From the classroom to the design lab, Siyuan Fan brings intention, warmth, and curiosity to everything she does. With experience in early childhood education, curriculum development, and educational toy design, she believes that playful learning is not just fun—it’s foundational. In this interview, Siyuan shares her passion for nurturing the whole child, how Montessori principles influence her work, and why creating meaningful, joyful environments begins with the little things.
What originally inspired you to pursue a career in early childhood education?
I love children and I am a very patient person. When I was choosing my major for college, early childhood education was one of my first choices. While I was studying it, I started to love it because it actually teaches you a lot of developmental theories and principles that you can apply to your own life. It is really fun to “decode” the behaviors of the children and to think back to my own childhood. Knowing that you can make someone else’s childhood full of fun and love is a very satisfying process!
You’ve worked across teaching, curriculum design, and product development—how do you see these roles connecting in your mission to nurture the “whole child”?
In my perspective, the “whole child” means the comprehensive development of a child, which includes academic, social-emotional as well as physical. When I am teaching, a big part of my role is to design the day-to-day curriculum for my children so that they can receive different kinds of learning content every day. I really enjoy that part of my job, so I bring my ideas and experience into the product development job that I am doing at the same time. From that end, I can put new ideas or needs into the product design area so that I can use them to fill up the needs in my classroom and improve the quality of teaching and curriculum from a higher level.
What does “playful learning” mean to you, and how do you bring that philosophy to life in both classrooms and toy design?
“Playful learning” means being safe, relaxed, but also inspired and creative. In my classroom, I always think about what the children are interested in at their age. For example, they are super interested in dinosaurs, trucks, bugs, crafts, animals, space, etc. I make sure to create the curriculum and the toys around those topics and incorporate the philosophy into them. I also make sure there is a good balance of open-ended and close-ended materials for children to explore so they don’t have to follow too many standards or rules, which is also part of the playful learning idea—that children can apply their guesses into experiments and games.
You’ve incorporated Montessori principles in many of your projects—what aspects of Montessori education do you think every parent should know?
I think it should be the fostering of children’s independence and concentration. Montessori believes that children have natural learning minds and they will automatically get attracted by the learning contents that their brains need. That’s why Montessori materials all have one or more points of interest and control of error, which provide children the fun in learning but also the opportunities to explore and correct themselves. When children are fully immersed in learning, they will reach a status where they are fully concentrated and can enjoy that process a lot.
In your experience, what are the most important emotional or social skills we should be building in kids under 8?
I think kids under 8 years old should receive qualified social and emotional learning around building mind flexibility, resilience, the skill to build a healthy relationship with parents and peers, as well as emotion regulation and self-efficacy.
Your children’s book, Every Super Part of Me, is such a creative take on sensory sensitivity and emotional intelligence. What was the inspiration behind it?
I wrote this book based on a lot of my own teaching experience. I have had children who are sensory seeking and needed a lot of support in emotional intelligence, but I didn’t have enough resources for them because there were very few books that tell a simple story around that topic to young children. That’s why I decided to write it myself, and it turned out that children are very interested in reading stories that are close to their real life experiences.
How do you balance culturally responsive teaching with universal child development practices, especially in diverse or global classrooms?
I don’t think these two teaching methods are against each other, because to be able to conduct universal child development practice, you need to know the cultural backgrounds and learning needs of each child and be able to customize your practices to the diverse needs of the group. For example, when I am teaching culture, I will talk about it through food, houses, languages, clothing, races, and ethnicities with them. Another example would be with children that have special needs—I will make sure there are materials in the classroom that they can practice independently or with someone’s help.
You’ve worked with families and conducted user testing for educational toys—what are some insights you’ve gained from listening to parents and children directly?
Parents and children have different needs and considerations when it comes to user testing for educational toys. While parents usually think about the sustainability, prices, and functions of the toys, children always think about the appearances, characters, and themes first. Something they share in common would be the engagement and proper difficulty level, which usually brings the popularity of certain toys.
What advice would you give to new teachers (or parents!) who want to create more joyful, meaningful learning environments at home or in school?
Start with simple things that are closely related to daily life and observe how children interact with them. Adapt the environment constantly according to the changes in children’s needs as they grow or learn. Used milk boxes can be great resources for building a house or making a birdhouse; paper rolls are great for stacking games or puppet making. Maybe splashing paint on big paper doesn’t mean anything to you, but to children, such messy play gives them a great level of satisfaction and inspires their creativity a lot.
What’s one small but powerful change you wish more educators or toy designers would make when working with young children?
I wish people who are working with children or designing products for children could make long-lasting curriculum or toys that don’t need to have bright colors or complex parts—but instead have simple and fun content that can provide children with inspiration and motivation for learning.
