This digest discusses curriculum and teaching strategies for early childhood education which best serve children's long-term development. Two dimensions of development, normative and dynamic, are considered with respect to what children should be learning. Four categories of learning are identified, namely, knowledge, skills, feelings, and dispositions. Presented is the view that young children learn most effectively when engaged in interaction with others in the classroom, with materials, and with their surroundings. The risks of early academic instruction are examined, and the importance of using a variety of teaching methods in an informal setting is stressed. Suggested is an intellectually oriented approach in which children interact in small groups as they work together on projects which help them make sense of their own experience. (PCB)