Describes the schoolyard habitat movement and why young children need experiences in natural environments. Focuses on reasons for the loss of children's natural habitat and former habitats. Explores bio-psychological, environmental, and developmental reasons for restoring natural habitats to children. Outlines the efforts of the school habitat…

Discusses how providing developmentally appropriate choices to toddlers can prevent conflicts during caregiving tasks and daily routines in child care settings. Emphasizes maintaining a balance between children's needs and adult issues of time and space. Notes the importance of examining one's feelings and values to increase awareness of one's…

Discusses developmental stages of teachers' careers and corresponding concerns, focusing on consolidation and renewal. Suggests goals relative to the consolidation and renewal stages and notes the importance of developmentally sensitive supervision, including observation, feedback, collaborative strategies, and reflective journals. Recommends that…

Examines ways to increase the effectiveness of partnerships between schools, families, and communities. Recommends using smarter communication, making the school more welcoming to families and communities, reaching out to reluctant families, enlisting parents and community agencies to help educate children, and helping families obtain support for…

Describes experiences of two early childhood teacher educators during their self-study of the design and implementation of intensive summer courses focused on preschool education in a diverse society. Notes that courses incorporated active learning principles to facilitate reflective teaching and that course participants identified components that…

Reviews current thinking about the optimal organization and delivery of child care and other family support programs, focusing on how child care services in selected Canadian provinces and other countries have been coordinated with other services. Presents theoretical and conceptual frameworks informing current thinking about organization and…

Examined views of Singapore parents from eight day care centers towards day care quality and used the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale to compare parental and professional views of quality. Found that parents rated care and safety provisions as more important than educational programs and almost half the parents selected centers based on…

Describes the design and findings of the Victoria Day Care Research Project. Concludes that early day care experiences and family environments were associated with verbal abilities in early childhood and with competencies in early and late adolescence. Found that children from higher-resource families were most likely to have higher-quality day…

Examines issues of culture and identity, Canadian history and identity, and the relevance of these concepts as a curricular theme for early childhood preservice teachers and for young children. Compares the early childhood cultural experiences in Canada, Israel, and Britain. Delineates implications of understanding of the role of Canadian culture…

Maintains that Baxter and Read's book deals with controversial and contentious issues in a proactive manner and effectively challenges and stimulates attitudes, beliefs, and approaches to working with children with special needs. Notes that the use of labels shows how entrenched professionals have become in a deficit-oriented model to describe…

Maintains that Pica's resource book is an excellent guide for educators seeking new movement activities to perform with young children. Asserts that the organization of the book offers clear directions for the activities and proposes guidelines to transform the activities in interesting ways. Notes that the book sometimes does not provide specific…

Notes that Davidson's book provides an in-depth exploration of the contribution of dramatic play to emergent literacy and ways that teachers can implement play-based literacy learning. Maintains that the book has a balanced theoretical orientation, provides a sensitive treatment of intervention, presents a thoughtful treatment of oral and written…

Notes that Morrish's book reviews popular discipline practices, three building blocks of discipline, and methods for teaching children that rights and freedoms must be governed by reason, respect, and responsibility. Asserts that the book's examples span the home and school environments and that the book emphasizes proactive and preventive…

Notes that Yang's book provides a combination of Eastern and Western philosophy in defining values, aims, and methods of education, research, and teacher preparation programs. Maintains that the book presents important insights into current educational issues. Asserts that problems such as printing errors and significant flaws in arguments add to…

Examined the ways Canadian provincial and territorial policies address the inclusion of infants in multi-age early childhood education settings and the ways practitioners and licensing personnel interpret these policies. Noted policy patterns that affect the inclusion of infants and older children. Derived recommendations for policymakers and…