Begins by age 4 — the starting shore
A first step — nothing needed before it
Bigger dots begin younger
A thread: the lower place helps unlock the higher
The country of early learning, drawn for parents
Learning is not a pile of facts. It is a country, with roads: nearly every idea a child meets stands on a few earlier ideas, the way a path up a hill stands on the switchbacks below it. This map draws that country for the early years — 426 small, nameable things children typically begin between the ages of three and six, and the 665 threads that connect each one to what it grows from and what it makes possible.
The gold-ringed places along the shore are the topics that usually begin by age four. They matter out of proportion to their size, because so much of the country is reached through them. There is no race here and no finish line — children wander this country in their own order and their own weather. But when you know where the shore is, you know where a stuck traveller might need a hand.
To use the map: touch any place to see what it is, how you will know your child has truly arrived there, and a question you can try asking at home. Follow the threads backwards to see what to visit first, or forwards to see what a new skill unlocks next.