Activities for Responsive Caregiving: Infants, Toddlers, and Twos. Jean Barbre, $29.95

The first three years set the stage for a lifetime of learning. ACTIVITIES FOR RESPONSIVE CAREGIVING is filled with more than 101 developmentally appropriate activities and experiences that help young children acquire skills, build positive relationships, and optimize their intellectual, social, emotional, and physical development. This resource also provides strategies that support your role as a responsive caregiver. 

Being with Babies: Understanding and Responding to Infants in Your Care. Beverly Kovach & Denise Da Ros-Voseles, $28.95

Being with babies teaches new and experienced caregivers how to handle everyday challenges while learning about the developmental stages of babies. This hands-on resource is perfect for caregivers of children 6 weeks to 18 months old.

The Best for Babies: Expert Advice for Assessing Infant Toddler Programs. Alice Sterling Honig, $15.95

Caregiver-child interactions are critically important in promoting cognitive, language, and social-emotional learning in young children. With examples and detailed explanations, The Best for Babies illuminates the behaviors and interactions that teachers or care providers should provide for the children in their care. The book offers an easy-to-use checklist to assess each teacher-child interpersonal relationship and the ways caregivers offer learning and living experiences for young children. Teachers and caregivers can use the checklist to grow in their professional expertise and careers as they continue to guide children’s learning and well-being. Directors and mentors can use the information gained by using the checklist to help teachers and caregivers optimize the outcomes for each child.

The Biting Solution: the Expert’s No-Biting Guide for Parents, Caregivers, and Early Childhood Educators. Lisa Poelle, $15.95

Biting doesn’t have to cause crises. With THE BITING SOLUTION you can identify why kids bite, and teach them more effective ways to express themselves and to get along with others.

The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers & Twos (3 volume set). Diane Trister, Sherrie Rudick, Kai-Leé Berke, et al, $131.95

For more than a decade, THE CREATIVE CURRICULUM FOR INFANTS, TODDLERS, & TWOS has helped teachers understand developmentally appropriate practice and how to create daily routines and meaningful experiences that respond to children’s strengths, interests, and needs.

Revised into three comprehensive volumes that reflect 38 research-based objectives for development and learning, The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers, & Twos, Second Edition, Revised, retains its focus on responsive care while incorporating objectives that enable teachers to focus on what matters most for very young children. This new edition helps teachers to plan and implement every aspect of caring for and teaching children from birth to age 3.

Volume 1: The Foundation, outlines the research behind the curriculum and discusses the five central components of nurturing care and teaching.

Volume 2: Routines and Experiences, discusses the five routines and eight experiences that are essential to the development and learning of children birth to age 3, explaining how to plan intentionally while maintaining the flexibility to respond to the changing interests and abilities of young children.

Volume 3: Objectives for Development & Learning: Birth through Kindergarten, explains the skills, knowledge, and behaviors that matter most to the continuing development and learning of very young children. A tool to help teachers observe children effectively

Cultivating Outdoor Classrooms: Designing and Implementing Child-Centered Learning Environments. Eric Nelson, $64.95

Transform outdoor spaces into learning environments where children can enjoy a full range of activities as they spend quality time in nature. This book is filled with guidance to help you plan, design, and create an outdoor learning program that is a rich, thoughtfully equipped, natural extension of your indoor curriculum. Loaded with practical and creative ideas, CULTIVATING OUTDOOR CLASSROOMS promotes the idea that if you can do it indoors, you can probably do it outside as well.

Encouraging Physical Activity in Infants. Steve Sanders, $26.95

Babies are naturally active, and their movements help them explore their environment. They first move involuntarily, based on reflexes, and then learn to move more independently as their bodies grow stronger and they begin to investigate the world around them. You can encourage their muscle development, strength and balance with simple activities done with infants as young as six weeks old. From tummy time to crawling, scooting and standing, your active involvement will benefit infants in the following ways:

• Maintaining a healthy weight
• Developing good posture, strength, balance, and tracking skills
• Keeping their bodies active and learning about their new environment
• Developing their senses of hearing, sight, and touch

The first year of life lays the foundation for further development of gross motor skills as a toddler and preschooler. So get those little bodies moving!

