Research Around The World

I visited the Early Childhood Australia website http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/. I was very impressed with this website. It contained a wealth of information that covered many topics. In the section titled, Research in Practice Series, you have access to purchase journals.  The topics that caught my attention were: 

Learning and teaching through play

Engaging families: Building strong communication

Storytelling with young children

Understanding children's feelings: Emotional literacy in early childhood

Overlooked curriculum: Seeing everyday possibilities

Aggression and young children

Revisiting celebrations with young children From exploring this website it reintegrated that children are the same all over the  world.  Early childhood education is important and countries world wide are  implementing programs that are giving the children a head start in life.  I did find it interesting that they have a program that rates the quality of programs for family day care, after school hours programs and long day care.  I assume these  programs are equivalent to our after school programs, and day care centers that offer extended day services. The purpose of these programs are to ensure that children in care have stimulating, positive experiences and interactions (http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au).  The rating system is as follows: •  Significant Improvement Required • Working Towards National Quality Standard  • Meeting National Quality Standard  • Exceeding National Quality Standard  • Excellent (http://acecqa.gov.au) As we continue our research into international early childhood programs I wonder do other nations have the same issues that we face in the United States? Do they have Head Start programs?  Are their programs free or based on income? Do they have preschool programs in their public schools?