This illustrated manual was written with the expectation of increasing parent involvement in children's early learning development. Concrete examples of things to do are offered in five basic areas in which parents can help prepare their preschool child for school: health care, language development, perceptual-motor development, social…

The Learning Booth, an educational product developed and tested by the Far West Laboratory, was designed to offer a young child (at kindergarten or first-grade level) an experience which enables the child to learn to solve problems and find answers independently. Other training materials enable users to set up and operate a learning booth for…

Part 1 of this paper considers conventional bilingual-bicultural programs, observing that there is still much need for improvement. According to the author, successful programs require adequate societal information; a clear understanding between school, home, and community; a satisfactory statement of basic program philosophy, rationale, goals,…

The appropriate age for starting school is discussed in relation to the ideas of Piaget, Hunt, and Moore. (SB)

Covert assessment strategies not usually reported in psychological testing are described and their implications for educational diagnosticians, school psychologists, and clinical psychologists are discussed. Covert assessment is a procedure which does not violate standardized testing procedures, but rather complements and enhances the assessment…

Addresses the pressures of early academic learning among young children and presents parents with three guidelines for pursuing early learning experiences: readiness, observation, and options. (BB)

Presents guidelines for parents and teachers on preparing young children (3 to 8 years old) for a visit to the art museum. In preparing children for museum experiences, education for the art museum should be related to child development, begin long before entering a museum ("museum education"), and be sequential. (BB)

Preschool intervention may be effective for economically disadvantaged children but not for middle-class children. Yet many preschool children need universally available day care. The best way to provide this would be to work with the schools. The author promotes the return to concept of the community school as a local center for all social…

Relates the belief that "shared reading" using big books will provide children with a meaningful introductin to reading. (DF)

This document is a description of the National Children's Study, the largest long-term study of children's health and development ever to be conducted in the United States. The National Children's Study reaffirms the federal government's commitment to the health and well being of children by drawing together the nation's top experts on child…

"Healthy School Meals: Promotion Ideas That Work" is a Minnesota program based on the USDA's Team Nutrition program. The program's goal is to improve the health of children through school meals and nutrition education. This is accomplished by empowering schools to serve meals meeting the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and motivating…

During 1998 and 1999, the Starting School Project at the University of Western Sydney-Macarthur conducted a survey across New South Wales (Australia) of parent and teacher opinions about children's successful transition to school. Survey responses were received from 240 teachers and 243 parents of young children. Respondents were grouped according…

Noting that many American children enter elementary school without a critical foundation of informal mathematical knowledge, this study examined the impact of a prekindergarten mathematics curriculum grounded in research on early mathematical cognition. A project-developed instrument, the Child Math Assessment, was used on a pre-post basis to…

Educators commonly recommend that children born during the summer months, especially boys, be given an extra year to mature before entering kindergarten so that they will not suffer from the academic disadvantages of being among the youngest children in a class. Terms such as "academic red-shirting" and "graying of the…

Research cited supports the conclusion that early childhood education should not be taken out of the home and placed in schools and day care centers. The risks of speeding up children's learning, the value of mothering and the contradictions between research and practical application are examined. (ST)