Concept Map: My Family The foregoing concept maps show just how rich the early childhood curriculum can be and how wide the spectrum of learning a child can explore. It illustrates an integrated curriculum that relates concepts to each other as well as skill areas. Littledyke (2008) has defined integrated curriculum as such: “Integrated curriculum thus refers to the use of several different strategies across several different domains and encompassing project and process approaches for holistic learning and development designed to support meaningful learning for children” (Littledyke, 2008, p.21-22). In the concept map, everything branches out from the main concept or theme which is family. This theme is of interest to children because it is their first social circle and is very relevant and meaningful in their lives. Basically, its learning about people other than themselves. Since family members are the significant people in children’s lives, the theme will evoke a great deal of interest in the children. The second illustration shows the cognitive skills that may be developed from the concepts and activities designed in the integrated curriculum. The figure focuses on math, science and literacy skills. These skills may overlap across subject areas as well as developmental domains. The main concept branches out to various subconcepts all related to family and to other subconcepts. If each subconcept will be thoroughly studied, then the concept map can be used for a long term or even the whole school year depending on the age level of the children and the depth of investigation into each subconcept. Justification of Concept Map There are many opportunities for learning using the concept of family. The teacher may even engage the active participation of the children’s family members In terms of literacy skills, there is a multitude of storybooks on family that may be read in class. Children may also create their own storybooks with their families. It can be a weekend assignment assigned by the teacher where each page can highlight a separate family member – with pictures or words contributed by that family member. When the child brings it back to school, he or she may share and “read” it in class. One project that may be done by all the families in class is a Storybook Chain. The class begins the story with the first page, with the children contributing the drawing, introducing the characters of their choice, setting and plot and giving it a title themselves. Then, turn by turn, each child will bring it home for their families to do a page or two to contribute to the story. The culminating activity can be a Family Reading Night when all the families will be invited to class for story readings by some parents, and the highlight, of course will be the reading of the completed Story Chain so all the families will know how the story turned out. Such a collaborated effort will engage children’s interest in their own literature and motivate them to read and write more of their own. Numeracy skills may be learned with counting and comparing the numbers of family members per family in class. Charts may be created on how many girls and boys each family has, or what their favorite foods are and later on compare the “statistics”. This may also extend to other subconcepts like the home, counting how many windows or doors each home for each family has. The fami