Like many Montessori educators, the author was immediately drawn to the materials Maria Montessori designed for children in the conscious absorbent mind. They are simple, beautiful, and attractive to children. To many, including some parents, these materials are the essence of Montessori. However, Maria Montessori herself thought of her Method as…

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational programs and curricula are in vogue globally and are touted as optimal solutions for developing learners' future values, skills, and knowledge. But are they appropriate for early years learners such as babies (0-2 years), infants (2-3 years), preschoolers (3-5 years), and…

Four early childhood educators, along with a university researcher, describe their efforts to implement an antiracist, antibias curriculum in a daycare and preschool setting. Even very young children can learn important lessons about race, diversity, and equity, they argue, and teachers should not shy away from addressing these issues at staff…

This brief is an effort to explore the meaning of the word "curriculum" when applied to working with infants and toddlers. The idea for the brief emerged from the early childhood community--specifically two groups of applied researchers funded by the Administration for Children and Families, INQUIRE and NITR. [See insert box on page 12…

Observation is a useful tool, even in infant and toddler classrooms. Applied correctly, observation and assessment can help lay a foundation for a successful education throughout life. As appropriate practices are researched and policies change, teachers and caregivers of the youngest children (referred to as careteachers for this article) find…

Nurturing care in early childhood requires responsive interactions and opportunities to learn; however, there are few large-scale programs in low- and middle-income countries that support parents' ability to provide responsive care and activities that help children learn. The Reach Up training program was developed to increase capacity of…

Judi Orion, a Montessori expert on the birth-to-six plane of development, delivers a no-nonsense call to arms about the vital importance of the right beginning to set the stage for all that follows. Although we often hear and read about the period from birth to two-and-a-half years, Orion communicates the urgency of responding to the developmental…

What high expectations people place on their infants and toddlers who are just beginning to understand this great big world and all of its complexities! In an attempt to ensure that growth and learning occur, the fundamental needs of infants and toddlers are often pushed aside as people rush the young child to achieve the next developmental…

Five essential ideas or understandings that should underlie early childhood teacher education programs are discussed conceptually. Inquiry and reflection into practice are critical for continued teacher learning and development; learning and development are cultural and constructivist processes; the teacher's image of the child should be as a…

As coordinators of local early childhood coalitions working to improve the quality of early childhood programs, the authors had been looking for ways to support early childhood professionals in their efforts to strengthen partnerships with families, support young children's healthy emotional development, and continue to promote developmentally…

Young children often encounter feeding challenges, such as food refusal, an inability to meet nutritional needs, and limited skills to self-feed. Further, overall development can be adversely affected when an infant or a toddler has difficulties with intake of fluid and solid foods. A variety of strategies are available to address these challenges…

If it is true that "new discoveries in neuroscience suggest that school readiness interventions might come too late if they start after the child is three years old", then the infant/toddler field must claim the concept of school readiness. The brain's foundation for all later learning is created in the first three years of life. As many…

Wise teachers of infants and toddlers know how concerned, helpful, empathic, cooperative, and friendly--that is, how prosocial--very young children can be. Teachers see older infants crawl or toddle over to "friends" arriving later in the morning and greet them as if they had not seen them in weeks. Teachers and families know that these young…

Today, Montessori infant & toddler programs around the country usually have a similar look and feel--low floor beds, floor space for movement, low shelves, natural materials, tiny wooden chairs and tables for eating, and not a highchair or swing in sight. But Montessori toddler programs seem to fall into two paradigms--one model seeming more…

The Early Learning Guidelines: Nebraska's Birth to Five Learning and Development Standards (hereafter referred to as the Guidelines) is a resource to provide information about young children's learning and development. The Guidelines are intended to assist adults in planning and providing meaningful learning experiences and environments for…