Encouraging Physical Activity in Toddlers. Steve Sanders, $26.95

Toddlers are on the move almost constantly! Even though encouraging physical activity is not a problem, you can model new movements and skills and lay the foundation for them to enjoy physical activity as they grow. Toddlers need lots of time to master the basics, such as jumping, rolling, and balancing. As they become more comfortable with their bodies and confident in their ability to be physically active, their desire to participate will increase. They’ll enjoy kicking and throwing different types of balls, walking up and down stairs, running outside, and pedaling tricycles. Most of their physical activity involves unstructured play, and rightly so. However, you can also introduce them to new equipment with structured play and then let them explore on their own or with playmates. If you help toddlers understand how to develop physical skills, you will help them build confidence and have fun being active. What a gift for a lifetime!

First Art for Toddlers and Twos: Open-Ended Art Experiences. Mary Ann Kohl, $23.95

Discover the natural curiosity and enthusiasm of toddlers and twos as they explore creative art experiences designed just for them. In this updated, color edition of FIRST ART FOR TODDLERS AND TWOS, you will find more than seventy-five art experiences, with lots of variations that add to the fun and tips for making the activities run smoothly. There's even a chapter of special adult-made props, such as an Art Baggie Book to display a child's artwork and a Tabletop Easel made from a pizza box to catch all the drips.

Focus on Babies: How-tos and What-to-dos when Caring for Infants. Jennifer Karnopp, $23.95

Complete with tips for creating a developmentally appropriate environment and experiences that stimulate infants’ muscles and minds, FOCUS ON BABIES gives you the tools to craft a quality learning environment that’s as unique as the needs of the babies in your care.

Focus on Toddlers: How-tos and What-to-dos when Caring for Toddlers and Twos. Jennifer Karnopp, $23.95

The elements of a quality learning environment are not the same for every age. The toddler years are unique, and what works for preschoolers does not always work with toddlers. Complete with tips for creating a developmentally appropriate environment and experiences, FOCUS ON TODDLERS explains how to structure a program where toddlers and two-year-olds can learn, play, and thrive. 

Foundations of Responsive Caregiving: Infants, Toddlers, and Twos. Jean Barbre, $41.95

Understanding the development of infants, toddlers, and twos equips you with the tools and best practices needed to guide, teach, and care for them. FOUNDATIONS OF RESPONSIVE CAREGIVING addresses the unique needs and responsibilities you have as you influence the ways young children acquire skills, master developmental competencies, and build positive relationships. This foundational approach helps you understand young children's development and provide high-quality, responsive caregiving to support children in their earliest years. 

Outdoor Play for 1-3 Year Olds: How to Set Up and Run Your own Outdoor Toddler Group. Isabel Hopwood-Stephens, $43.50

We are all mindful of the increasing news coverage of outdoor play and its benefits, but how can you go beyond the sandpit and hopscotch to create a magical and creative experience for the children in your care? This book provides all the encouragement you will need to set up and run an outdoor toddler group. It provides a step-by-step guide to selecting an appropriate site, resourcing the outside area, devising age-appropriate activities, planning activities and the legal requirements involved. Including an overview of the developmental milestones of babies and toddlers, it shows you how you can meet their specific needs.

Raising a Talker: Easy Activities for Birth to Age 3. Renate Zangl, $23.95

Combining fun, easy-to-do activities with research-based tips and developmental overviews, Raising a Talker helps parents and caregivers naturally transform play sessions into meaningful language-learning experiences. Little tweaks and easy changes in everyday play create nurturing environments where communication and discovery can flourish. These skills build the foundation for better communication, both now and later, and set the stage for success in school and beyond. This practical communication and language guide shows parents and caregivers how to play and talk in ways that foster children’s emerging language skills while building on their natural curiosity and exploring the world together. 

Written for teachers of hearing children from birth to age six, Simple Signing is the perfect introduction to teaching young children through sign. There are chapters for infants, toddlers, and preschool children, with age-appropriate signs. The chapter written for teachers of infants focuses on using beginning signs as a bridge to communicating with words, while the toddler chapter focuses on signing to promote expression, enrich vocabulary, and teach social skills. The preschool chapter places an emphasis on using signs to enhance emergent literacy skills … Simple Signing shows teachers just how easy and valuable it can be to incorporate sign language into daily activities.

