Thinking of a gift for a young child? Trying to recommend a book for a parent or family member? Or are you simply looking to stock your early childhood shelves with picture books to help you respond to those awkward questions young children ask? Here are some of our favourites, recommended by your early childhood […]
With days growing shorter and Earth Day and Nature Play Week behind us, a recent trip to the other side of the planet came to mind, where dark winter days and extreme weather showed how differently humans live with and in nature. The fog had cleared by the time we landed at Oslo’s Gardermoen airport […]
Why is guidance on young children and digital technology needed now? As a Discussion Paper is released—Towards a Statement on young children and digital technology—co-chairs of ECA’s Digital Policy Group (DPG), Professor Susan Edwards and Professor Leon Straker, address this question and reveal some of the findings from work so far. You may have heard or […]
Digital citizenship sounds like a weighty topic. Perhaps too weighty for the youngest children. Is it even relevant to very young children and if so, what does it mean for their families, educators and carers? This is one of the issues that surfaced during the Early Childhood Australia conference keynote and workshops by Dr Chip […]
What is your approach to your own learning? How do you incorporate new skills, knowledge and experiences into your professional practice and private life? In ECA’s digital technology projects including the Digibiz survey of childhood educators, carers, directors, principals and managers we found some interesting patterns. Being intentional, applying the same approaches to technology learning […]
Can a dog’s undirected ‘skills’ teach us about STEM learning among children? Is an activity that we don’t understand the same as learning a new skill? In an amusing blog, Daniel Groenewald recently looked at coding, how we might teach skills and what we hope to achieve. Posted on 1 August by Clare McHugh with excerpts from original post by Daniel […]
How does a child develop from an inquiring, kind pre-schooler to someone who, 20 years later, is violent to a person they love? This is the question underneath theStart Early. Respectful relationships for life initiative. We are not alone in asking the question. Educators and others across the community ask the same thing. The statistics […]
Children’s picture books, artworks and pop songs have been created to share. Right? It is not that simple. Early Childhood Australia has been working on a special Copyright Licence that protects early childhood services as well as the makers and owners of creative works. Most of us don’t think twice before cutting and pasting a digital picture into a newsletter, sharing a […]
How do curious and thoughtful young children who can work, play and learn together become part of high conflict and violent relationships as adults? How does a child go from being an inquiring, kind preschooler to a young person or adult that abuses and assaults the people they love? This transition begins at some point and […]
Since Voice announced an Early Childhood Australia (ECA) project on 21st century directions and best practice two years ago, we’ve unearthed a mountain of tips, research and myths as well as connections, people and ideas. It’s time for an update on the exciting resources and events for our sector. The early childhood sector is at […]
