To encourage gifted children's curiosity, a companion program for gifted children aged 4-7 years was developed at Northern Michigan University, wherein young adults in teacher education work with the children as their mentor careful matching with companions, and determining the child's interests. (JDD)

Explains why free-choice time, also called child-initiated time, is an essential daily part of all Head Start programs. Children have the freedom to initiate their own activities among the learning centers in the classroom, allowing them to develop their intellectual abilities, find solutions to problems, explore, inquire, and become adept at…

Describes children's early use of oral and written language for different purposes. Advocates fostering early appreciation of a variety of texts to cultivate children's disposition to read and write for enjoyment, information, and communication. Presents ideas for using the talking, reading, and writing done every day by young children to develop…

Through stories, children become aware of their culture and make sense of their world. Past stories came from books; now they come from television. To develop a theory of children's literature, knowledge about children, about their books, and about reading must be placed in a new theoretical pattern. (PP)

Describes a Montana child development center's creation of an area in which children could enjoy messy, creative, sensory experiences playing with mud and a wide variety of outdoor props. Discusses how mud play contributed to young children's emerging interests and provided opportunities for expressing creativity, enhancing fine motor skills, and…

A study was designed to determine psychological complexity and reinforcement characteristics of popular arcade video games, including sex differences in game content, clientele social structure, human-to-human interaction contingencies, and value content. Results suggest a need for public control of children's access to the games and the video…

The aim of this paper is to induce doubt about the ethical rightness of compulsory education laws and inspire educators to imagine and begin to make a world in which there are many different forms of gifted education. The paper does this in three ways. It paints a polemical picture of gifted education as a minor variation on public schooling and…

The chair of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports discusses reasons for engaging in lifetime sports and gives guidelines parents can follow to steer their children toward sports they can enjoy. (PP)

Describes the innovative techniques that can be used in an elementary school library to motivate children, from kindergarten through the upper grades, to read. (Author/LLS)

Maintains that one of the most difficult aspects of early childhood teaching is to set aside preconceptions and really pay attention to what children are doing. Maintains that music specialists who go into the early childhood room only at music time should seek other opportunities to observe students. (CFR)

A teacher introduced mathematical concepts into six year olds' stories about losing and growing teeth. Results demonstrated that children's authentic mathematical experiences are derived from the children's knowledge and experience, are multimodal, and are open ended. Calls for open-ended activities that allow children to explore ways to use…

Discusses the design and development of an in-depth study project curriculum for toddlers. Offers examples of the use of the spiraling curriculum in toddlers' and two year olds' classes. Provides guidelines for conducting in-depth study projects with toddlers. (BB)

Describes the creation of a developmentally appropriate curriculum in one child care center using input from teachers, children, parents, and others. Discusses the planning process that combined teacher-initiated activities with child-initiated ideas and questions to produce a unique, dynamic curriculum of age-appropriate and individually…

Developing kindness and compassion for others is a critical part of young children's development. The ability to accept others--even if they are different--and feel compassion for them is an essential component of social competency which is just as important as any academic training. Teaching acceptance and compassion through play can be great…

This report describes a project that used children's literature to introduce 6- and 7-year-old children (n=25) in the United States to other languages to arouse their interest in finding out more about language. Most of the children were monolingual and spoke English; two boys spoke some Spanish. The study was conducted to see if young children's…