For Introduction to Early Childhood Education courses. Covers ages 0-8. This text offers students a practical foundation in how to deliver quality early education and care through its focus on curriculum. This edition's features include more concrete applications in the text and on the website. Easy-to-read and engagingly interactive, the text is now full-color throughout. The author weaves five essential elements of effective early childhood education throughout the book: understanding development, play, guidance, working with families, and diversity. The book provides a rigorous overview of the planning, preparation, and delivery of a curriculum for young children, one that's built around six specific curriculum areas, each explored in its own chapter. The author stresses the importance of play and the need to nurture each child's natural affinity for learning through experimentation and exploration.