Kristin van Ogtrop knows she's lucky-fulfilling career, great husband, three healthy kids, and, depending on the hamster count, an impressive roster of pets. You could also say she's half-insane, but name one working mom who isn't. Using stories and insights from her own life, van Ogtrop offers a lexicon for working moms everywhere. Terms and concepts illustrate the highs (kids who know where their soccer cleats are, coworkers who don't hit "Reply All," dogs who helpfully eat whatever falls from the table) and the lows (getting out of the house in the morning, getting along with everyone at the office, getting willful kids into bed) of balancing work and family. Filled with amusing and resonant observations, Just Let Me Lie Down establishes van Ogtrop as the Erma Bombeck of the new millennium.

Children are ‘hard-wired’ to learn and they learn best by being active and autonomous – exploring, discovering, creating and taking risks, in other words, by playing. However, formal, subject specific lessons and a focus on data, targets and unrealistic expectations are causing young children to be bored and stressed and this is stifling their learning. Year One in Action reveals the remarkable progress children can make when they are allowed to pursue their own interests, ideas and challenges in a superb and enabling environment supported by responsive, skilled and empathic staff. Demonstrating how a child-led approach supports the development of purposeful, calm, confident and independent children, this book offers a unique month-by-month insight into the workings of a highly successful Year One class. It covers all aspects of practice from timetabling, adult roles and transitions to the organisation of the classroom and outside area. It tracks the events of each month in the year, paying close attention to the physical environment and the learning that is taking place. Interactions between staff and children are recognised as, and exploited as, teaching opportunities. Throughout the book, Anna Ephgrave gives the reasons behind each decision made. She also explains what the outcomes have been for the children, emphasising that a child-led approach, with planning in the moment, enables rich learning across the curriculum for all children within a meaningful context. Key features include: over 150 full colour photographs to illustrate practice; photocopiable pages of planning sheets, record keeping sheets and sample letters to parents examples of individual learning journeys and planning in the moment; guidance on what to look for when assessing children’s progress; advice on risk/benefit assessments; suggestions for managing transitions and minimising stress. The achievements of these children have been remarkable and they have remained the enthusiastic, independent, happy and unique individuals that they were when they came into Year One. Written by a leading consultant teacher, this book will inspire teachers to be brave and do what is right for children – let them take the lead, trust that they want to learn and above all let them play!

NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • The moving, suspenseful, beautifully atmospheric modern classic from the acclaimed author of The Remains of the Day and Klara and the Sun—“a Gothic tour de force" (The New York Times) with an extraordinary twist. “Brilliantly executed.” —Margaret Atwood “A page-turner and a heartbreaker.” —TIME “Masterly.” —Sunday Times As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were. Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special—and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together.

First published: United Kingdom: Little Brown Book Group Limited, 2018.

These days, even a preschooler's bedtime can be rushed and tense after a busy day of classes, playdates, and increasing screen time. "Winding down" has become more difficult for everyone in the family. Read Me to Sleep stories are designed to soothe the child and the adult, with calming text and prompts that effortlessly encourage both reader and listener to breathe deep and dream. The first story, Let's Go to Sleep, is a journey throughmagical Forest of Dreams, where Mama Bird leads a drowsy crew of animal friends on the gentle journey to sleep. Each Read Me to Sleep story features opportunities to personalize the text for deeper meaning and optimal comfort, cues to help readers slow down and use their voices more effectively for bedtime, and deep breathing embedded in the narrative to maximize relaxation for both adult and child.

Revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide with translations in 29 languages. After too many years of unfulfilling work, Bronnie Ware began searching for a job with heart. Despite having no formal qualifications or previous experience in the field, she found herself working in palliative care. During the time she spent tending to those who were dying, Bronnie's life was transformed. Later, she wrote an Internet blog post, outlining the most common regrets that the people she had cared for had expressed. The post gained so much momentum that it was viewed by more than three million readers worldwide in its first year. At the request of many, Bronnie subsequently wrote a book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, to share her story. Bronnie has had a colourful and diverse life. By applying the lessons of those nearing their death to her own life, she developed an understanding that it is possible for everyone, if we make the right choices, to die with peace of mind. In this revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide, with translations in 29 languages, Bronnie expresses how significant these regrets are and how we can positively address these issues while we still have the time. The Top Five Regrets of the Dying gives hope for a better world. It is a courageous, life-changing book that will leave you feeling more compassionate and inspired to live the life you are truly here to live.

In the original book – Continuous Provision, Alistair Bryce-Clegg covered what effective continuous provision should look like and how practitioners could achieve it by linking their provision directly to assessment. This new title: The Skills, demonstrates that in every area of continuous provision (like sand, water, role play, small world etc) there are 'pure' skills that children can only learn in that area and there are 'facilitative' skills that children can learn through that area. Each of these 'pure' and 'facilitative' skills needs to be acknowledged, assessed and taught and this is the premise of this new title. In The Skill of Continuous Provision Alistair: Revisits (briefly) the principles of effective continuous provision Looks at each area of continuous provision in turn and identifies a range of 'pure' and 'facilitative' skills Shows how the provision itself (resources) should be leveled 'top', 'middle' and 'emergent' to meet the development needs of all children irrespective of how old they are. Gives some comprehensive examples of how to break those skills down into top, middle, emergent e.g. in 'Paint' he identifies skills that children need to learn when using paint like texturising, application, printing etc. He then takes each of those skills individually and show how a skill like printing could be broken down into three broad stages. Asks and answers questions like: What would really basic, lower level printing look like? What sort of resources would facilitate effective learning in this area of development? By the end of the book the practitioner should have a really practical guide to differentiated skill development in continuous provision.