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The Ultimate Child Care Marketing Guide
by Kris MurrayBuilt around the four pillars of marketing-metrics, market, message, and media-this comprehensive resource is filled with guidance and advice from an experienced child care business coach and marketing consultant. The Ultimate Child Care Marketing Guide helps child care center directors and family child care owners manage and grow their child care business, find and retain the best customers, and keep their program fully enrolled. Filled with tools, exercises, and case studies, this resource will help early childhood professionals create a marketing plan, analyze strategies, improve customer and staff retention, and more.
Learning Together with Young Children
by Deb Curtis Margie CarterMany curriculum books treat teaching as something teachers do to or for children. Deb Curtis and Margie Carter, best-selling authors in the early learning field, believe teaching is a collaborative process in which teachers reexamine their own philosophies and practices while facilitating children's learning.Each chapter in this curriculum framework includes a conceptual overview followed by classroom stories and photographs to illustrate the concepts.The book helps teachers create materials and a classroom culture reflective of their values: Teach through observation, reflection, inquiry, and action, and encourage children to represent their learning in multiple ways, including songs, stories, and drama.
Developmentally Appropriate Play
by Gaye GronlundEnhance the depth and richness of children's play. Developmentally appropriate play is complex, long-lasting, and all-engaging for children. It requires facilitation and guidance, thoughtful planning, and attention to the environment and materials. Developmentally Appropriate Play follows the new Developmentally Appropriate Practice guidelines from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and includes information to help you:Identify and plan purposeful playGuide children to make choicesInteract with children to enhance playProvoke children into more complex playAdd representation to further enrich playIncorporate standards into play
Reflecting Children's Lives
by Deb Curtis Margie CarterMake the complex task of creating a child-centered curriculum easier with the practical guidelines and ideas in this updated and expanded handbook. Learn how to sharpen your observation and documentation skills, set up your space, and transform your teaching to reflect children's interests and needs. Insightful classroom stories, assessment tools, checklists, comparative charts, and activities encourage new approaches and self-reflection as you plan your curriculum and put it into practice. Addressing new standards in early education, two new chapters focus on teaching academics in a meaningful way and guiding children as they play and learn. Reflecting Children's Lives is your work in progress-use it to record the development of your own thinking and practice.
Come and Play
by Aerial CrossEarly intervention is vital in addressing and redirecting play challenges in young children. Each of five common play challenges--children who roam playrooms, play repetitiously, appear anxious, are detached, or are rejected by peers--are highlighted. Also included are sensory integration ideas and activities to promote positive and productive play.
The Unscripted Classroom
by Susan StaceyEmergent curriculum encourages early childhood educators to use creativity and flexibility as they respond to classroom challenges and children's interests. Filled with case studies and stories from toddler and preschool teachers about their experiences responding to events in their own classrooms, The Unscripted Classroom provides inspiration for educators to step out of their usual scripts and try something new. A review of the emergent curriculum philosophy and an examination of the many ways creativity in teaching benefits children are included. This resource complements Emergent Curriculum in Early Childhood Settings: From Theory to Practice by the same author.
Including One, Including All
by Cassandra Britton Todd Wanerman Leslie RoffmanInclusive early childhood settings benefit all children, whether or not they have identified special needs. Including One, Including All provides theoretical, conceptual, and practical information on relationship-based, inclusive practices for early childhood classrooms, an approach that strengthens every child and supports the child's behavioral, emotional, social, and learning challenges. Written by a team of professionals who are known for their successful work using this model, Including One, Including All includes blueprints for organizing this important work with children and their families and addresses the challenges and rewards of inclusion in early childhood classrooms, and chronicles the experiences of two children with special needs in early childhood settings.
Ants in Their Pants
by Aerial CrossFrom sunup to sundown, "extra busy" children have an endless supply of energy and remain on the move throughout the day. Ants in Their Pants offers successful and tested techniques to help caregivers, educators, and parents provide the best support to active learners so they can thrive in the classroom and at home. These ideas--from a teacher of both special and general education who is a parent of an extra busy child--provide information on how to help extra busy children use their energy to learn while helping teacher understand children who need to move.
Lens on Outdoor Learning
by Wendy Banning Ginny SullivanThe outdoors is full of rich learning experiences for preschool and pre-kindergarten children. Lens on Outdoor Learning is filled with stories and colorful photographs that illustrate how the outdoors supports children's early learning. Each story is connected to an early learning standard such as curiosity and initiative; engagement and persistence; imagination, invention, and creativity; reasoning and problem-solving; risk-taking, responsibility, and confidence; reflection, application, and interpretation; and flexibility and resilience. Much of the teaching in these experiences is indirect and involves provisioning, observing, and conversing with children as they spend quality time in nature. Children's dialogue and actions are included in each story to show just how engaged they became during these experiences. Lens on Outdoor Learning will inspire early childhood professionals to use this outdoor approach in their own setting.Wendy Banning is coordinator of Irvin Learning Farm, an inquiry-based, hands-on outdoor learning space for children and adults in North Carolina. She is also an educational consultant, teacher, trainer, and photographer.Ginny Sullivan is co-principal of Learning by the Yard, a partnership of landscape architects and educators that helps schools develop their grounds as habitat, focusing on native plants. Ginny consults, trains teachers, and involves schools and centers in the design of their outdoor spaces to help children learn about the natural world.
