STEAM Made Simple

We spend SO much time looking at what kids can produce.

Can they write their name?
Can they count to 20?
Can they make the craft correctly?
Can they get the right answer?

But the skills I care about most are usually the ones you CAN’T hang on the fridge.

Can they come up with an idea?
Make a plan?
Try something that might not work?
Notice when it doesn’t?
Change their approach?
Explain their thinking?
Solve a problem without immediately looking to an adult for the answer?

That’s process over product.

And THIS is exactly why I’m so obsessed with STEAM in the early years.

Because the point of STEAM isn’t to make a perfect bridge.
It’s what happens when the bridge falls down.

It’s not making the prettiest design.
It’s deciding what to build when nobody gave you an example.

It’s not getting the “right” answer on the first try.
It’s learning what to do when you don’t know the answer yet.

Because think about the skills we actually want our kids to have later in life:
Creativity.
Critical thinking.
Problem-solving.
Collaboration.
Communication.
Adaptability.
Persistence.
Independence.

Those aren’t skills we suddenly teach at 18.
We build them at 3, 4 and 5.

Every time we give a child space to wonder, create, test, fail, change their mind and try again.

So when your preschooler takes your perfectly planned activity and goes completely off script?

Before you redirect them...
watch.

Those little wheels turning?
That IS the learning.

🎙️ This week on Think Like a Kid, I’m talking about why the PROCESS matters more than the finished product—and why following a child’s lead might be one of the most important things we can do for the thinkers we’re raising.

Comment PODCAST and I’ll send you the episode. 🤍

Sorry but most preschool “learning” is just glorified coloring pages. It keeps them busy for 10 minutes, but it leaves their brain hungry for actual substance…

There is a massive difference between a child who can perform and a child who can process.

Most parents are celebrating “performance” (singing ABCs and counting to 10) while completely missing the foundation that actually determines if a child will struggle with reading and math in three years. If you only focus on the performance, you’re building a house on sand.

I’ve spent over a decade in public schools and even worked as a consultant for an elite $20k-a-year private schools. I’ve seen exactly how the “edge” is built and it isn’t in the expensive toys. It’s in the sequence of hands on experiences.

When you jump from one “cute” activity to the next without a sequence, you aren’t teaching you’re just “babysitting” with extra steps. It’s like trying to build a skyscraper by starting on the 5th floor. You’re handing them high-level concepts (the “wings”) before they have the structural integrity (the “engine”) to actually use them. They might look “smart” now because they can memorize, but without the intentional connection between literacy, logic, and deep inquiry, you’re just creating a fragile learner.

Eventually, the memorization wears off, the “songs” stop working, and that’s when the “math struggles” or “reading gaps” suddenly appear out of nowhere.

I took the exact content and early learning standards I used to consult on and built a 36-week curriculum that weaves everything together. The books, the math, the STEAM questions, and the literacy aren’t separate “activities” they are a single, unbreakable foundation.

My own preschooler loves to hop around the lessons, and I let him. Because when the foundation is solid, you can afford to explore without the fear of falling through the cracks.

Stop filling their day with “educational junk food” that offers zero ROI. Start building a brain that actually knows how to think.

Comment “PRESCHOOL” and I’ll send you the roadmap to stop the guessing and start the educati

Save this one. Because if you’re teaching a preschooler, YOU need to know these too. 😂

One of the biggest shifts I wish more parents knew:

Knowing the letter name is not the same thing as knowing the sound.

And knowing 26 letter sounds isn’t the end goal either.

The goal is eventually for your child to hear a word like map and understand that those spoken sounds can be connected to letters on a page.

That’s why in our preschool, we don’t just:

“A is for apple 🍎”
“B is for ball ⚽️”
“C is for cat 🐱”

and call it phonics.

We spend time hearing sounds. Saying sounds. Playing with sounds. Finding them in words. Connecting those sounds to the letters that represent them.

Because I don’t want my preschooler memorizing a bunch of disconnected facts.

I want him building the foundation that eventually makes reading make sense.

And this is exactly why I created my curriculum the way I did.

You shouldn’t have to Google:

What letter do I teach first?
What sound does it make?
What do I do after he knows it?
When do we start blending?
What sound games should we be doing?

That’s my job.

Your job is to sit down with your kid, follow the plan, make some ridiculous sounds together 😂 and watch the pieces start connecting.

Preschool doesn’t need to be complicated.

But it should be intentional.

Comment PRESCHOOL and I’ll send you the 36-week curriculum that already maps it out for you. 🤍

I would rather my 4-year-old be really good at THIS than memorize 50 sight words. 👀

Because looking like you’re reading and actually building the skills underneath reading are two very different things.

Before I care how many words he can recognize on sight, I want him playing with language:

Can he hear the sounds in words?
Can he rhyme?
Clap syllables?
Blend parts together?
Pull them apart?

Because eventually he’ll meet a word he’s never seen before.

And I don’t want his only strategy to be:

“Have I memorized this one?”

This is why Word Play is built into EVERY DAY of my preschool curriculum.

Not a random phonics activity when I remember.

Not “letter of the week” and hope everything else falls into place.

Daily, intentional, playful practice with the skills underneath reading.

And THIS is what I mean when I say I already did the teacher thinking for you.

You don’t need to know which literacy skill comes first, what to practice tomorrow, or when to make it harder.

I do. And I already put it in order.

So yes—steal this game. 😂

But if you keep stealing my activities because you’re thinking, THIS is how I want my child to learn…

you might as well let me give you the other 36 weeks.

Comment PRESCHOOL and I’ll send you the curriculum. 🤍

This is the kind of preschool math I wish more parents knew to look for 👇🏼

Because if your 4-year-old can count to 20, 50, or even 100…

that tells me they know the counting sequence.

Useful? Absolutely.

But I’m much more interested in what happens when I say:

“There are 5. You can see 3. How many am I hiding?”

Because now they have to THINK about five.

Not recite it.
Not recognize the numeral.
Not trace it.

Understand it.

Eventually, I want 5 to stop being one fixed thing.

5 can be:

4 + 1
3 + 2
2 + 3
1 + 4

And THAT understanding becomes the foundation underneath addition and subtraction later.

Here’s the part that I think makes preschool unnecessarily hard for parents:

How would you know this is what you’re supposed to be building?

Seriously.

You can search “preschool math activity” and get 10,000 adorable ideas.

But who’s telling you:

What comes before this?

When is your child ready for it?

What do you do if it’s too hard?

How do you practice it without drilling them?

And what skill comes after this?

That’s the part I don’t think you should have to figure out.

I have a Master’s in Curriculum & Instruction and taught the little guys all the way through 6th grade.

When I built my preschool curriculum, I didn’t ask:

“What math activities would be fun?”

I asked:

“What mathematical understanding am I trying to build, and in what order does it need to happen?”

And then I made that feel like play.

So yes, steal this game. 😂

Do it tonight with crackers.

But if you’ve watched eight episodes of this series thinking,

“WHY did no one ever explain preschool math to me like this?”

…you probably don’t need nine more saved Reels.

You need the plan they’re coming from. 😂

36 weeks.
20–30 minutes a day.
The progression already thought through for you.

Comment PRESCHOOL and I’ll send you the exact curriculum we’re using. 🤍