In this article, the author talks about the importance of competence and how to be competent. Feeling competent is pretty important to a person in the places where he lives and works. Competence is also important to kids. That sense of "I can do it" fuels the child's drive to explore and succeed well. However, competence is always a moving target with children, because their cognitive and physical development race along and they continually struggle to integrate their emerging ideas and skills. The author suggests ways to support competence in early care and education environments and to evaluate and design the environment for competence.