Three one act fairy tales Colleen Neuman Three utterly charming plays from the author of our immensely popular Lion and Mouse Stories. The Princess and the Princess: flexible cast of 21, simple set, 30 minutes. A poor polite princess and a rich rude princess meet on a narrow mountain path and neither will move to let the other pass. Everyone who tries to help gets stuck on the mountain with them. After a riddle proves both princesses are "real", it is the poor princess
In light of recent standards-based and testing movements, the issue of play in child development has taken on increased meaning for educational professionals and social scientists. This third edition of Play From Birth to Twelve offers comprehensive coverage of what we now know about play and its guiding principles, dynamics, and importance in early learning. These up-to-date essays, written by some of the most distinguished experts in the field, help educators, psychologists, anthropologists, parents, health service personnel, and students explore a variety of theoretical and practical ideas, such as: all aspects of play, including historical and diverse perspectives as well as new approaches not yet covered in the literature how teachers in various classroom situations set up and guide play to facilitate learning how play is affected by societal violence, media reportage, technological innovations, and other contemporary issues play and imagination within the current scope of educational policies, childrearing methods, educational variations, cultural differences, and intellectual diversity New chapters in the third edition of Play From Birth to Twelve cover current and projected future developments in the field of play, such as executive function, neuroscience, autism, play in museums, "small world" play, global issues, media, and technology. The book also suggests ways to support children’s play across different environments at home, in communities, and within various institutional settings.
It's no secret that most girls, at some point, love all things princess: the poofy dresses, the plastic tiaras, the color pink. Even grown-up women can't get enough of royal weddings and royal gossip. Yet critics claim the princess dream sets little girls up to be weak and submissive, and allows grown women to indulge in fantasies of rescue rather than hard work and self-reliance. Enter Jerramy Fine – an unabashed feminist who is proud of her life-long princess obsession and more than happy to defend it. Through her amusing life story and in-depth research, Fine makes it clear that feminine doesn't mean weak, pink doesn't mean inferior, and girliness is not incompatible with ambition. From 9th century Cinderella to modern-day Frozen, from Princess Diana to Kate Middleton, from Wonder Woman to Princess Leia, Fine valiantly assures us that princesses have always been about power, not passivity. And those who love them can still be confident, intelligent women. Provocative, insightful, but also witty and personal, In Defense of the Princess empowers girls, women, and parents to dream of happily ever after without any guilt or shame.
This book takes on current perspectives on children’s relationships to literacy, media, childhood, markets and transtionalism in converging global worlds. It introduces the idea of multi-sited imaginaries to explain how children’s media and literacy performances shape and are shaped by shared visions of communities that we collectively imagine, including play, media, gender, family, school, or cultural worlds. It draws upon elements of ethnographies of globalization, nexus analysis and performance theories to examine the convergences of such imaginaries across multiple sites: early childhood and elementary classrooms and communities in Puerto Rico and the Midwest United States. In this work we attempt to understand that the local moment of engagement within play, dramatic experiences, and literacies is not a given but is always emerging from and within the multiple localities children navigate and the histories, possibilities and challenges they bring to the creative moment.
Reconsidering the Role of Play in Early Childhood: Towards Social Justice and Equity—a compilation of current play research in early childhood education and care—challenges, disrupts, and reexamines conventional perspectives on play. By highlighting powerful and provocative studies from around the world that attend to the complexities and diverse contexts of children’s play, the issues of social justice and equity related to play are made visible. This body of work is framed by the phenomenological viewpoint that presumes equity is best confronted and improved through developing an expanded understanding of play in its multiple variations and dimensions. The play studies explore the potential and troubles of play in teaching and learning, children’s agency in play, the actual spaces where children play, and different perspectives of play based on identity and culture. The editors invite readers to use the research as an inspiration to reconsider their conceptions of play and to take action to work for a world where all children have access to play. This book was originally published as a special issue of Early Child Development and Care.
The Disney Princesses are a billion-dollar industry, known and loved by children across the globe. Robyn Muir provides an exploratory and holistic examination of this worldwide commercial and cultural phenomenon in its key representations: films, merchandising and marketing, and park experiences. Muir highlights the messages and images of femininity found within the Disney Princess canon and provides a rigorous and innovative methodology for analysing gender in media. Including an in-depth examination of each princess film from the last 83 years, the book provides a lens through which to view and understand how Disney Princesses have contributed to the depiction of femininity within popular culture.
