These pages hold topics, threads, people or concepts that weave through many of the resources on this site. I developed the topics pages mostly for trainings as a resource. I hope they can be useful in your explorations. Many of these topics have other meanings in different settings or traditions. I offer these interpretations based on my experience only.
A radical, child-driven approach to play that invites children to explore, create, and take risks in open-ended environments, often filled with loose parts and minimal adult direction.
Nature-Based & Outdoor LearningPlay & ExplorationContesting Early Childhood
Engineering in early childhood invites children to design, build, test, and revise—using materials and ideas to solve real and imagined problems through playful invention.
Executive function refers to the mental skills that help children plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and manage impulses—skills that develop through experience, not instruction.
Theories of Development & LearningGuiding Behavior
An approach to play and learning that values open-ended materials—objects that children can move, combine, redesign, and use in endless ways according to their imagination.
Magda Gerber’s approach invites adults to slow down, observe, and respect infants as whole people—worthy of trust, autonomy, and unhurried relationship.
Foundational Approaches & ThinkersParentingTheories of Education
Marshall Rosenberg developed Nonviolent Communication (NVC), a relational approach to speaking and listening grounded in empathy, needs-awareness, and mutual understanding.
Communication & Relational PracticesClassroom PracticesProfessional DevelopmenttCore TeachingsContemplative Education
A relational approach to communication that emphasizes empathy, honesty, and connection—helping people speak and listen in ways that honor everyone’s needs.
Communication & Relational PracticesContemplative Education
Parker Palmer is an educator, writer, and Quaker elder who invites teachers to lead from within—placing integrity, presence, and soul at the heart of education.
Bev Bos was a nationally respected speaker, teacher, and director of the Roseville Community Preschool in California. Her philosophy centered on a simple, powerful truth: children learn best through play. Not worksheets, not structured instruction—but through mud, music, paint, water, conversation, and wonder.
At the heart of her work was a commitment to environments that are rich, sensory, and open-ended. She believed that early childhood spaces should invite exploration and trust, offering time—not pressure—for children to unfold at their own pace. Her motto, often repeated, was: “If it hasn’t been in the hand, the body, and the heart, it can’t be in the brain.”
Bev advocated for inclusive, child-led spaces that honored risk, choice, and community. Her indoor and outdoor classrooms were filled with real tools, loose parts, and provocations that responded to children’s interests. She resisted trends toward early academics and defended the importance of play with fierce clarity and warmth.
Her work aligns deeply with the Reggio Emilia Approach, even though it emerged independently. Like Reggio, Bev emphasized relationship, process over product, and the role of the environment as teacher. Her legacy continues to inspire teachers who believe in the power of joyful, messy, meaningful play.
Related Reading
Don’t Move the Muffin Tins: A Hands-Off Guide to Art for the Young Child by Bev Bos
Before the Basics by Bev Bos
Roseville Community Preschool
Bev Bos tribute video and archives via Community Playthings
Tumbling Over the Edge: Bev Bos and the Radical Wonder of Childhood
A tribute to Bev Bos and the living legacy of Roseville Preschool—celebrating trust, play, presence, and the radical act of letting children tumble freely into becoming.
Explores how loose parts—natural or found materials—invite open-ended play, creativity, and exploration. Celebrates children's innate capacity to invent, construct, and express meaning through self-directed interaction.
Tumbling Over the Edge: Bev Bos and the Radical Wonder of Childhood 
