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Lilian Katz, well-respected pioneer in the field of early care and education, writing in the book Art of Leadership: Cultivating Curriculum, offers a list of “possible experiences that I suggest all children should have much of the time:

• Feelings of belonging and feeling welcomed
• Feelings of being taken seriously
• Feeling what it is like to understand some things better (or more deeply)
• Experience of applying their developing skills in purposeful and meaningful ways
• Being intellectually engaged and challenged
• Experience of overcoming setbacks and obstacles
• Experience of offering suggestions to peers and helping them understand something better
• Experience of taking initiative, appropriate responsibilities, making some choices, and so forth.”

And in the DVD, Voices, Insights from the Field: Building Enrollment, two other leaders in the ECE field share insights into what they believe families most want in programs for their children:

“The preschool years are a terribly emotional time, a wonderful time, but terribly emotional,” Bob Siegel says. “What’s the number one thing parents first want? Safety and security. That’s an emotional message. They must be able to trust you.”

Anne Saunders believes the next thing families look for is “a balance of social, emotional, academic and physical development. Whole-child development is really what parents are looking for.”

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