“This book provides a theoretical and empirical foundation for the development of new and exciting pedagogical approaches to the teaching and learning of digital literacies in the earliest years of schooling... researchers, educators, and policymakers alike ignore its key messages at their peril in the decades ahead.” —From the Foreword byJackie Marsh, the University of Sheffield, UK “Play, too often in the past, has been seen as a four-letter word by those who wish to raise academic standards. Wohlwend shows why this position is untenable and why play is a curricular necessity in kindergarten and beyond. This is a must read for anyone worried about what parents and administrators will say about the infusion of play in their curriculum.” —Jerome C. Harste, Indiana University, Bloomington Karen Wohlwend provides a new framework for rethinking the boundaries between literacy and play, so that play itself is viewed as a literacy practice along with reading, writing, and design. Through a variety of theoretical lenses, the author presents a portrait of literacy play that connects three play groups: the girls and, importantly, boys, who played with Disney Princess media; “Just Guys” who used design and sports media to make a boys-only space; and a group of children who played teacher with big books and other school texts. These young children "play by design"—using play as a literacy to transform the texts that they read, write, and draw—but also as a tactic to transform their relational identities in the social spaces of peer and school cultures. Emphasizing the importance of play despite current high-stakes testing demands, this book: Provides an argument for re-centering play in early childhood curricula where play functions as a literacy in its own right. Offers cutting-edge analyses and examples of new literacies, popular culture, and multimodal discourses. Illustrates how children’s play can both produce and challenge normative discourses regarding ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Examines the multimodal, multimedia textual practices of young children as they play across tensions among popular media, peer relationships, and school literacy. Features vivid descriptions, examples of young children in action, and photographs. Karen E. Wohlwendis an assistant professor in Literacy, Culture, and Language Education at Indiana University. The research in this book was awarded the 2008 International Reading Association Outstanding Dissertation Award.
In the early years, children learn mostly through play. Their receptive young minds are formed and their physical skills are developed as they begin to explore the world around them. They learn how to get along with others as they develop social skills and learn how to handle their emotions. What impact is using digital technology having on how children are developing? Is it harming them or is it helping them? What role do parents and caregivers have in all this? These are some of the questions this e-book sets out to answer. Some of our best minds contribute important ideas on what parents, educators and caregivers need to know about the impact of electronic media on our children’s development. More importantly they offer us guidance on what we can do to avoid the pitfalls and make use of the ways it can enhance children’s learning.
This ground-breaking handbook provides a much-needed, contemporary and authoritative reference text on young children’s thinking. The different perspectives represented in the thirty-nine chapters contribute to a vibrant picture of young children, their ways of thinking and their efforts at understanding, constructing and navigating the world. The Routledge International Handbook of Young Children’s Thinking and Understanding brings together commissioned pieces by a range of hand-picked influential, international authors from a variety of disciplines who share a high public profile for their specific developments in the theories of children’s thinking, learning and understanding. The handbook is organised into four complementary parts: • How can we think about young children’s thinking?: Concepts and contexts • Knowing about the brain and knowing about the mind • Making sense of the world • Documenting and developing children’s thinking Supported throughout with relevant research and case studies, this handbook is an international insight into the many ways there are to understand children and childhood paired with the knowledge that young children have a strong, vital, and creative ability to think and to understand, and to create and contend with the world around them.
When it comes to parenting, sometimes you have to trust your gut. With her first book, It’s OK Not to Share, Heather Shumaker overturned all the conventional rules of parenting with her “renegade rules” for raising competent and compassionate kids. In It’s Ok To Go Up the Slide, Shumaker takes on new hot-button issues with renegade rules such as: - Recess Is A Right - It’s Ok Not To Kiss Grandma - Ban Homework in Elementary School - Safety Second - Don’t Force Participation Shumaker also offers broader guidance on how parents can control their own fears and move from an overscheduled life to one of more free play. Parenting can too often be reduced to shuttling kids between enrichment classes, but Shumaker challenges parents to reevaluate how they’re spending their precious family time. This book helps parents help their kids develop important life skills in an age-appropriate way. Most important, parents must model these skills, whether it’s technology use, confronting conflict, or coping emotionally with setbacks. Sometimes being a good parent means breaking all the rules.
