Basic, practical information for your family child care program

Family child care homes are a vital part of child care, serving nearly 3 million children in the United States. This book lays the groundwork family child care providers need to run a successful program in a warm, welcoming setting for children and their families.

Find out more about how to:

• Develop and manage a well-organized family child care program
• Nurture children's learning and development in multiage groups
• Intentionally use positive guidance and encourage healthy social interactions
• Foster strong partnerships with families
• Balance your personal and professional needs

A guide for teachers about the importance of planning learning experiences that integrate child-centered play with rich content-based instruction.

Serious Fun emphasizes a teachers' active role in children's play in order to guide learning. Organized into two sections, Serious Fun first looks at strategies teachers can use to connect play to learning. The second focuses on playful learning in math, literacy, drama, art, STEM, and outdoors.

Serious Fun utilizes research based content to delve into the methods teachers can use to connect guided play to literacy and STEM learning principles. Each chapter sets the stage for the concepts being explored and wraps up with practical tips for teachers to use in their classrooms. It also includes a handy two-page section for parents about the benefits of play and how to support their children's learning through play.

What Does Developmentally Appropriate Practice Look Like in an Infant and Toddler Program?

If you've ever wondered how effective teachers actually do DAP with very young children, this is the book for you. Here, you can peek into classrooms to see teachers making intentional decisions in key areas of practice. These areas form the six guidelines for DAP in action:

1. Building a community where everyone is welcomed and supported to grow

2. Facilitating reciprocal partnerships with families

3. Observing, assessing, and documenting children's development and learning

4. Using teaching strategies that enhance learning for each child

5. Implementing curriculum tied to meaningful learning goals

6. Demonstrating professionalism

You'll discover

• More about what each guideline means for working with infants and toddlers and their families
• Chapters that showcase articles from Young Children and NAEYC book excerpts--plus brand-new content--illustrating excellent teaching strategies related to each guideline
• Examples you can model, adapt, and implement in your own practice

Enrich and deepen your teaching, and enable children's learning to flourish!

Use these teaching tips and activities to create high-quality settings and interactions that empower infants and toddlers.

This book presents an expanded view of infant and toddler development to equip educators with the knowledge, dispositions, and skills to create high-quality settings and interactions so that every child can have the best start in life.

Readers are encouraged to consider the perspective of the child. What does this classroom, this teacher, and this experience look like and feel like to each child? How do teachers develop deeper understanding of development and learning in the context of children's families, cultures, and lives and apply this knowledge to teaching decisions? Each chapter offers resources, research, teaching tips, activities to empower children, and questions for reflection and discussion.

Culturally Responsive Teaching for Infants and Toddlers addresses the need for cultural safety and coherence between families and programs; the need for rich language and learning opportunities throughout the day; strategies for observing children and using this information to design curriculum; individualized interactions to facilitate play-based learning; and teaching strategies that strengthen each child's emerging skills and capabilities.

Book Features:

• Shows how cultural beliefs, child-rearing practices, and language are active prime-movers in infant and toddler teaching decisions and must be made visible through reflective practice.
• Illustrates insightful and caring strategies for building authentic relationships with families to guide planning and decision-making.
• Applies NAEYC's developmentally appropriate practice position statement (2020) to the complex challenges encountered by teachers working with infants and toddlers and their families.
• Reimagines teaching through the lens of collaboration and creative thinking, anchoring these as essential foundations of active play, outdoor and nature play, and health and well-being.

Use these teaching tips and activities to create high-quality settings and interactions that empower infants and toddlers.

This book presents an expanded view of infant and toddler development to equip educators with the knowledge, dispositions, and skills to create high-quality settings and interactions so that every child can have the best start in life.

Readers are encouraged to consider the perspective of the child. What does this classroom, this teacher, and this experience look like and feel like to each child? How do teachers develop deeper understanding of development and learning in the context of children's families, cultures, and lives and apply this knowledge to teaching decisions? Each chapter offers resources, research, teaching tips, activities to empower children, and questions for reflection and discussion.

Culturally Responsive Teaching for Infants and Toddlers addresses the need for cultural safety and coherence between families and programs; the need for rich language and learning opportunities throughout the day; strategies for observing children and using this information to design curriculum; individualized interactions to facilitate play-based learning; and teaching strategies that strengthen each child's emerging skills and capabilities.

Book Features:

• Shows how cultural beliefs, child-rearing practices, and language are active prime-movers in infant and toddler teaching decisions and must be made visible through reflective practice.
• Illustrates insightful and caring strategies for building authentic relationships with families to guide planning and decision-making.
• Applies NAEYC's developmentally appropriate practice position statement (2020) to the complex challenges encountered by teachers working with infants and toddlers and their families.
• Reimagines teaching through the lens of collaboration and creative thinking, anchoring these as essential foundations of active play, outdoor and nature play, and health and well-being.