The Zero to Three website not only has a ton of information, but also links to other site for organizations, including four main links on the home page for Early Head Start, National Training Institute, Military Family Projects, and National Infant and Child Care Initiative. The first link for the Early Head Start leads to their website which includes EHS program locations, activities and upcoming conferences, news, and the mission of this federally funded community-based program for low-income families with infants and toddlers and pregnant women to promote healthy prenatal care, development of young children, and family functioning.
This week, I took a closer look at the Zero to Three Care and Education pages regarding the need for positive early learning experiences to foster their intellectual, social and emotional development and lay the foundation for later school success (Zero to Three, 2011). Zero to Three specifically mentions the growing number of infants, toddlers, and young children who spend more of their day with people other than their parents - including program caregivers, babysitters, family members, and friends. With that in mind, they promote that it's important for parents and families to understand the pros and cons to look for the type of child care facility best suited for their child. For instance, there's public and private center-based centers, family, friend, and neighbor arrangements, personal nannies and sitters, etc.
In the e-newsletters I receive from Zero to Three, hot topics are discussed from news going on in early childhood education around the country. For example, this week Alison Gopnik questions if too much direct teaching in Pre-K limit kids' curiosity. The pressures of reaching high academic levels and readiness for primary school through teacher directed learning is suppressing the time allotted for creativity and imagination in prekindergarten programs. Developmental scientists are studying the basic science behind learning and what we know about how teaching affects learning (Gopnik, 2011).
Zero to Three promotes both federal and state polices that push for equity for children and families to receive proper early childhood care and services, including Title IV of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 (H.R. 3221) authorizes the Early Learning Challenge Fund, a new federal funding stream to promote State early care and education systems for children birth to five (Zero to Three, 2011).
References
Gopnik, Alison. (2011). Why Preschool Shouldn't Be Like School: New Research shows that teaching kids more and more, at ever-younger ages, may backfire. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/id/2288402/pagenum/all/#p2
Zero to Three National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. (2011). http://www.zerotothree.org/
Hi Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading the information you found this week, it was really interesting! It's great that Zero to Three helps parents make informed choices about the type of care they can place their children in. As we've been learning, it's true that more and more younger children are receiving care outside of the home so it's important for their families to know what options are available to make the best choice for them and their child.
The article you mentioned about Alison Gopnik also sounds very interesting and relevant to the current issues in the field. I'm glad that Zero to Three is bringing awareness to these issues and providing information to parents; this seems like a really good resource!
Caitlin you really go into depth about the Zero to Three website. They do have a lot of information. I too chose this website. I really liked the Military Project link. I thought that was very interesting and I liked a lot of the things they are doing for the families.
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ReplyDeleteI love this web site. This site is filled with so much helpful information not only for parents, but for educators as well. I just shared this web site with a home visitor the other week. She was excited!
ReplyDeleteCaitlin,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that parents need to look at the merits and demerits of early childhood programs before put their children in it. It is not all programs that provide high -quality education.You studied one of the best websites for this week.
Olufemi.