The Everyday Lives of Young Children

Where do young children spend their time? What activities are they involved in, and who do they interact with? How do these activities and interactions vary across different societies and cultural groups? This book provides unique answers to these questions, by describing the lives of three-year-olds in the United States, Russia, Estonia, Finland, South Korea, Kenya, and Brazil. Each child was followed for the equivalent of one complete waking day, whether at home, in childcare, on the streets, at the shops, etc. Graphic displays and verbal descriptions of the children's everyday activities and interactions reveal both the ways in which culture influences children's lives and the ways in which children play a role in changing the cultural groups of which they are a part. This book also has a clear theoretical rationale and illustrates why and how to do cultural-ecological research.

Jonathan Tudge is a professor of human development and family studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His research examines cultural-ecological aspects of young children's development both within and across a number of societies, particularly focusing on the years before and immediately following the entry into school.