Fuzhou ESUO Future Kindergarten by Dika Architectural Design Center in Fuzhou, China, reimagines early childhood education through a playful, irregularly shaped building crowned with a rooftop astronaut sculpture. The structure transforms traditional kindergarten layouts into a three-dimensional exploration system that spans from ground level to corridors and rooftops. Corridors function as all-weather adventure paths, while each floor becomes an interactive playground. The astronaut sculpture atop the building serves as a visual and conceptual anchor, inviting children to imagine themselves as cosmic explorers
Nargiz Mammadli and Emmanuel "Manny" Morando Neri both have a passion for teaching, and in particular, teaching young learners. Early Childhood Education Substitute Teacher Empowerment & Placement (ECE STEP) is looking to provide connections and training to help them pursue both. With an eye toward careers in education, both Mammadli and Morando Neri said they have gotten a boost from resources provided by the nonprofit commonly known as ECE STEP.
'You know your kids love you but you don't see them talk about you,' Katz, whose daughters are 10 and 12, tells TODAY.com. 'The space between you and your child when you send them to preschool for the first time just feels so wide, and you're just hoping that they're OK. Getting to be on the other side of it and seeing how much love these kids have for their parents ... I had no idea. You don't see.'
When Sesame Street first appeared on television in 1969, it rearranged the architecture of childhood. The show looked like pure joy, a neighborhood of color, rhythm, and creatures who seemed to belong to no one and everyone at once. But underneath the laughter and songs was something more radical. A handful of educators and psychologists came together with a quiet conviction that television could be a classroom for children who didn't have one. They weren't simply trying to teach the alphabet.
School board officials in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood recently voted 4-1 to convert Lincoln Elementary school into a centralized early learning center, and re-direct all pre-kindergarten children from their neighborhood schools to there - a small but seismic change that advocates say will effectively sacrifice district's identity as a "walking school district" where virtually every student can access the classroom on foot.
Look for the teachers getting down on their level, walking from child to child, asking each one questions about their activity/day, and seeming genuinely interested in each child as they speak to them! Early on, when working in childcare, I struggled with this way more than I do now, honestly, being worried that the kids just wouldn't like me. But kids like consistency and safety, which is what that trust-building is for.
A member of our research team handed a five-year-old a crayon and asked her to draw what makes her feel like she belongs at school. She drew herself surrounded by Lego blocks. "I feel like I belong to school when I am playing Lego," she wrote. This wasn't what we expected in our latest study. After analyzing drawings and conversations with 108 children in their first year of school across Melbourne, our research team discovered something important.
The preschoolers were fascinated, looking at their classroom through the lens of an iPad camera, watching animated images pop up as a cheerful voice told them: Feed apples to a pig behind a haystack. Select the carnival ride located between two sets of balloons. While the game delighted these 3- and 4-year-olds, they were actually participating in a serious research project that is developing an important foundation for their future in math - spatial thinking and its integrated vocabulary, a skill typically overlooked in early education.
From swim lessons to tutoring, today's most successful children's franchises are finding innovative ways to support kids' growth, learning and confidence - while also providing strong opportunities for entrepreneurs. Based on the 2025 Franchise 500, these brands represent the best in their categories, combining proven systems, trusted reputations and scalable business models. Whether it's early education, enrichment programs or adventure-filled activities, these companies are shaping the future for the next generation.
The preschool and community center-a $3 million renovation project which just held an opening celebration in early August and will begin operations in early September-fills a void in most homeless housing and service centers. Services for children and families remain very hard to come by, preventing many single parents and families that are unhoused from transitioning to a more stable and secure housing situation. The Betty Bazaar Center is the first state-licensed childcare center to open adjacent to homeless housing.
The city's Department of Education is opening an Early Childhood Learning center this fall at 1972 Broadway, catering to students with special needs such as autism, cognitive delays, and emotional disabilities.
Labour pledges to create an integrated network of family hubs that would be so popular and entrenched that no future government could dismantle it. This initiative will build on the legacy of Sure Start and aims to close the attainment gap between poorer and richer children.
