In this essay, Susan Engel argues that curiosity is both intrinsic to children's development and unfolds through social interactions. Thus, it should be cultivated in schools, even though it is often almost completely absent from classrooms. Calling on well-established research and more recent studies, Engel argues that interactions between…

Challenges the thinking about planning activities for children around holidays in Head Start programs. Discusses the role of holidays as family events and the difficulties surrounding teaching preschoolers the meaning of holidays. Suggests ways to use holidays as an opportunity to truly expand children's knowledge using child development…

The use of hand-held electronic devices and microcomputers in places of public access and in the home are discussed. First, the different activities supported by this technology are described, with emphasis on the commonality of game playing to both hand-held devices and microcomputers. The need for research to investigate the motivational…

Presents reviews of the following mathematics software designed to teach young children counting, number recognition, visual discrimination, matching, addition, and subtraction skills; Stickybear Numbers, Learning with Leeper, Getting Ready to Read and Add, Counting Parade, Early Games for Young Children, Charlie Brown's 1,2,3's, Let's Go Fishing,…

This paper discusses and demonstrates how to use children's interests combined with children's literature to make learning easier. According to the paper, the concept is to choose an area that excites children, one where they already have a developed schemata or knowledge base, then to use children's trade books about that topic to teach the…

Proposes replacing the term child-centered with child-sensitive to indicate more accurately the major role of teachers in determining the curriculum and activities offered to young children. In contrast to the laissez-faire, child-indulgent approach of many child-centered programs, a child sensitive approach would encourage teachers to capitalize…