John Dewey proposed a transactive educational process in which personal experiences and development interacted with curriculum in order to transform the learner and the learning procedure. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate ways in which some of Dewey's concepts of progressive education provide a theoretical rationale for the increasing use of early childhood education community-based curriculum. Dewey's original writings on children and curriculum were used as the basis for this discussion. It is argued that, with the support of educational continuity, a predisposition to form habits and the ability to form contextual images, young children construct their own knowledge through experiences in community-based curriculum. (Author/HOD)