The Secret to Our Successful Educational Products: A Statement of Philosophy for Teaching, Learning and Educational Product Development

When working with children, one needs to have a clear rationale. To help children learn in an optimal way, it is important to be sensitive, understanding, and compassionate. To that end, our approach to working with children and families and to creating educational products are guided by the following principles:

•One purpose of a fine education is to build an expanding knowledge base across subjects and to refine ways of communicating it clearly.

•As learning specialists and educational product developers, we help children advance their critical thinking skills, intellectual curiosity, and motivation to love learning through multi-sensory tools that are grounded in standards-based pedagogy.

•We support the range of learners, scaffolding student growth to promote achievement.

•We strive to make learning relevant and engaging so that students can make meaningful connections between the subject matter and their prior knowledge.

•One of our job functions is to broaden student intellectual opportunities. We seek to help students find connections between seemingly divergent ideas to spur creativity and innovation.

•We aim to foster a collaborative learning environment with solid educational products where students feel energized by delving into the topics and working together to build understanding.

•We look to promote independence and interdependence among students to yield high levels of self-efficacy and community participation.

•We believe in active cooperation among educators, parents, and students to maximize success.

•We drive to foster lifelong learners who yearn to make contributions to the world.

•We seek to cultivate the maturation of the whole person, integrating academic, social, and emotional constructs so that students grow with wisdom, consciousness, resilience, and joy.

• As parents, educators, educational product developers and former students, we know how to create both a rigorous and warm learning experience.

•We take the responsibility of teaching, learning, and educational product development very seriously. We have the utmost respect for learners and look to help them on their path of development.

Child-centered learning is a key component to what we do and what we build. It allows us to focus on the individual needs of each student, which empowers them to develop their own unique abilities, and lets them feel the pride of ownership that comes from real learning. When children use our products, they take on the responsibility of learning themselves and feel the excitement of doing work as scientists/mathematicians/researchers who can actively think and construct their knowledge. They build critical analysis skills and long-term understanding. With this philosophy at hand, students can grow their self-efficacy for the task and increase self-confidence, which improves their overall academic and social-emotional functioning. This philosophy drives our understanding of children and is the foundation of our success. It can be shared with others looking to help children in their development.

Matthew Mandelbaum and Jamie Cohen are parents and learning specialists and are the creators of Jumping Joey’s Number Line. Jumping Joey’s Number Line is an innovative, child-centered, multi-sensory arithmetic learning system for Pre-K through Elementary. Jumping Joey’s Number Line fosters enjoyable, engaging, effective and efficient mathematical experiences, where students are motivated and build a strong math foundation with long-term understanding. Students feel successful and excited about learning opportunities, and confident in their emerging abilities.