When young children move between fantasy and reality in their play, they’re doing much more than having fun. They’re building early critical-thinking skills that help them make sense of the world around them and, eventually, navigate increasingly complex digital media and technology.

The year 1968 did not arrive quietly. It came fractured, marked by assassinations, the Vietnam War broadcast into American living rooms, and a widening sense that the nation was no longer merely observing itself, but being forced to watch its own unraveling in real time. Television had become the country’s primary shared space, yet it remained uncertain what kind of space it was meant to be: a civic instrument, a commercial engine, or something more […]

Throughout my 20 years in the field of early childhood development, in the classroom and as a kids’ show host, I have observed that a young child in focused, self-guided, open-ended play is like a lucid dreamer.