Your toddler sees the mail truck pull up and asks what that person does. You watch the mail carrier walk from house to house with their big bag, while construction workers are hammering across the street, and the neighborhood doctor heads to work. Kids notice all these people but have no idea what any of … Read more
Your three-year-old walks up to you and announces, “Me hungry!” You smile because you understand perfectly, but you also know something’s missing. She gets the idea right but hasn’t figured out when to say “I” instead of “me.” This happens with most kids around this age. Pronouns confuse children because they’re not like regular words. … Read more
Your six-year-old daughter picks up your phone and points to some Japanese text on a video. “What does this say, Mommy?” she asks. You realize she’s genuinely curious about those mysterious symbols that look nothing like the ABCs she knows. Japanese writing seems impossible to most parents. All those squiggles and lines that apparently mean … Read more
That moment when your baby suddenly locks eyes with something across the room and won’t look away. You follow their gaze, expecting to see something fascinating, but it’s just the black picture frame against your white wall. Meanwhile, that rainbow rattle you spent twenty dollars on sits ignored in the corner. Turns out babies aren’t … Read more
Remember when your toddler pointed at everything and said “Dat? Dat?” about fifty times a day? They’re not just being curious. They’re desperately trying to learn the names for everything in their world. Two-year-olds collect words like other kids collect stickers. Every new word they learn helps them tell you what they want, what hurts, … Read more