This guide provides information and strategies for Kentucky parents to become better partners in the education of their primary school children. Chapter 1 of the guide outlines a typical school day for a primary school student in Kentucky. Chapter 2 explains how children learn and how instruction will change as Kentucky schools move toward greater…

This practicum paper reports on a project undertaken to enhance the knowledge of age-appropriate learning for parents of 3-year-old preschoolers. The project implemented a variety of techniques and strategies to improve parent knowledge, including parent education classes, a monthly newsletter for parents that addressed current research on…

This booklet is a printed edition of a talk given to parents of children at The Aquinas Montessori School (Alexandria, Virginia) in 1966, when the school was newly opened. Later, at the request of parents, the booklet was prepared and used for parent education and information by many other Montessori schools and organizations. The booklet…

The program "Teen STAR (Sexuality Teaching in the context of Adult Responsibility)" begins by helping young people understand the woman's cyclic and the man's constant fertility in order to encourage pre-marital abstinence in adolescents. Students then discover the values of fertility and begin to derive the norms that govern possessing it.…

This study compared end-of-year standardized test scores (CAT) of 204 children in 6 developmentally appropriate and 6 developmentally inappropriate kindergarten classes. Particular attention was given to the effects on test scores of the interaction of classroom type with sex, socioeconomic status, and race. Relationships between children's CAT…

Practical tips for improving the quality of child care are offered in this guide. It presents early childhood research findings in everyday language and suggests ways to apply these findings with active learning experiences for children. Developmentally appropriate, holistic activities are presented for key areas. The first five parts of the book…

An intervention project sought to lower the grade retention rates of kindergarten, first-, and second-grade students in one New Jersey school district. During three school years, 1987-1990, the retention rate was 7 percent of the total population of these grades. An exploration of causes identified several possible factors, including: (1) lack of…

This guide contains developmentally appropriate movement activities designed to help teachers of children ages 3 through 5 plan and administer a successful movement education program. The book is organized into three parts. The first part presents a model upon which teachers can base their selection of physical activities for children, addresses…

This paper offers a summary analysis of 4 years of interviews with 1,003 kindergarten and first through third grade teachers regarding their experience in teaching either a small class, a regular size class, or a regular size class with a full-time teacher's aide. The paper uses teachers' descriptions of their experience to explore the effect of…

This paper presents Rudolf Steiner's maturational readiness theory of human physiopsychology and comments on education in the Waldorf Schools. Discussion asserts that Steiner's concept of human development is complex and that intensive study is required for even a superficial understanding of "the four members of man": the physical,…

This paper emphasizes the importance of music as an integral part of the education of the young child, and draws attention to a few ways in which parents and teachers can contribute to children's musical development. Sections of the paper focus on seven questions: (1) Is music really universal? (2) When should musical training begin? (3) When…

The paper describes the GEL (Guidelines for Early Learning) Program developed by the Easter Seal Society of Southwest Florida which serves children, aged 4-6 years, with language, learning, and/or developmental problems. Developmental theories of Piaget and Chomsky and the model of David Weikart's High Scope Program were used to develop the GEL…

In recent years, strategies for multicultural education and human relations have been applied to progressively younger preschool children. This paper identifies five approaches to multicultural education, then goes on to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the predominant human relations approach. Challenging issues encountered in applying…

A developmentally appropriate creative writing program for kindergarten children that included peer interaction and teacher-student discussion was studied to ascertain whether program participants would attain significantly higher oral language scores than did nonparticipants. The writing program was implemented in one of two half-day kindergarten…

The Research in Practice Series is published four times each year by Early Childhood Australia. The series aims to provide practical, easy to read, up-to-date information and support to a growing national readership of early childhood workers. The books bring together the best information available on wide-ranging topics and are an ideal resource…