This curriculum handbook presents North Carolina's early childhood education program. Section I provides a holistic overview of young children's growth and development. Section II discusses key environments which affect children's learning. These include the home, school, and community. Various adult roles in the fostering of healthy developmental growth are identified, and cooperative relationships between home and school are highlighted. Section III describes the curriculum in terms of goals and activities. Facilitative strategies are contrasted with inappropriate strategies and examples from observation. Section IV focuses on planning in the child development center, and highlights the necessity of planning around observed interests and needs of children. Section V concerns the assessment of children, teachers, environments, materials, and the home-school partnership. Section VI provides a bibliography of 73 resources for adult learning and a list of 6 related programs. (RH)