What can early years practitioners learn from Steiner kindergartens?What is distinctive about Steiner kindergarten teachers’ ways of getting to know children?As demands for accountability in Early Years settings continue to grow, external pressure to assess children and to measure their progress can disrupt the development of informal and intimate relationships between teachers and children.The contributors to this book, who include both experienced Steiner educator...

In the Demi-Monde Ella can trust nothing and nobody . . . not even herself. This omnibus edition includes all four parts of The Demi-Monde, called 'Discworld's savage noir cousin' by Stephen Baxter and 'an amazingly quick and enjoyable read' by the British Fantasy Society.The Demi-Monde is a computer-simulated training ground for soldiers. Populated by history's most notorious leaders, it is truly a Cyber-Hell.Ella Thomas was sent there to rescue N...

The Demi-Monde is about to reach its catastrophic conclusion . . .For thousands of years the Grigori have lain hidden, dreaming of the day when they will emerge from the darkness. Now that day draws close.Norma, Trixie and Ella fight doggedly to frustrate these plans, but they need help. Percy Shelley must lead Norma to the Portal in NoirVille so she can return to the Real World. Trixie's father must convince her that, if she is to destroy the Great Pyramid...

Rod Rees's riveting dystopian saga continues with The Shadow Wars, the spellbinding sequel to The Demi-Monde: Winter.First Daughter Norma Williams finds herself stranded in the sinister cyber-world of the not-so-distant future that's inhabited by some of history's most menacing villains. Betrayed by those she thought were friends, she must lead the resistance against a terrifying force if she wants to survive.Skillfully written and highly imaginative, ...

For students of Early Childhood Studies, questions are as important as answers.What is childhood? Is childhood the same in all cultures?How do children grow and develop?What space do we make for children in our society?How do adults approach risk and what does this mean for children?Can children’s play be planned by adults?Early Childhood Studies tackles these questions and more. It explores the why, how and what of stu...

Technologies are a pervasive feature of contemporary life for adults and children. However, young children’s experiences with digital technologies are often the subject of polarised debate among parents, educators, policymakers and social commentators, particularly since the advent of tablets and smartphones changed access to the Internet and the nature of interactions with digital resources. Some are opposed to children’s engagement with digital resources, concerned that the activities th...

Early Childhood Education in the United States is rife with contradictions, critique and innovation. It is a time when a status quo – characterized by systemic, historic discrimination; teacher de-professionalization; 'teaching to the test'; and attacks on funding – is challenged by new technologies, new literacies and transformative and critical perspectives and practices that defy assumptions and biases to create cutting-edge, diverse instantiations of Early Childhood Education for child...

'We want you to go to hell, Miss Thomas.'For five million bucks Ella is prepared to give even hell - or in this case, the Demi-Monde - a shot. And all she has to do to earn it is find the President's daughter and lead her to safety. But as Ella discovers, getting into the Demi-Monde is the easy part; surviving to collect her money is quite another.With thirty million digital-Duplicates at war in the cyber-killing field that is the US Military's virtual-trai...

The shadows grow ever darker across the Demi-Monde.As the soldiers of Heydrich's ForthRight goose-step into Paris and the long-forgotten evil that is Lilith is awoken, it falls to Norma Williams to lead the resistance. Lost in the virtual nightmare that is the Demi-Monde she must come to terms with these terrible responsibilities and with the knowledge that those she thought were her friends are now her enemies.To triumph in this surreal cyber-world she mus...

Welcome to the Demi-Monde: a computer-created steampunk horror-pit of a virtual world, ruled by history's choicest psychos!Eight thousand years ago the Deluge destroyed the empire of the Lilithi, setting the race of super-warriors known as the Grigori loose in the outside world. They have lain hidden until now when - thanks to the creation of the dystopian virtual reality that is the Demi-Monde - they at last stand ready to achieve mastery of the Real World - and t...

A story for everyone who ever loved the work of the late, great SF writer Cordwainer Smith.From "An Introduction to 'The Ruined Queen of Harvest World'":Perhaps nobody in all the world had ever written the future so well, hauntingly, yearningly [as Cordwainer Smith].And then he had gone, barely more than half a century old.We would never learn the rest of those stories, that history of the deep future, that golden journey—oh, oh, oh...

This book summarises the ideas of educational theorists and psychologists of the last 60 years, from Elinor Goldschmied to Tina Bruce. It also looks at the important contemporary issues in early years education, from whether boys and girls learn differently to the role of the community in the early years setting.