Category Archives: Guest Posts

If you were born after 1990, are the parent or grandparent of someone born after 1990, or a children’s media producer of any age, Ready To Learn (RTL) has probably touched your life. Launched in 1994, RTL is a U.S. Department of Education-funded initiative that provides about $25 million annually for the creation of educational media (TV, computer games, apps, and more) designed to promote school readiness. RTL funding has gone to the production of legacy media properties that existed…

“For me, my kids playing Halo is no different than playing outside and coming up with scenarios that seem kind of violent like our kids… they could be outside playing Nerf guns and pretending to shoot each other and die. I can go outside and play Nerf guns with my kids and we can be playing in the neighborhood. And I don’t get questioned about that, but I get questioned about Halo.” —Abigail, a mother of four daughters Between the…

Are you looking for some good podcasts for children? We’re thrilled to introduce Podcasts for Families, a new series by Carissa Christner, a youth services librarian in Madison, Wisconsin. You’ll meet the producers of some of the liveliest podcasts for kids and learn more about the craft of creating engaging audio stories that families can enjoy together. I have two children, ages 3 and 7, and over the past year or so we have developed a pretty serious podcast habit. Every…

Necessity is the mother of invention. When Mind Meets Music was awarded an Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) grant through the United States Department of Education in 2014, one of the grant requirements was to utilize technology as a vehicle to support learning. This mandate sparked an idea, sending the organization down the previously unexplored path of app development. Though this venture into the technological realm was uncharted waters for our team, we’re no strangers to innovation. Mind…

This week, libraries, schools, and organizations across the country are highlighting the importance of media literacy. Regardless of the type of media, children and adults need to be savvy consumers. According to NAMLE, media literacy is defined as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication.” Headlines about fake news and misinformation have driven home the vital need for critical thinking skills among all ages. While much of the media literacy attention focuses on…

On a recent visit to Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to lead 15 Spanish-speaking moms on a field test of a new media and technology workshop produced by Abriendo Puertas-Opening Doors and Common Sense Latino, a Common Sense Media initiative. Developed through two years of collaboration and research, the workshop is designed to provide lower-income parents and caregivers with a roadmap to navigate the digital world safely, teaching them how to use technology for learning and create a balanced media experience for their families. During the field test, we spent over two hours completing activities, showing…

In this special episode of the App Fairy Podcast, we feature part of an interview done by Kabir Seth of the podcast Diversity Sauce about a year ago (back then, his podcast was called “Diversity in Apps”).  Diversity Sauce is a project of the Kids Media and Diversity Project, which is also supported by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, so I was thrilled to have this chance to promote their show on the App Fairy.  Since that interview happened awhile ago, I followed up with a few questions of my…

What if there was a better way to introduce math to young kids? For a parent, one of the first math concepts they teach their child is to count to 10. In this exercise, repetition is the name of the game: “Let’s count to 10!…Good! Now, let’s do it again!” While rote learning of the first 10 numbers is important, it is not sufficient for a child to grasp the deeper meaning behind these numbers, and why they are important to…

As a children’s librarian at a small library, a significant part of my job is to find and purchase the best books, audiobooks, puzzles, apps, websites, devices, and even toys for kids and teens ages 0-18. I’m also tasked with making sure families can find them in the library. Some of these items will go on shelves for check out, some will be used in programs like storytime, the maker club or a long list of other programs held throughout…

  The STEM Starts Early report talks about learning trajectories in early STEM. What are they? What difference do they make? What Are Learning Trajectories? Children follow natural developmental progressions in learning and development. As a simple example, they learn to crawl, then walk, then run, skip, and jump with increasing speed and dexterity. These are the levels in the development of movement. They follow natural developmental progressions in learning STEM content, too, learning ideas and skills in their own…