Starting with Character: Activities for Infants, Toddlers, and Twos. Cathy Waggoner & Martha Herndon, $34.95

Starting with Character focuses on character development in infants, toddlers, and twos. This guide provides everything needed for preparing the environment, creating routines, and evaluating individual learning styles. Lesson plans and steps for creating new lessons are provided, as well as guides for evaluating children's progress. Facilitate the development of key character traits in children: caring, honesty, integrity, respect, responsibility, and self-discipline. 

Teaching Twos and Threes: a Comprehensive Curriculum. Deborah Falasco, $45.95

With a focus on the special joys of working with two and three year-olds, this comprehensive curriculum meets their developmental needs, includes a wide range of activity ideas and learning experiences, and provides strategies to help teachers and caregivers plan a thoughtful program and build positive relationships with young children.

Time for a Story: Sharing Books with Infants and Toddlers. Amy Brooks Read & Saroj Nadkarni Ghoting, $26.95

If you’ve ever tried reading with an infant or toddler, it may look something like this: you sit down on the floor and start reading, and the child pats the pages, chews on the book, or toddles away! With all the signs pointing to disinterest, is it even worth it to read to children from infancy to age two? The answer is yes! Children’s books are tools that prepare young children for later reading success — the way you use books with children makes a difference in their early literacy development. Planning story times with infants and toddlers can be challenging, but with thought and preparation, you can maximize the reading experiences of these little learners!

In Time for a Story, explore fun and engaging ways to talk, sing, read, write, and play with young children throughout the day to help them begin developing important pre-literacy skills, including phonological awareness, print awareness, letter knowledge, and background knowledge. These practical techniques will help you put the children in your care on the path to school readiness!

Toddler Time. Joaine Oliphant, Editor, $13.95

Classroom activities for active toddlers.

Toddlers Moving & Learning: a Physical Education Curriculum. Rae Pica, $29.95 (ages 6-8)

Physical education is a critical part of every early childhood curriculum. Children need to move to channel their energies in creative, beneficial ways and to learn habits for lifelong health and fitness. Toddlers Moving & Learning provides more than 50 developmentally appropriate activities that contribute to a well-rounded curriculum in any classroom or program. The book contains:

• An updated introduction reflecting new research and trends in early childhood health and fitness and information on how movement benefits children's learning and development
• 14 lesson plans, each with one body parts activity, one non-locomotor activity, one locomotor skill experience, and one activity exploring an element of movement, for a total of 56 activities
• Extension ideas and adaptations to use with children who have special needs
• Curriculum connections for each activity and explanations about how activities are aligned with and meet early learning standards from NAEYC and AAHPERD
• A CD with original music to add joy and energy to the activities

Treasure Baskets and Heuristic Play: Ideas for Children from Six Months to Seven Years. Sally Featherstone, $30.00

Heuristic Play is a tightly described, but freely accessed activity, using a specific range of 'found' or everyday objects, and, in its pure sense, is only really applicable to a specific age range (from 12 months to about two and a half).  However, there is now plenty of evidence that heuristic play has continuing value for children throughout the Foundation Stage and well into the primary years. Collections of objects, carefully selected and offered in both adult-led and child-initiated sessions, indoors and outside, can build on the experience of treasure baskets.

In this informative and helpful book you will find further information on the process of using both treasure baskets and heuristic play with babies and young children. You will also find chapters which explore the benefits of heuristic play with objects for children throughout the early years from six months to seven years. Of course, the materials, the provision and the adult role will develop and change as children mature, so this book also gives guidance on how heuristic play itself should change to meet the needs of children at different stages of development.

Understanding Babies and Young Children from Conception to Three: a Guide for Students, Practitioners and Parents. Christine Macintyre, $44.95

Written to support ECE professionals, this fascinating book explores the pre and post-natal development of children from conception to three. It outlines the key aspects of progression, discussing how innate and external factors combine to influence a child’s well-being and abilities. Based upon exhaustive research in the field, but written in a way that is relevant and lively to practitioners and students alike, the text is organized in a question-and-answer format for quick and easy referencing.