Pre-Kindergarten · Ages 3–4
The Tower Year
Being early at three does not look like reading early. It looks like taking the thing apart to see the inside of it.
Read this one yourself. Nothing in the Pre-K year asks a child to read or write. The work is physical and the questions are asked out loud.
- 1 Hard Thing
- 5 days · 85 minutes
- 3 unmarkable questions
Ready?
Pre-Kindergarten · The Tallest Tower
Being early at three does not look like reading early. It looks like taking the thing apart to see the inside of it.
Full screen — no distractions
Where this goes
The ladder
The same idea, three times, roughly a year apart. This is what depth looks like from the outside.
This year
Towers out of blocks, which are designed to stack.
Next year
Towers out of things never meant to stack — cups, books, shoes. The constraint is the game.
The year after
Bridges. A tower only holds itself up. A bridge has to hold something else.
What lives on the desk this year
- A shelf of blocks at their height, not yours
- A button jar — or pasta, or bottle tops
- A tray that catches water
- Three cups of obviously different sizes
- A box of broken things they are allowed to break further
The rest of Pre-Kindergarten
One hard thing a day is the sharp end. It sits on top of an ordinary year.
Last updated: September 2026