Early Childhood Education

This enduring classic of educational thought offers teachers and parents deep, original insight into the nature of early learning. John Holt was the first to make clear that, for small children, "learning is as natural as breathing." In this delightful yet profound book, he looks at how we learn to talk, to read, to count, and to reason, and how we can nurture and encourage these natural abilities in our children.

Oh Crap! I Have a Toddler is about doing more with less - and bringing real childhood back from the brink of overscheduled, overstimulated helicopter parenting. With her signature down-and-dirty friend-to-friend advice, Jamie is here to help you experience the joy of parenting again and giving your child - and yourself - the freedom to let them grow at their own pace and become who they are.

In this book, Greg Bottrill explores how he ensures that, in his Early Years setting, continuous provision enables children. He shares his Early Years pedagogy through the "3Ms" and explains how to apply these in the classroom. Greg also explores the definition of play - what it is and what it isn’t - and the challenging role of the Early Years teacher.

50 Risks to Take with Your Kids is an easy-to-use framework of challenges for children aged up to 10. You’ll find risks that build physical skills, social confidence and character development, plus some all-important parenting risks that will encourage you to think a little differently about raising children. This book is not about developmental KPIs, and it’s certainly not about judgement. It’s about teaching kids to recognise and assess risk before they enter those ‘risky’ teenage years and about readying them to take on life and all that it brings.

After 35 years as an education consultant, Rae Pica knows the importance of understanding the natural course of child development. In this collection, she keeps kids front and center as she provides thought-provoking commentary and actionable insights on topics such as the Common Core, the self-esteem movement, and standardized testing.

Play is how children explore, discover, fail, succeed, socialize, and flourish. It is a fundamental element of the human condition. It's the key to giving schoolchildren skills they need to succeed. Expert organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Centers for Disease Control agree that play and physical activity are critical foundations of childhood, academics, and future skills - yet politicians are destroying play in childhood education.

Today, something is going to happen to an innocent child. Tomorrow, that child will walk into their school. What happens next will impact the rest of their life. What is this powerful event? Childhood trauma. Most students will experience some form of emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, neglect, family dysfunction, racism, homelessness, or poverty by their 18th birthday. If left untreated, their traumatic experience may have lasting implications on their physical and mental health and their success in school.

Since opening her famed Parisian conservatory over three decades ago, Joan Koenig has led a global movement to improve children’s lives and minds with the transformative power of music. With a curriculum and philosophy drawn from cutting-edge science, L’Ecole Koenig has educated and empowered even the youngest students. Koenig shares stories from her classrooms, along with tips about how to use the latest research during these critical years, when children are most sensitive to musical exposure—and most receptive to its benefits.

One of the key benefits of phonological awareness instruction is its ability to support typical listeners. By providing explicit and systematic instruction in phonological awareness, educators can help students develop strong phonemic awareness skills, which are crucial for decoding words, understanding spelling patterns, and developing fluency. This, in turn, leads to improved reading comprehension and overall literacy skills.

When Dr. Michaeleen Doucleff became a mother, she examined the studies behind modern parenting guidance and found that the evidence was frustratingly limited, and the conclusions often ineffective. She began to wonder if an opposite approach was needed – one founded on traditional wisdom, like the knowledge and experience passed down over hundreds, even thousands, of years within ancient cultures.

This new edition of a classic is the go-to reference for anyone concerned with the developmental progress of preschool children. It provides the knowledge required for understanding children's developmental progress with age and within each developmental domain. Including new sections on atypical development for each of the core domains of development and additional material on the development of attention and self-regulation, this fifth edition integrates findings from the latest research throughout.

Child starting school? A Happy Start to School is a fun and original audiobook to socially, emotionally, and practically prepare children around the world for starting school. Written and narrated by positive psychology author Amba Brown, it's a playful and engaging resource for every child starting to wonder about starting school and needing that little bit of support, encouragement or insight into school life.

Confidence, emotional intelligence and resilience are vital to children's mental well-being, and this book gives early years practitioners all the tools they need to promote these skills in young children. The book explores how three approaches - Growth Mindset, Forest School and Multiple Intelligences - can be key to building these skills.

At the heart of this groundbreaking book are two urgent questions: What do our young children need in the earliest years of school, and how do we ensure that they all get it? Cutting-edge research has proven that early childhood education is crucial for all children to gain the academic and emotional skills they need to succeed later in life. Children who attend quality pre-K programs have a host of positive outcomes including better language, literacy, problem solving, and math skills down the line.

In this short audiobook Paula Eleta explores the theme of the value of the puppet in the pedagogical field, mainly in early childhood (zero-six years), as an effective tool to improve the quality of the educational service through play. Under the direction of the educator, the puppet can become an excellent ”assistant” to build new educational contexts, able to offer all those who live in the services different accesses to a common and shared space.

Dr Shefali teaches us how to control our expectations, embrace the present moment and let go of the anxiety surrounding how best to parent our children. Become the awakened parent you've always wanted to be and watch your children thrive. All parents have aspirations for their children, but for some these hopes turn into unrealistic expectations. In many cases, this puts huge amounts of pressure on children and has the potential to cause real harm, hindering your child's development.

For over fifteen years, researchers have described a crisis in our nations' early learning classrooms. Hundreds of children are expelled from childcare and preschool every day; a rate nearly three times that of kindergarten-twelfth grade students. Each child's expulsion is symptomatic of a larger crisis—an overburdened, underfunded, undervalued, and fragmented early education system. No Longer Welcome starts a critical conversation between and across sectors of the early childhood field.

In Preschool Clues, Angela shares the latest research from top thinkers in child development and education. Through her practical, straightforward advice and inspiring, conversational approach, you will not only understand exactly what your children are learning from the shows they watch and why these shows are so effective; you’ll know exactly how to apply these same proven approaches in your daily life and with the same powerful results.

Do you want your child to get the very best start in their education, even before they go to school? Have you considered Montessori as the way forward and want to implement it at home? This audiobook is an essential guide to get you started! The Montessori approach to child development has been tried and tested for over 100 years and the results speak for themselves. Children are naturally engaged, thoughtful, resilient, and curious about the world around them and the Montessori method taps into that in ways that other methods cannot.

Save the birds! Save the trees! That's what the cubs are saying around Bear Country. If Squire Grizzly gets his way and cuts down the trees in Birder's Woods, the yellow popinjays will have nowhere to rest. They could disappear forever. It's up to the cubs to save this important part of nature before it's too late!