Category Archives: Guest Posts

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…

I’m so excited to bring you this interview with Sago Mini!  I’ve been a huge fan of their work since the early days of kids apps and after a chance to visit their offices in Toronto in the fall of 2015, I became even more impressed with the level of dedication they put into creating high-quality apps for the very youngest users. I love how they create “digital toys” that focus on pure play rather than insisting that all of…

On July 6, 2016, Niantic, Inc. released Pokémon GO, which quickly became one of the most popular mobile game apps in history. In this location-based mobile game, players use the GPS capabilities of their smartphones or tablets to navigate an avatar within a virtual world that is overlaid on top of the real world. As players move about in the real world, their avatar moves through the game world, and they can locate, capture, battle, and train virtual monsters called Pokémon—with names…

This was originally published March 21, 2017 on the TEC Center blog and appears here with permission. Katie Paciga, a Fred Rogers Center and TEC Center Early Career Research Fellow, and Mary Quest, a doctoral student and instructor at Erikson Institute, recently published a study on e-book reading with young children. The full citation of the research article is included below and is available for download here. Here, they share several research-based tips to consider as you plan for e-reading…

Watch a group of young children in a community garden. They’ll dig in the soil, find and play with earthworms and insects, plant seeds in patches of sunlight, and come back to watch them sprout, grow, and bear fruit. With a little help, these kids can be doing more than simply playing in the dirt. They can be learning the beginnings of environmental science and plant biology and practicing critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Working alongside teachers trained in early STEM…

When I was a kid, one of my favorite parts of the week was the recurring Friday night game session at my house. It usually consisted of my dad stoking the fire, my sister watching TV, and my mom and me embroiled in a fierce competition of Chinese Checkers or Othello. There may have been times I fumed while resetting the board pieces (I was not a good loser), but I always enjoyed those game nights and still hold onto those…

Across the children’s media landscape, from movies to video games, diversity and inclusion have been hot topics for discussion throughout 2016. Much of the conversation has focused on the finished product, such as an app or toy and whether it does an effective job in reflecting the diversity of the world we live in. Looking at the finished product is without a doubt important, but at Diversity in Apps (DIA), we are also nudging the conversation towards a focus on…