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The book, Caring Spaces, Learning Places: Children’s Environments that Work, provides this helpful list of questions to answer before purchasing a toy:

• "What experiences will children really have with this toy?
  
• Could the same experience be provided with found materials?
  
• Will it be used appropriately or remain intact in my setting?
  
• Will it wear gracefully and safely or become unsafe or useless once damaged?
  
• Is it something that children will all have at home anyway?"

And, in their third Loose Parts book, Lisa Daly and Miriam Beloglovsky consider how loose parts can be used in a culturally sustainable way. They write: "The open-ended qualities of the loose parts allow children to recreate and represent their cultures and home languages in a variety of ways."

And one more resource, the professional development film, Reflecting on Anti-Bias Education in Practice: The Early Years, available for free download, provides much food for thought about creating classroom environments that meet the anti-bias goals of identity, diversity, justice and action. It is now available with a low-cost DVD and guidebook for those who would like that option.

The newest revision of Caring Spaces, Learning Places is a book of ideas, observations, problems, solutions, examples, resources, photographs, and poetry. Here you will find current thinking about children's environments to challenge, stimulate, and inspire you.

Enter coupon code CARING at checkout. May not be combined with any other offer. Offer expires April 6, 2022, at 11:59 pm PST.

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