In his Educating Children at Home, Alan Thomas found that many home educating families chose or gravitated towards an informal style of education, radically different from that found in schools. Such learning, also described as unschooling, natural or autonomous, takes place without most of the features considered essential for learning in school. At home there is no curriculum or sequential teaching, nor are there any lessons, textbooks, requirements for written work, practice exercises, marking or testing. But how can children who learn in this way actually achieve an education on a par with what schools offer? In this new research, Alan Thomas and Harriet Pattison seek to explain the efficacy of this alternative pedagogy through the experiences of families who have chosen to educate their children informally. Based on interviews and extended examples of learning at home the authors explore: - the scope for informal learning within children's everyday lives - the informal acquisition of literacy and numeracy - the role of parents and others in informal learning - how children proactively develop their own learning agendas. Their investigation provides not only an insight into the powerful and effective nature of informal learning but also presents some fundamental challenges to many of the assumptions underpinning educational theory. This book will be of interest to education practitioners, researchers and all parents, whether their children are in or out of school, offering as it does fascinating insights into the nature of children's learning.

Understanding How Children Learn is a vital part of working with children. Every child is unique and understanding differences in learning helps all to benefit. This book goes beyond simply understanding the work of key theorists and the various theories of learning to recognise what learning actually looks like and how it is best facilitated in any setting. Each chapter includes: Exercises to help you evaluate your understanding and practice Examples taken from real experiences to illustrate concepts beyond the theory Summaries to help you take the key messages from each chapter Suggestions for further reading to help push your own learning further. Looking at key topics such as brain development, technology in childhood and barriers to learning, this book will explain what learning really is. Why not also have a look at the companion title Learning Theories in Childhood to explore the key learning theories? Sean MacBlain is Reader in Child Development and Disability at the University of St. Mark & St. John, Plymouth.

The inspirational stories of young learners in this book discredit assumptions behind recent educational reforms, including high stakes testing and No Child Left Behind policies. The experiences of the American Indian children and the author, a kindergarten teacher, challenge the widely held assumption that minority children enter school "at risk." Deficit theory assumes that minority children are responsible for their failure by cultural deficiency or family ineptitude. Fayden vividly shows how truly equitable treatment of minority children can improve students' inherent abilities to learn and can result in higher achievement for minority and all young children.

"This book is a great resource for educators and families and is filled with practical ideas to engage everyone in the fun of learning." —Susan Stewart, Curriculum Consultant, Supervisor, Adjunct Instructor Stark County Education Service Center, Ashland University "Wonderful! The author has done an excellent job of providing a wealth of materials for the educator and/or parent, as well as answering some tough questions about home learning for young children." —Ken Klopack, Art and Gifted Educational Consultant Chicago Public Schools, IL Create a strong home-school connection through family activities that extend learning! Because families play a critical role in helping young children develop a strong academic foundation and a love of learning, teachers need to involve caregivers as partners in education and extend learning to the home environment. Learning at Home, PreK–3 helps teachers plan developmentally appropriate, creative homework activities that encourage positive learning experiences and reinforce important home-school connections. Packed with hundreds of engaging and interesting activities, this resource expands the concept of what constitutes homework and family involvement. Focused mainly on social interactions within the family, these playful, fun activities: Relate directly to children′s own experiences Employ concrete, easily accessible materials Include shared reading experiences, family projects, and games Integrate developmental and content areas, including language and literacy, mathematics, science, and the creative arts Promote literacy learning in homes where English is not the primary language These tools and strategies help teachers reach out to families and reinforce learning both in school and at home, ensuring that all students have the chance to achieve and become lifelong learners.

By bringing together research evidence on effectively supporting parents to engage with their children’s early learning, and the role of education professionals in developing partnerships with families, this book focuses on partnerships between professionals and parents to enhance family learning for young children in literacy and other aspects of early learning. The move towards setting, home-based, and online learning has accelerated, and it is important for both students and practitioners to value parents’ roles in their young children’s learning; to consider how parents can support young children’s learning in these scenarios, and how to apply this in practice with children aged birth to five. Through a wealth of case studies from real experience, the authors showcase an inspiring range of inclusive projects and approaches with families, including marginalised groups such as bilingual learners, fostering families, and families identified as ‘vulnerable’ including imprisoned fathers and children with specific learning needs.

For several decades, parent-child cognitive interaction researchers have acknowledged that children learn cognitive skills in the context of their social and early environments. These cognitive skills are often imparted to the children by parents or parenting others in formal or informal settings. Thus, for example, such informal settings as dinner table conversations, walks through grocery stores, museums, or neighborhoods become rich laboratories for children to learn varied cognitive skills ranging from numeracy, concepts, and language. The way in which those learning opportunities are provided by parents, structured by parents and scaffolded by parents may well vary depending on culture, and other socio-demographic variables; and may well vary depending on formal or informal settings. The aim of this Research Topic is to bring together scholarship from both global north and global south contexts which explores how children learn via parental involvement in formal and informal settings. Publisher’s note: In this 2nd edition, the following article has been added: Harris YR and Longobardi C (2020) Editorial: How Children Learn From Parents and Parenting Others in Formal and Informal Settings: International and Cultural Perspectives. Front. Psychol. 11:1026. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01026