Grown-Ups (Parents, Care Givers, Teachers)

Big Red Hat is a family endeavor. We, the parents of Olivia, Ingram and Everett, have spent the last nine years creating and seeking out activities and educational materials that we feel are creative, fun, challenging and inspiring.

When our kids were born, we decided that we did not want them to simply be entertained by their toys and activities, but rather to be engaged. Our kids have always spent most of their free time at our dining table making things or outside exploring the woods near our home.

It truly is an amazing sight to watch your kids learn. It's also fun to actually learn something new from them. We challenge every parent out there to find some project or activity that gets your kids thinking each and every day.

Our mission is simple; to provide a positive resource with some fresh ideas and projects that other kids can do themselves…or better yet, with a friend or family member. We always try to remember that working together with a friend, brother, sister or parent, makes for half the work and twice the fun!

Our projects are not always conventional “kids” projects. Often times we use tools that many kids are not allowed to use such as utility knives, chisels, and real sewing machines. We’d like to make our point loud and clear. When kids are given proper instruction (and allowed to suffer the consequences of not following those instructions, which sometimes mean getting poked, scratched or even cut) they end up learning from a concrete experience which could benefit them for years to come.

Five facts about learning that are scientifically proven:

Spaced practice - Practice makes perfect but continuing to practice the same things throughout life keeps you from forgetting what you have already learned.
Cognitive overload - When material is too long or presented in the wrong order, it causes overload. Simplicity produces the most effective learning.
Chunking - Be sensitive to the limitation of working memory. In other words, provide small, simple chunks of information.
Order - Learning things in the right order is critical to how they will be stored and recalled.
Episodic vs semantic memory - We have different types of memory and require both semantic (text) and episodic (hands-on) activities in order to retain what we learn. In other words, don't just read about doing something...do it.

Olivia, Ingram and Everett are like many other children in this world. They are eager to learn and even more eager to share what they’ve learned. They are innocent, energetic and good-hearted and they would love to connect with the thousands of other kids around the planet who are just like them…real kids looking for real fun!