In less than a decade since launching the first edition of Windows on Learning, Helm, Beneke, and Steinheimer have broadened and sharpened their mastery of how to document young children’s ex periences in preschool and primary settings.

In this expanded and extended exploration of the three important “windows” on children’s experiences, every chapter is replete with rich, clear, and persuasive examples of how each of the three “windows” serves the important cause of early childhood education. Every page throughout the book includes rich and clear examples of the enormous power of good documentation to enhance all aspects of early education, including helping parents understand and participate in their children’s experiences and advancing teachers’ professional development.

The new introductory chapter puts the purposes of documentation in clear perspective. It explains how the authors’ approach to early education and various documentation processes are based on the best available contemporary theories of development and learning. The ideas and practices that are recom mended are richly illustrated with a wide variety of real examples of teachers’ work with children. Each example is given in sufficient detail to ensure that readers who are just discovering the value of documentation in providing quality educational experiences to our children can readily adopt the strategies and techniques recommended. The inclusion of project planning sheets and checklists in Chapter 13 makes it much easier to use than the first edition. In addition, the authors offer helpful insights and suggestions about how state standards can be addressed when the project approach is incorporated into the curriculum and the work undertaken is carefully and fully documented.

If you have any doubts about the value of documentation to all those involved—children, their families, their teachers, and those who provide the resources—go straight to Chapter 9 and read the detailed account of the Movie Theater Project that Kathy Steinheimer undertook with the 3- and 4-year-olds in class Yellow 2 at the Valeska Hinton Early Childhood Center in Peoria, Illinois. Even though I had heard bits and pieces about the Movie Theater Project, I found the documented report of its development in Chapter 9 to be breathtaking and certainly inspiring. Though Steinheimer’s group of children are identified as being “at risk,” mainly on the basis of family income, the documentation that she shares with us clearly shows that her confidence in the children is not only justified, but clearly perceived by the children themselves.

Like so many of the projects described through out this edition, one of the major points that becomes clear from the wide variety of examples throughout the book is that documentation can enhance the quality of the education and care we provide for our young children—but there has to be something to document! The authors include a useful brief introduction to using the project approach in the curriculum, which can provide a rich variety of children’s experiences and learning to be captured in the variety of documentation methods the authors describe.

So, go to the windows available throughout this book and let the views they offer support and strengthen your own efforts to provide mind-engaging experiences for young children.

—Lilian G. Katz, University of Illinois