Nature Sparks
by Aerial CrossNature has monumental power on children's growth and development. Recent studies show that as children spend less time in nature, they miss out on the profound benefits that outdoor play and learning experiences provide.Nature Sparks is filled with inspiration and instruction to help educators and caregivers of children ages three to eight reclaim and strengthen connections to the outdoors. This resource supplies ideas to create a nature-oriented classroom and curriculum, incorporates Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences to encourage children's individual talents as they experience the natural world, and includes more than fifty sensory-integrated activities, crafts, and instructional strategies.
Celebrate Nature!
by Angela Schmidt FishbaughMake nature an integral part of the classroom! With rising childhood obesity rates and children's heavy use of electronics, the need for quality time in nature is greater than ever. Put away gadgets, turn off screens, and discover all that the natural world has to offer.Celebrate Nature! is filled with hands-on activities to revive children's connections with nature. Each seasonal section-autumn, winter, spring, and summer-introduces seven themes with countless ways to integrate nature into the classroom. Chapters encourage reflection of your own memories of the seasons and provide activities that address science and discovery, math, blocks and building, language arts, reading, writing, dramatic play, art, and music. Also included are sample letters and suggested at-home activities to support family participation in this important learning.Angela Schmidt Fishbaugh is a pre-kindergarten teacher and certified K-12 art teacher. She leads workshops and seminars focused on the topics of balance, wellness, and educating today's youth.
Building Brains
by Suzanne R. GellensBuilding Brains expands young children's learning with six hundred brain-based, developmentally appropriate activity ideas. It combines the latest information on brain development with activities that support children's learning and enrich any early childhood curriculum. Rather than step-by-step activities, Building Brains is filled with open-ended ideas that early child professionals can execute in a variety of ways, depending on children's needs and interests. Ideas are organized by age-from age zero to five-and learning domains.
Prove It!
by Miriam Dressler Rachel RobertsonPursuing third-party endorsements and accreditation is a significant undertaking for child care centers and preschools. Prove It! guides practitioners through the process of preparation, connecting criteria to classroom practices--including hygiene practices, quality interactions, quality learning opportunities and environments, and diversity--while maintaining high standards of care and quality.
So This Is Normal Too?
by Deborah HewittTattling, aggression, and temper tantrums are examples of "normal" behaviors that can be difficult for teachers, caregivers, and families to handle. If ignored, these behaviors can grow into difficult, unappealing habits. So This Is Normal Too? Second Edition focuses on how teachers can observe and identify children who need more specific support and provides effective and practical solutions to guide children as they learn new skills and improve behaviors. Filled with child development information on twenty-one skills and behaviors, this resource links early learning standards to behavior and skill challenges. It also includes action planning forms and family handouts.
The Early Sprouts Cookbook
by Karrie Kalich Lynn Arnold Carole RussellDiscover delicious new ways to provide healthy meals in preschool settings. Packed with more than seventy breakfast, lunch, snack, and special celebration recipes, this hands-on cookbook promotes the development of healthy eating habits in young children. Anchored by wholesome ingredients, these recipes are nutritionally sound, follow federal dietary guidelines, and are all child-tested and approved. Nutrition information, food safety procedures, tips for cooking with children, and colorful photographs of completed recipes are included.This cookbook complements Early Sprouts: Cultivating Healthy Food Choices in Young Children, a complete nutrition and gardening curriculum to help preschoolers develop preferences for healthy foods.
Keeping Your Smile
by Jeff A. JohnsonFilled with warmth, humor, and honesty, Keeping Your Smile is a resource for anyone who cares for children and who wants to manage their own stress, tension, or anxiety before burnout becomes an overarching obstacle in their daily interactions with children. Jeff A. Johnson, a child care professional who wrote about his own burnout in Finding Your Smile Again, offers strategies, activities, tips, and tools help caregivers and educators work with children with passion and maintain a satisfying career in the field. Included are profiles of several professionals who have experienced burnout and survived to become stronger, better care providers.
