Straw Into Gold – Ken Jaffe/Leslie Falconer – Mother Goose Time

Often teachers and parents around the world lack the training or materials needed to provide stimulation, growth and development for young children. Straw into Gold shows you how to use materials you already have and create activities which are intended to cost very little or nothing. These activities allow educators, parents and volunteers the opportunity to provide enrichment and growth for children.
Over the past decade, co-authors Ken Jaffe and Leslie Falconer, have collaborated on innovative early childhood development practices with early childhood professionals and various organizations and have worked with children in less developed parts of the world. According to Jaffe, In Guayaquil, Ecuador we were fascinated by the amazing use of found objects which were transformed by energetic teachers and parents into meaningful children’s activities. This collaboration and observation, which extended into 30 countries, has evolved into Straw into Gold which provides the framework for these exciting, stimulating and developmentally appropriate activities. Moreover, the book allows for the creation of activity areas that can be placed anywhere – from the classroom setting to an open space with a dirt floor. According to Falconer, Children learn best when they can move, touch and explore throughout the day. Carefully designed activity areas allow children to develop important cognitive, social/emotional and physical skills. She went on to say that this book is a beginning in the efforts to help children anywhere experience the joy of early childhood.