At the height of the Vietnam War, Down by the Riverside was transformed from a traditional folk song to a popular anti-war anthem. The raucous and repetitive chorus, "I ain't gonna study war no more ...," became a rallying cry for those who wanted nothing to do with the war and the pain and controversy that surrounded it. Although it seems…

Zimbabwe, like most of Sub-Saharan Africa, has been hard-hit by HIV/ AIDS. National estimates reported by the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare put the prevalence rates of HIV in the age group between 15 and 49 at 15.3% (World Health Organization [WHO], UNICEF, & UNAIDS, 2008). This is one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the…

According to Piaget, 5- or 6-year-old children gradually acquire the concept of time based on events (Piaget, 1969). In his experiment of investigating children's time concepts, Piaget found that children of these ages were able to place pictures based on sequential events with some errors; the younger children made more errors. The National…

One serious purpose of the Program Development Committee is to share ideas about education with Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) Branches around the world. Benefits of sharing ideas include: (1) Making connections with others who share interests, and thereby enrich and strengthen your ideas for helping children; and (2)…

Typically, classroom photography is used to identify children's cubbies or to capture only special events in school. Rarely is it used as an everyday teaching tool. However, with the increasing affordability and availability of disposable and digital cameras, photography can be readily used in classrooms to facilitate learning. In one preschool…

This article describes a project called "Kids Speaking Up for Kids: Advocacy by Children, for Children". The project was simple in scope. The authors sought to collect stories of child advocacy--ways in which children were working on behalf of other children. They also sought to collect and profile children's voices and vision and so…

Natural disasters are among the numerous events known to have a significant probability of producing trauma in school-age children, given the critical mental, physical, social, and emotional development that occurs during childhood. Studies involving children who have experienced natural disasters point to a significant increase in psychological…

This article presents an adaptation of the keynote address Steve Silvern delivered at the 2006 ACEI Annual International Conference and Exhibition in San Antonio, Texas. In his address, Silvern observes how educators seldom educate children "wholly." No one ever includes spirit when talking about the whole child, probably because spirit…

Since 1981, the amount of time children spend with each other or alone without adult supervision has declined, especially in the area of outdoor free play. Free time for children has declined 16% between 1981 and 1997. A number of researchers have examined societal changes over the last century, especially from the mid-1970s to today. According to…

The Association for Childhood Education International and the United States National Committee of the World Organization for Early Childhood Education have actively pursued long-standing commitments to ensure the rights of children in the United States. Both organizations are respected for their knowledge of child development, children's…

The Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) was again represented at the annual 2006 DPI/NGO conference, along with 1,600 participants from around the world. The mood this year was somber and quite serious, possibly in response to the uncertainty created by the Middle East crisis that was raging while the conference was taking…

Sharing classroom practices across international borders can add new dimensions to teaching methods, no matter where one calls home. With this idea in mind, the authors (two U.S. early childhood teacher educators and a Kenyan-born U.S. early childhood teacher) have corresponded for several years through e-mail with a small group of early childhood…

As teachers have struggled to implement scientifically based instructional practices in reading, some researchers have begun to focus on ways to "boost the value of reading aloud to young children". Such studies seek ways to promote oral language as well as comprehension and vocabulary through read-aloud experiences. Interactive read-alouds…

This article describes the author's experience when visiting her grandson's kindergarten classroom. The author is a parent, and at one time was a kindergarten teacher, program director, supervisor of student teachers, and consultant, so she's been involved for well over 40 years with a vast number of children as they have had their very special…

Author stresses the great need for each teacher to use all of the available resources along with his own fresh look at the child in his situation in order to discover the meaning of the child's behavior from the child's own point of view. (Author/RK)