My Favorite Early Learning Resources

Papa Green Bean's Top Twelve 

Here is a treasure chest of free resources for parents. Give each a look and please follow the ones you like. They are the best of what I've seen anywhere—honestly helpful and inspiring.

1) Teacher Tom's Blog  (Age Range 2 - 5)

Teacher Tom is my favorite early learning writer. He understand children like no other I know. He posts five times a week. If you have a Facebook account, please like his Teacher Tom page. It is often my favorite read of the day. Tom Hobson is the only employee of the Woodland Park Cooperative School in Seattle, Washington. In his words, "The children come to us as 2-year-olds in diapers and leave as "sophisticated" 5-year-olds ready for kindergarten. The cooperative school model allows me to work very closely with families in a true community setting." 

I love when my dad reads Teacher Tom's blog!

2) Forty Short Films for Early Learning  (Age Range: 1 - 6)

The Department of Education in Zurich, Switzerland has created an astonishingly beautiful series of forty films—less than five minutes each. They are "designed to support professionals who work in early childhood education, care and upbringing: In the areas of family support, parental counseling and education. For this reason, the short films are available in 13 languages with extensive expert commentary."

Play based learning is the best!

Hold Me Like You'll Never Let Me Go

 The Babywearing Mindset 

Introduction - The "In-Arms"stage of a child

Hey pops, I've heard about you!

The child passes through successive phases of development in which her surroundings have an important part to play. In none have they more importance than the "in-arms" phase, the period from birth to when the child begins sitting and then crawling by herself—generally this is at six to nine months of age.

(Major Papa Green Bean point) - The in-arms phase as part of a continuum can be descibed as a second nine month gestation period, giving the human baby an eighteen month period of full gestation, with the actual birth being the half way point. This is a remarkably insightful concept and, if understood for its implications, leads us as parents and childcare providers to a much more respectful and nurturing welcome for the newborn child onto our living world. 

Let's Spend the Night Together

Cosleeping and Independence 

"Let's spend the night together", the title of this post, has a very appropriate second line... "now I need you more than ever". This is a classic Rolling Stones song but those two lines apply to every newborn baby's plea to their parents upon being brought out of the safety of the womb.


It's time parents get the correct message about cosleeping with their children. Dire warnings against infant bed sharing backfired. Many young parents have obeyed the unfounded warnings of infant bed sharing for much too long. Untrusting of their innate ability, and of their child's "motives" in giving perfectly clear signals (crying), parents have been misguided into forcing their newborns and infants to sleep alone.

Allowing Human Nature to Work Successfully

The Continuum Concept

Christmas dinner was twenty minutes from being served at our friend's home. My second glass of red wine was disappearing. That's when the contractions began in ernest. My wife said, "Honey, it's time to go". My daughter, Anna, was born on December 26th, 1986. A healthy 9 1/2 pound bundle of joy. 

Six months before Anna was born, I bought my first book on parenting. It wasn't recommended to me. But it caught my eye as I intently browsed through the early childhood development section of the book store...

 The Continuum Concept: Allowing Human Nature to Work Successfully -  Jean Liedloff

What's Missing From "Best Practices"?

What's Missing That is Most Important?

Well, there are an infinite number of ways to raise a child, aren't there? 

No! there are not. 

In my opinion, the way to raise a child is simple. And, the best way to raise a child begins with something not mentioned in the following lists of 'best practices', all of which I agree with by the way. I'll give you the missing ingredient from these lists in my conclusion.

True joy!

Today, there are many early childhood development and education philosophies, some of which have been adopted into high quality early childhood programs. Waldorf schools, the Reggio Emilia Approach, RIE (Resources for Infant Educaring), Attachment Parenting, and the Montessori Philosophy are five 'approaches' to raising children. These all have their devout followers.