About Me
Hello! I'm Jen, the author of children's STEAM books that now number into the dozens! I was raised in Upstate New York, and I now live in London, UK with my husband and two sons. Please send me thoughts or questions!
My Background
What I'm All About
Like a lot of kids, I loved games, construction toys and music as a child. As I got older, the games got more sophisticated, the musical instruments more advanced, and it was more of a struggle to learn how to play. Some kids seemed to have a knack for it that I didn’t have. It was frustrating and demotivating to put so much effort in, for little reward.
It was only when I became a parent, watching my sons easily assemble complicated Lego models, that I understood how much more successful a visual approach could be in teaching complex things to kids.
Musical instruments and chess fit this category well. Their simplicity is masked by the written notation used in each. For hundreds of years, children had to learn a whole new written language in order to play an instrument. Practice sessions are often dreaded and brutal. The slow progress discourages them and they quit the instrument too early. My aim is to change that narrative.
Visually-rich, language-free instruction books from Lego and Ikea are my inspiration. All the old rules go out the window. The method is all about visual learning, learning by doing, and making progress quickly. With my books, kids of all abilities are building skills and achieving, and it’s fast, fun and easy.
