After eight years of teaching primary school children (elementary school) Maud turned her attention to the very, very young. In her quest to teach them better she returned to college and an Associateship of a College of Education to her qualifications. Having started by studying Montessori she then went further and gained an International teaching certificate from the Froebel Institute. All of this training is reflected in the book. It guarantees that the book is well and truly geared to the young.

However that in itself does not give true credit to this most unusual book. Maud’`s greatest asset is that she lectured in Education at Motherwell Training College in Scotland where she taught young Nursery Nurses how to teach and what to teach toddlers. She appreciates the need for the teacher to learn as she teaches. Each lesson in the book is therefore laid out in good teacher training fashion, helping the teacher to teach better while helping her to deliver her lesson well and of course at the same time guaranteeing well-structured lessons.

After having taught English in several countries around the world Maud has spent twenty five years teaching English in Japan.. In her own nursery she caters to Japanese children who arrive without a word of English and soon has them speaking English fluently thereby endorsing the adage that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Anyone listening to her young students speak is left in no doubt as to the standard of her work (endorsements by parents of the children she teaches can be read at the end of the text).

At the end of each lesson there is a list of the items the teacher must bring with her to teach that lesson. In this manner Maud caters to the busy teacher expecting not a moment of that teacher’s time for preparation. Maud wrote it with a “Just take the book and go” them running in her head. To this end she even had the book bound in an unusual manner. Each page is glued to a free standing spine in the same manner as a telephone jotter thereby allowing the teacher to simply tear out the page fold it and stick in his, or her, pocket..

In Scotland primary school children are not normally given any homework. The onus is on the teacher to teach well. However in Japan parents like children to have homework and although Maud does not agree with this method of teaching she has laid the book out in such a way that it entices the child himself to desire to go home and do some more work with the book or to continually sing a song.

In Maud’s own nursery the five year old children who are by now bi-lingual are introduced to French as a second language. Using the book as a guide and simply translating the words as she goes along Maud is currently teaching it to her five year olds. Imagine her surprise when one of the three year olds sang one of the French songs perfectly and ardently sought the second verse!

English schools too will love the book. Give this book to a new teacher and simply point him in the direction of the class! Excellent all round!