Let Them Play
by Denita Dinger Jeff A. JohnsonPlaytime is focused, purposeful, and full of learning. As they play, children master motor development, learn language and social skills, think creatively, and make cognitive leaps. This (un)curriculum is all about fostering children's play, trusting children as capable and engaged learners, and leaving behind boxed curriculums and prescribed activities. Filled with information on the guiding principles that make up an (un)curriculum, learning experience ideas, and suggestions for building strong emotional and engaging physical environments, Let Them Play provides support to those who believe in the learning power of play.Jeff A. Johnson spent twenty-five years as a child care provider in center- and home-based programs. He now works full time as an author, keynote speaker, podcaster, toymaker, and early learning advocate. He is the author or coauthor of six other Redleaf Press books.Denita Dinger has been a child care provider for more than fifteen years and operates a family child care program. For the last five years, she has been a frequent keynote speaker at early childhood conferences, focusing on the topics of hands-on learning and learning through play.
Finding Your Smile Again
by Jeff A. JohnsonUsing warmth and humor, this book offers techniques for dealing with the everyday stress of being a childcare professional. Written by a caregiver who's been there, it describes the symptoms and causes of burnout, with advice to get through each challenge.
Babies in the Rain
by Jeff A. JohnsonThere are many ways parents and caregivers can help children thrive in their earliest years of life. Babies in the Rain explains the theories behind the best practices for infant and toddler care as well as preferred methods for doing so. In a personable, humorous voice, Jeff A. Johnson shares his own stories about the amazing ways infants and toddlers learn. He offers valuable information on how to spend quality time with young children by building strong emotional environments, nurturing meaningful relationships, and promoting child-centered, age-appropriate learning.
Healthy Children, Healthy Lives
by Rachel Robertson Sharon BergenHealthy Children, Healthy Lives helps improve the wellness of children, families, and early childhood professionals in early childhood programs. This series of checklists covers six components of wellness-nutrition and healthy eating habits; physical activity and fitness; emotional health and resilience; healthy care practices; safety and risk management; and leadership, management, and administration. Each research-based checklist provides built-in guidance for improvement, complements any high-quality curriculum, and aims to contribute to children's ability to thrive and experience joy in life and learning.
Early Childhood Activities for a Greener Earth
by Patty Born SellyMore than 100 classroom activities to help children learn about and care for the earthEducate young children about the environment through experience and play. These activities encourage children to develop a sense of wonder, curiosity, and joy for nature. Each chapter focuses on a common and important environmental topic-from waste reduction and recycling to air quality, weather and climate change, and energy reduction-and provides information to help you present these topics to children in developmentally appropriate ways. Early Childhood Activities for a Greener Earth will help you excite children, engage families, and encourage your community to be green.Early Childhood Activities for a Greener Earth is a 2014 Teachers' Choice Award for the Classroom winner!
From Handprints to Hypotheses
by Todd WanermanCreativity, initiative, and inquiry are important in all children's early education, including toddlers and two-year-olds. This book focuses on using the project approach-a teaching strategy that enables educators and caregivers to guide children through in-depth studies of real world topics-to scaffold very young children's early learning. It provides information on creating sensory-based experiences-developmentally appropriate for toddlers and twos-that bring new perspectives and activities into the classroom.Todd Wanerman has been teaching toddlers and twos for twenty years. He is the coauthor of Including One, Including All.
Theories of Childhood, Second Edition
by Carol Garhart MooneyExamine the work of five groundbreaking education theorists-John Dewey, Maria Montessori, Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, and Lev Vygotsky-in relation to early childhood. Theories of Childhood provides a basic introduction to each theorist and explains the relationship of theory to practice and its impact on real children, teachers, and classrooms. This edition reflects current academic learning standards and includes new understandings of Vygotsky's work. It is a popular guide to help early childhood professionals be aware of the theories behind good child care practices. It is also a widely-used text in undergraduate programs, community college courses, and training workshops that focus on early development and education.Carol Garhart Mooney has been an early childhood educator for more than forty years. She is also the author of Theories of Attachment, Use Your Words, and Swinging Pendulums.
The Art of Awareness, Second Edition
by Deb Curtis Margie CarterLearning to closely observe children requires commitment to systematic study and ongoing practice. With activities, experiences, and stories, this book provides that opportunity. Nine observation study sessions help educators of young children discover the many ways that being observant can enhance their teaching. Updates to this second edition reflect current issues in early childhood education, including learning standards, assessment, and technology.Deb Curtis and Margie Carter are popular presenters at early childhood conferences, professional development speakers, and on-site consultants. They have written several books together, including Learning Together with Young Children and Designs for Living and Learning.
Planning for Play, Observation, and Learning in Preschool and Kindergarten
by Gaye GronlundPlay is an important vehicle for learning in the early years. With intentional planning frameworks, this resource provides teachers with tools and strategies to organize and develop curriculum around high-level, purposeful play. Practical application techniques help teachers create a cycle of planning and observation as they use a play-based curriculum to help young children thrive in the classroom.Gaye Gronlund is an early childhood education consultant who trains early childhood educators across the country. She is the author of six books.