This guidance report offers early years professionals seven practical evidence-based recommendations to provide every child--but particularly those from disadvantaged homes--with a high quality and well-rounded grounding in early literacy, language and communication. One recommendation focuses on the importance of high quality interactions between…

Communities across the country are grappling with different approaches to improving their schools. Introducing or expanding charter schools is one of the approaches that states and school districts have considered or implemented. Charter schools serve more than 5 percent of public school students nationwide and make up close to 7 percent of all…

Moving beyond the usual genetic explanations for giftedness, Dr. James Campbell presents powerful evidence that it is parental involvement--very specific methods of working with and nurturing a child which increases the child's chances of being gifted. Based on his research with parents of more than 10,000 gifted children around the world,…

As part of a series of publications reporting the promising practices gleaned from pre-elementary Right to Read programs, this guidebook introduces its readers to the format used to describe the promising practices, provides statistical and descriptive information about the pre-elementary Right to Read programs, and describes each of the four…

Guidelines developed by the Austin Early Childhood Special Education Program are provided for training parents to observe and participate in the classroom. Described is a four-session program in which small groups of parents view a videotape, observe in a classroom other than their child's, and finally observe in their own child's classroom.…

Partnering with parents is essential if an early childhood program is to succeed. "From Parents to Partners" explores the reasons and methods for developing ongoing partnerships with parents and other family members. It also provides the tools and strategies needed to build the communication and support networks within which these partnerships…

This book, intended for parents and teachers of preschoolers, provides suggestions to help children prepare to read. Chapters include investigations of the parents' role, of the right experiences to build reading readiness, and of learning through games. The major portion of the book is devoted to description of visual and listening games; for…

This book has been developed to furnish teachers and parents with ideas for activities and games which aid children in the transition from oral language to printed language for reading and math. These games are designed to provide children with activities and experiences that increase vocabularies and make them useful in communication, language…

Describes the National Park Service's Environmental Living Program for elementary school children in the San Francisco Bay Area, where teachers, parents, and children stay overnight in a historic fort and schooner, experience living in a past age, use candles and oil stoves, and engage in mock military and shipboard activities. (MF)

This booklet presents three brief papers which focus on movement activities, transition activities, and incorporating parental assistance in preschool classrooms. "Let's Get Moving" suggests many circle, imagery, and mime exercises, for individuals, pairs, or groups of children. "Tips on Handling Transition Times" offers…

This guide begins with a story about the parents of twin kindergartners. The story models ways in which the parents of Mike and Chris help them learn to read, such as reading the newspaper together with them and asking them questions about the books they are reading. Included is another short story parents can read with their child, and a list of…

Designed to give parents an overview of reading and some suggestions on how they can help their children, this guide has been used in parent classes and workshops throughout Illinois since 1976. The nine sections of the guide cover the following areas: a general definition of reading, some causes of reading difficulty, various techniques used in…

This Toolkit is meant to be a resource for teachers, parents, and administrators involved with two-way immersion (TWI) programs, particularly those at the elementary level. Two-way immersion is a form of dual language instruction that brings together students from two native language groups for language, literacy, and academic content instruction…

Parents are the child's first and most important teacher. This booklet begins with a story about the parent of a first grade reader. The parent in the story models methods which a real life parent could employ to help a child learn to read such as finding words that begin with the first letter of a child's name, or taking turns with the child…

This booklet describes a home and school curriculum for young children developed by the Tucson, Arizona, Parent and Child Education Project (PACE). The curriculum is divided into three main areas to prepare children for every day living and later school learning: The Child, The Child and the Immediate Environment, and The Child and Special Skills.…