Bernard van Leer Foundation

The Bernard van Leer Foundation is an international organisation with a mission to "improve opportunities for children up to age 8 who are growing up in socially and economically difficult circumstances." While I've previously linked to the occasional report on their site, I thought that as it's a slow news day, it might be worth drawing attention to some of the resources available on their website, all of which are free to access.

 From a research point of view, the most interesting part of the site is the Publications area. You can search or browse through the various documents in a number of ways, though my personal preference would be to browse by series. Among the series that the Foundation publishes are a collection of Working Papers - recent topics covered include Children's Right to Play and Fostering Language Acquisition in Daycare Settings - and Early Childhood in Focus, which is published in collaboration with the Open University, and examines recent research on key policy issues. Recent titles in this series include Supporting Parenting and Effective Early Childhood Programmes. The biannual journal Early Childhood Matters is also worth a look.

If you'd prefer printed versions of the Foundation's publications, you may order up to five copies free of charge.