschoolers, schooling and learning are often two different things. That young children are much more powerful and capable than we often give them credit for, that they primarily learn through relationships and play, and that the educational push to make their school experience more focused on "academic readiness" runs counter to their natural inclinations for learning.

She then spends nearly 400 pages comprehensively exploring that idea across the many dimensions and aspects of early childhood education. She has been a child, parent