Research Around the World

I looked into the Australian equivalent to NAEYC at http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org which opens up a world of information about early childhood education in Australia.  You can click on several links that take you to many newsletters, articles, journals and much, much more.

I learned through this website that Australia has created and begun to implement new standards in education.  "The new national standards will ensure all children have access to good quality learning experiences early on in life", but they are just beginning stages of their implementation and assessment.  I think this is a great thing because we know from our own standard implementation that we have a guide to follow to make sure that children are developing correctly and that they are ready for what is to come.  This was a new insight for me because I've always assumed that like the United States, Australia would have already had a set of national standards in place.  Just goes to show you that research goes a long way.  I also learned that Australia has a series of books called "The Everyday Learning Series" that people can subscribe to that gives them a choice of many hardcover or online books for $14.95 that include topics such as sensory learning, meaningful conversations with children, helping children grow, bullying, making most of your environment, responding to emotional needs and many others.  These books are a wonderful tool or parents and educators alike.  I am a parent educator in my school and I was very happy to have come across this resource because I am going to ordering some of these books to help put together presentations for our parents in the upcoming school year.  CHECK IT OUT!  The link even gives you chapter descriptions and samples .  You will love it.!