My First Desk: How One Idea is Growing Into a Movement

People often ask me where the idea for My First Desk came from.

The truth is, it didn't begin with a box.

It began over 20 years ago when a first grade teacher asked me to evaluate a little girl who was struggling in handwriting and reading. “She cannot even write her name!” she told me, exasperated. I pulled a chair up next to the child and decided we would start at the beginning. I placed a pencil in front of her and asked her to pick it up. Her grasp was immature and lacked strength and movement to control the pencil. I gave her a full sheet of paper and asked her to write a large “T”, the first letter of her name. She did not know where to begin, so I told her to put her pencil at the top of the paper and draw a straight line down. She did not know where the top of the paper was. Her lack of vocabulary, basic concepts, and fine motor skills required us to take a huge step back and start at a pre-school level. I did not even attempt letter writing with her until we spent two months of targeted activities to build upper body strength, hand dexterity, and basic concept formation, such as the difference between the top and bottom on a piece of paper. By Christmas, she was writing her name as well as short sentences and she was beginning to read.

As a pediatric occupational therapist, I spent my career helping children who were struggling with skills that actually begin developing long before kindergarten. The more families I worked with, the more I realized something important: teachers, caregivers and parents wanted to help, but they often didn't know what to do, when to do it, or why it mattered.

That realization led me to create STEM Starts Now, a digital program that guides families through child development from birth with simple, research-based activities delivered at just the right time. The program was built around one belief: kindergarten readiness doesn't start at age five; it starts at birth.

In 2021, a school administrator contacted me and asked me what else I could provide to incoming kindergarteners to help bring their skillset up to snuff. I spent some time interviewing teachers, parents, and school administrators and I learned a lot!

Families wanted hands-on activities they could easily do together. Teachers wanted something that reinforced the foundational skills children need before they ever sit down in a kindergarten classroom. Community organizations wanted a meaningful way to invest in children. Schools wanted resources grounded in research, not worksheets.

That's when the first kindergarten readiness boxes were born. I called them STEM Starts Now Countdown to Kindergarten. It includes a 6 month curriculum from March (kindergarten registration) to September with over 25 activities and all of the items for the activities included in the box.

Over the past five years, I have assembled over 2,000 kindergarten readiness boxes in my garage and had the privilege of putting them into the hands of children in two local school districts every March. It has been a thrill to see the genuine excitement on their face as they receive their own box of treasures and activities.

Today, that idea has evolved into My First Desk.

More than a box, My First Desk is a complete kindergarten readiness workstation designed to make learning playful, purposeful, and accessible. The redesigned desk features a reusable dry-erase slant board, organized compartments for hands-on materials, a parent guide filled with more than 50 simple activities, and carefully selected tools that build fine motor skills, early literacy, early math, problem-solving, creativity, executive functioning, and independence—all through play.

Every item has a purpose. Every activity builds multiple developmental skills at once. Every curriculum decision came from years of working directly with children and families.

Perhaps what excites me most is that My First Desk can meet children wherever they are.

Schools can use it to strengthen kindergarten readiness efforts. Early childhood organizations can provide it to families they serve. Businesses and community partners can sponsor My First Desk to give children in their communities a stronger start. Parents can feel confident knowing they don't need to be teachers to help their children start kindergarten ready. They simply need the right tools and a few minutes each day.

The mission has never changed.

Whether it was STEM Starts Now, the original readiness boxes, or now My First Desk, my goal has always been the same: to give every child the opportunity to enter kindergarten confident, capable, curious, and excited to learn.

Because when we invest in children before they ever walk through the school doors, we don't just prepare them for kindergarten. We prepare them for a lifetime of learning.