Early Childhood Education

Parents will appreciate Creating a Beautiful Mess because it's fun and helpful. This book isn't about parenting rights or wrongs; it's about playful, joyous play experiences for childhood that are universal. It boils down the essential play experiences in an accessible, practical, and easy way. The chapters represent an optimal balance among experiences that support learning, provide physical activity, encourage creative expression, and promote social and family connections.Ann Gadzikowski is an early childhood educator and the author of several books. She is a frequent presenter at professional conferences on the topics of both early childhood education and gifted education.

Finding faulty assumptions -- Brain science for non-neurologists -- How we know what we know -- Nurturing our nature -- Arts smarts -- Music matters -- The bach effect -- Implications for education -- Curricular considerations -- Creating complex curriculum for the crib and beyond.

Shows teachers how to incorporate the Project Approach into early childhood and elementary curricula, engaging children intellectually and heightening their capacities for thinking, hypothesizing, reasoning, and expressing their natural curiosity. * Presents the philosophical, theoretical, and research bases of project work that serve to explain how the Project Approach enables children to make better, more in-depth and accurate sense of their experiences and phenomena in their everyday environment * Includes descriptions of numerous projects implemented with children in a wide variety of settings to guide teachers through developing their own successful projects with children * Provides a comprehensively updated new edition of the well-known standard book on the Project Approach.

Why do some children succeed while others fail? The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs. But in this book the author argues that the qualities that matter most have more to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism, and self-control. The book introduces us to a new generation of researchers and educators who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel back the mysteries of character. Through their stories, and the stories of the children they are trying to help, the author traces the links between childhood stress and life success. He uncovers the surprising ways in which parents do, and do not, prepare their children for adulthood. And he provides us with new insights into how to help children growing up in poverty. Early adversity, scientists have come to understand, can not only affect the conditions of children's lives, it can alter the physical development of their brains as well. But now educators and doctors around the country are using that knowledge to develop innovative interventions that allow children to overcome the constraints of poverty. And with the help of these new strategies, as the author's reporting makes clear, children who grow up in the most painful circumstances can go on to achieve amazing things. This book has the potential to change how we raise our children, how we run our schools, how we construct our social safety net and also to change our understanding of childhood itself.

This book includes ideas from nine curricular areas - art, cooking, language, math, motor skills, music, science, social studies, and health, safety and nutrition. The ideas are made to not only teach the children in your care, but are also inexpensive and uncomplicated.

Play under siege : a historical overview / Edward F. Zigler and Sandra J. Bishop-Josef -- Development in the first years of life / Ross A. Thompson -- The roots and fruits of pretending / Marilyn Segal -- Real and not real : a vital developmental dichotomy / Brian Vandenberg -- School readiness and children's play : contemporary oxymoron or compatible option? / Sharon Lynn Kagan and Amy E. Lowenstein -- Fostering school achievement and creativity through sociodramatic play in the classroom / Jerome L. Singer and Mawiyah A. Lythcott -- Examining the play-literacy interface : a critical review and future directions / Kathleen Roskos and James Christie -- Play in the multicultural world of children : implications for adults / Barbara Bowman -- Revisiting shared meaning : looking through the lens of culture and linking shared pretend play through proto-narrative development to emergent literacy / Carollee Howes and Alison Gallwey Wishard -- Play and school readiness / Sue Bredekamp -- Encouraging school readiness through guided pretend games / Dorothy G. Singer and Jerome L. Singer.Includes bibliographical references and index.

Award-winning educator Allyn offers parents and caregivers essential advice on choosing appropriate titles for their children--taking into account a child's age, attention ability, gender, and interests--along with techniques for reading aloud effectively.

Introduces early childhood special education (ECSE), including its dynamics, laws, and current issues, and provides questions to promote discussion.

A comprehensive collection of the best art and craft activities for young children. The result of a nationwide competition, these art and craft activities are the best of the best. Just the thing to add pizzazz to your day! Activities include: Bath Sponge Painting, Blast-off Helmets, Bumby Snake, Candy Jewelry, Caterpillar Cookies, Cereal Box Tote Bag, Darling Daffodils, Dinosaur Sock Puppets, Dream Catcher, Ecology Art Creations

The Complete Resource Book is perfect to use as a planning guide or as a resource for responding to children's specific interests. The daily plans have circle time, music and movement activities, suggested books, and learning center ideas. The appendix is jam-packed with songs, recipes, and games. This book is like having a master teacher at your side for inspiration all year long.