>
Art

Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

Faculty Publications, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

<Previous Article Next Article>

TITLE:

Collaboration as a Foundation for the Project Approach in Family Child Care

AUTHOR(S):
Joan Youngquist, Skagit/Islands Head Start Program, Mount Vernon, Washington
Carolyn P. Edwards, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Ruth Heaton, University of Nebraska at Lincoln

DOCUMENT TYPE: Article

Published in Young Children 60:2 ( May 2005), pp. 93-99. Copyright © 2005 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. http://www.journal.naeyc.org/ Used by Permission.

ABSTRACT:
Supporting children's curiosity was considered important at my family child care home. How could we best achieve this? As my assistant caregiver Deb and 1 attended professional development workshops, we began to wonder if the project approach (Helm & Katz 2001) would be an effective means of supporting inquiry and collaborative learning. Before we would commit ourselves, we wanted to learn more. We had many questions. Just what is the project approach? What does it look like? How will it support children's learning? What do we need to be successful with it? The literature suggested many examples of successful projects at child care centers and preschools (Breig-Allen et al. 1998; Harkem: 1999; Beneke 2000; Glassman & Whaley 2000). Our challenge was how to adapt the project approach to our home child care situations.