This paper uses the work of some of the acknowledged geniuses of the 19th and 20th centuries to reflect upon the practices of educarers to encourage young children's creativity and exploratory thinking and to raise questions about philosophies of educare with infants and toddlers. Beginning and ending with Albert Einstein, the paper considers how the implications of quantum theory upon time can be used to challenge linear accounts of changing ideas of child development. The paper maintains that thinkers of the past can exercise great influence upon the interpretations of the present and upon efforts to shape the future. The theorists discussed in this paper include Einstein, Vygotsky, Froebel, Montessori, Steiner, Margaret McMillan, and Susan Isaacs. Further, the paper, which was presented in conjunction with a videotape, notes how use of the videotape medium brings about an illusory present, in which audience members have the possibility to join in making links between evanescent moment of practice and the inspiring work of great thinkers, whether inside or outside the world of educare and young children. (Contains 24 references.) (KB)