Working with Families

A Guidance Guide for Early Childhood Leaders

In this follow-up to Guidance for Every Child, author Dan Gartrell, EdD, expands on the advice broached in that book - that children need guidance rather than discipline. Guidance is teaching for healthy emotional and social development. On a day-to-day basis as conflicts occur, guidance is teaching children to learn from their mistakes, rather than punishing them for the mistakes they make; helping children learn to solve their problems, rather than punishing children for having problems they cannot solve. In A Guidance Guide for Early Childhood Leaders, Dan explores secure relationships as the foundation for guidance and how to build them with children, families, and colleagues. He gives examples of how children’s mistaken behavior (not misbehavior) can play out in the classroom and provides strategies on how early childhood professionals can help others to gain the emotional health they need to be socially responsive, and then support the social skills they need to build relationships and solve problems cooperatively.

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RRP $60.00

Addressing Challenging Behaviors - Complete Set

Challenging behaviour is one of the biggest issues early childhood educators face every day. Most often these behaviours are caused by challenges presented by the social and physical environment, yet often the approach is to "fix" the child rather than "fix" the factors that contribute to the behaviour. This Turn-Key training program will provide the knowledge base and practical strategies teachers need to strive to minimize challenging behaviour in the classroom.

This innovative, comprehensive ten-lesson video course helps teachers minimise challenging behaviour by promoting these positive classroom practices:

• Creating a well-designed physical environment
• Implementing a child-focused curriculum
• Helping children with problem solving skills
• Planning a predictable, well-paced day
• Fostering relationship-building

The complete set includes:
• 50 video presentations
• Insights from 53 experts in the field
• Real-life interactions gathered from classrooms across the country
• Learning objectives and reflection questions
• Extension activities and additional resources
• Closed captioning

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RRP $470.00

Adults and Children Learning Together

Author(s): Pam Hanna (click on the author's name for more titles)

Through the use of many colourful and interesting stories and examples, this book makes a very persuasive case for looking carefully and listening sensitively to children as a basis for planning. Relevant to both centre-based and family day care settings, in both Australia and New Zealand, it gives new meaning to the idea of 'starting with the child'.
Written for educators who are focussed on, and proactive about extending young children's learning.

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RRP $39.95

Art of Leadership: Engaging Families in Early Childhood Organizations

This comprehensive hands-on series of books examines every aspect of effective center management from A to Z. Offering the best advice and thinking from recognized experts on program administration, these books are designed to be comprehensive, hands-on training texts as well as ongoing reference tools for center administrators. The ideas presented are practical; the strategies are proven to work.

 High-quality early childhood programs are highly effective in engaging and supporting the families they serve. Engaging Families addresses the full spectrum of responsibilities in working with families: welcoming, supporting, engaging, and communicating with parents. In addition, it provides helpful advice on working with all types of families in today's society.

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RRP $60.00

Family - Friendly Communication for Early Childhood Programs

Author(s): Deborah Diffily, Kathy Morrison (click on the author's name for more titles)

This resource offers 93 brief messages for parents on topics ranging from biting to developing children’s literacy—all ready for teachers to tailor to their individual programs’ needs or to use as is to strengthen communication between programs and families.

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RRP $35.95

From Parents to Partners

Author(s): Janis Keyser (click on the author's name for more titles)

Partnership with parents is an essential factor in any successful early childhood program. With the family centered model as its basis, From Parents to Partners explores the reasons and methods for developing ongoing partnerships with parents and other family members of children in child care settings. It provides the tools and strategies needed to build the communication and support networks within which these partnerships thrive.

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RRP $67.95

Hair

HAIR is a celebration of hair diversity; long, short, straight, curly, body hair, covered hair, facial hair and hair on people of all genders. Written and illustrated by two Melbourne mums, Kate Bullen-Casanova and Freya Bennett, HAIR is a 32 page picture book that can be enjoyed by the whole family. Its colourful characters will leap off the page and into your heart. There’s Charlie whose chosen to chop off her locks… …and Rupert who thinks his long hair really rocks!

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RRP $19.00

Making Links

Author(s): Anne Stonehouse, Janet Gonzalez-Mena (click on the author's name for more titles)

Written by two highly regarded early chilhood professionals, this collaborative approach focuses on what you need to know about children, how you translate that information into plans and practice in programs, and ways to engage parents in the process.

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RRP $49.95

Making Links Parent Partner

Author(s): Anne Stonehouse, Janet Gonzalez-Mena (click on the author's name for more titles)

The information in this book is intended to assist parents to collaborate and work in partnership with child care professionals and to help parents understand what the early childhood service is trying to achieve. It makes clear the rights and responsibilities of parents and early childhood professional and reinforces the role of parents as advocates for their child and for early childhood services.

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RRP $7.00

My Mum Has Depression

Author(s): Nina Mitchell (click on the author's name for more titles)

The hero of this book is a little boy who tries hard to understand what his mum is going through.

He witnesses her mood swings from deep depression to high elation.

The highs and the lows are illustrated in full colour and in a caring way, appropriate for young children.

The poignant ending says it all: "My mum has depression but she is still my Mum."

Nina Mitchell is a mother of three boys and a primary school teacher. Nina has been treated for depression for several years. Her association with fellow sufferers has led her to conclude that most families and educators have difficulty explaining depression to the children in their care. This prompted Nina to write this illustrated children's book, My Mum has Depression.

Special offer on postage and handling for this title. Standard mail is only $5. The discount will be applied when your order is placed in the warehouse delivery system so you will see the discount applied on the invoice that is emailed to you when your book leaves the warehouse.

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RRP $16.50

Parent Newsletter, The

Author(s): Sylvia Reichel (click on the author's name for more titles)

Written by a trusted educator with years of experience, The Parent Newsletter is a practical how-to guide that will steer you step-by-step through the process of creating and implementing a newsletter to parents. From advice on writing effective articles to design and layout suggestions to scheduling and distribution, this unique resource is designed for you. All you need are a few hours and a simple word-processing program.

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RRP $39.95

Parent-Friendly Early Learning

Author(s): Julie Powers (click on the author's name for more titles)

Written for beginning teachers and directors as well as seasoned professionals, this is the perfect resource for anyone genuinely interested in working with-not just for-parents. Detailed real-life scenarios in each chapter will help you create a climate of partnership, understand the background for each issue, avoid problems, and handle any conflict that does happen. The user-friendly format allows you to start with the issues that are most pressing to you.

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RRP $51.95

Partnering With Parents

Author(s): Robert Rockwell, Janet Rockwell Kniepkamp (click on the author's name for more titles)

This innovative book makes it easy for teachers to communicate to parents about what their children are learning and engage them in the learning process. Offering a complete plan for every meeting, Partnering With Parents takes the worry out of parent-teacher communication, with meeting plans for all curriculum areas, helpful tips, and strategies, and easy ways to make the connection between home and school.

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RRP $67.95

Partnerships - Working Together in Early Childhood Settings

Author(s): Mary Hood (click on the author's name for more titles)

Creating an environment where partnership relationships are the norm for everyone sets a tone of genuine welcome and acceptance; optimism that issues can be coped with; hope that changes can occur; and energy to apply to the work. This helpful book is a great place to start or continue this journey.

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RRP $15.95

Respecting Diversity:

Author(s): Carmel Richardson (click on the author's name for more titles)

Respecting diversity: Articulating early childhood practice will help you identify some ways in which early childhood educators can talk about their practice with families: Throughout the book, scenarios are presented as examples of everyday practice and the discussion that follows provides information about how teaching, or pedagogy, can be understood and then discussed.

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RRP $15.95