Considers homework as an issue in the effort to define children's role as active participants in their lives. Notes the tension created as children attempt to find a place for themselves in their families and schools, the debates about children's rights, and the prescriptive approach of public policy toward homework. (JPB)

This study of 197 eminent Canadian women on the dynamics of their childhood families, investigated their perceptions of having a special status or role. Over three-quarters indicated they were considered special within their families. They attributed it to their birth order, scholastic achievement, condition of health, or display of talents.…

Understanding children's experience is increasingly a key purpose of much educational research. In contrast to traditional approaches to the study of children that emphasized the socialization of children through various stages of development, researchers within the social constructionism perspective begin with an insistence that childhood is a…

Discusses ideas from Vygotsky, Leont'ev and Bakhtin to show how fantasy play acts as its own zone of proximal development that contributes to the development of symbolic mediation, the appropriation of social roles and symbols, and the preschool child's preparation for elementary school. (JPB)

Presents an annotated bibliography for children in kindergarten through grade six. The titles in this bibliography focus not on world problems but more on the child's everyday world, particularly in the home and community. They positively strengthen and reinforce children's own world views and illustrate active roles children can play. (BB)

Children are increasingly recognised by geographers and other social scientists as independent actors who make valuable (albeit often overlooked) economic contributions to households and society. Hausa children in rural Northern Nigeria are highly mobile and play important economic roles supporting married women who spend much time in their walled…

Discusses how marketers are targeting children as a consumer segment. Highlights include advertising budgets and media, how children spend their money, the more influential role of the child in the family, in-school marketing, controversial advertising on Channel One, marketing on the Internet, and parental control. (AEF)

Engagement and integration increase when children have an opportunity to investigate something of great interest to them and have a say in what they learn about the topic. Helm explains how to use webs to introduce required concepts and skills and integrate standards in the project approach. She walks readers through five steps to making an…

Highlights points that guide the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education: the learner is a social being who possesses rights and is an active constructor of knowledge; the instructors' role is one of collaborator and co-learner, guiding and facilitating, as well as researching; and knowledge is socially constructed, encompassing…

Explores the family life of slaves from the perspective of the enslaved family who developed strategies to help them endure bondage. Addresses the experience of these families, focusing on topics such as the economic activities slaves participated in to improve their material conditions and the role of children within the family. (CMK)

Increased recognition of the effects of reciprocal influences in the behavior of parents and their offspring may result in children's improved well-being through the enhancement of parent effectiveness, dissolution of the notion that the parent is totally reponsible for the child's behavior, and active parental leadership and guidance. (Author/GC)

Compares responses to the issue of children caring for ill or disabled family members in the 1990s to resistance encountered in the implementation of child labor and education reforms toward the end of the nineteenth century. Discusses parallel ways in which the quality of childhood became problematized without sufficient recognition of the…

Summer outings can be fun if parents let children make the plans. Children can plan outings and learn valuable skills if parents let them gather the information, map and direct the route, plan a picnic, make an agenda, list necessary items, pack the car, plan activities, and learn by doing. (SM)

Studies alternate custody arrangements: joint custody and father custody. Interviews indicate that joint custody decisions are an outgrowth of prior parent-child relationships. The children interviewed asserted that their best interests are served when they participate in the custody decision-making. (Author/JAC)

To test the theory that children's behavioral cues influence adult responses to them, responses of a mother sample and a student sample to children depicted in danger and nondanger situations were analyzed. Significant differences in types of responses were examined for their implications for the training of child caregivers. (Author/SK)