When children play, they often create a mess, but what a beautiful mess it is! "Creating a Beautiful Mess" describes the ten most important play experiences all children enjoy and how these experiences support learning, creativity, and social connections. These broad categories of play include building with blocks, pretending and make…

The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum in Ann Arbor, Michigan, encourages the natural curiosity of young people to explore, participate, and get involved in exhibits, demonstrations, and activities. Described are the museum's history, exhibits, programs, services, volunteers, resources, and affiliations. (JDD)

Goals of the Children's Museum of Boston are to encourage curiosity, skepticism, and realism while providing opportunities for discoveries and new insights. The museum addresses the needs of young children through adolescents by providing a multicultural environment and participatory learning centers. (JDD)

The inquiry approach of Discovery Place of Birmingham, Inc., in Birmingham, Alabama, invites children of all ages to explore the excitement of science, technology, art, and humanities. The educational resource center provides interactive exhibits, hands-on materials, teacher workshops, and family programs. (JDD)

This document plus diskette product provides nine interactive puzzles and games that both teach and provide practice with simple addition and subtraction concepts. The activities address these skills through carrying in addition and regrouping in subtraction. The activities address cognitive skills such as problem solving, planning, visual pattern…

Providing suggestions for parents and teachers, this anecdotal collection of an early childhood educator's experiences and insights emphasizes the importance of developing the decision-making capabilities of young children. Fundamentally, the discussion asserts that one of the major responsibilities of adults is to give children freedom to learn…