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Great Britain. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is situated in the British Isles. The British Isles consist of two large islands, Great Britain and Ireland, and about five thousand small islands. The United Kingdom is made up of for countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast respectively. The British Isles are separated from the European continent by the North Sea and the English Channel. The North of Scotland is mountainous and is called the Highlands, while the south, which has beautiful valleys and plans, is called the Lowlands. There are many rivers in Great Britain but they are not very long. The Severn is the longest river, while the Thames is the deepest and the most important one. The climate of Great Britain is mild. The UK is one of the world`s smaller countries. The UK is a highly developed industrial country. The UK is a constitutional monarchy. In practice, the Queen reigns, but does not rule. The country is ruled by the elected government with the Prime Minister at the head. The British Parliament consists of two chambers: the House of Lords and the House of Commons.	London is the capital of The United Kingdom and England. It is one of the oldest and largest cities in the world. It is more than two thousand years old. Its population is about 7 million people. London is divided into three parts: the City, the West End and the East End. The City is the financial and business centre of England. During the day it is full of people, about half a million people work there. But at the end of the day the City becomes silent. The West End is famous for its fashionable houses, fine theatres, rich shops and hotels. The docks and most industrial enterprises have been concentrated the East End. There are many places of interest worth seeing in London. This are houses of Parliament with Big-Ben, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Tower, and Trafalgar Square.	Preschool education and language development Of major concern in preschool education is language development. Most investigators agree that true speech starts when the child begins to develop meaningful associations with the words he uses. For example, an infant who imitates the word "mama" without understanding its meaning is not engaging in true speech. For a child between two and six, oral speech is a major task, involving both expression and comprehension. By about the age of four he has mastered the fundamentals of the grammar of his language. By the age of six the average child has increased his vocabulary to about 2,500 words or so-depending on the quality of his environment, and particularly the willingness of adults to relate to the child. Many studies show that the very young child in an impersonal institution, such as an orphanage, generally lags in language development behind children of the same age in a normal family setting. One of the many tasks of early childhood education is to provide training in elementary language skills for all children, but especially for those who need to be protected from the harmful effects of impersonal institutions. To improve their comprehension and speech, there are listening and language games.
Playgroups, crèches and nursery schools. Educational institutions for preschool education in Britain include crèches, playgroups, and nursery schools. A nursery school is a school for children aged between 2 and 5. Children are not required by law to go to nursery school, and instead to other groups such as may go playgroups or crèches. A playgroup or a school is a place where children who are below school age go regularly to play together and to learn through playing. A crèche is a place where babies and small children are taken care of while their parents are working, studying, or shopping. Educational institutions for preschool education in the US include schools and kindergartens. Teacher-preparing institutions Nowadays teacher-preparing institutions usually include teacher training colleges and pedagogical departments within universities. Both of these educational institutions require their students to have a full secondary education. The college level of teacher education usually offers a three-year course of general and professional education that leads to the award of a teaching certificate, valid for work in primary and lower secondary schools. To reach the university level of teacher education, the future teacher is to follow usually a five-year course of combined general education and professional training.	The English Language Though there are almost three thousand languages in the world. English is the official language in international business, science and medicine. About four million people speak English as a mother tongue. Hundreds of words borrowed from English can be found in other languages such as soda, hotel, golf, tennis, jeans, OK, and others. English is everywhere. In spite of their popularity, the English words and phrases are not always welcome. Some people think that the use of the English words is dangerous for the purity of their native language. English nowadays is the language of business, diplomacy and international relations. Most educated people speak English fluently. In most schools children start to learn English just from the first grade. Join the people who want to speak English perfectly and you will gain a great advantage over others. ELEMENTARY-EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS The institutions for elementary education include primary schools in Britain and elementary schools in the US. A primary school in Britain is a state school for children aged between 5 and 11. A state school is a school that offers free education and receives money from the government. Primary schools often consist of a separate infant school and junior school. An infant school in Britain is a type of school for children from the age of five, when children are required by law to start school, until the age of seven. A junior school in Britain is a state school for children aged between seven and eleven.	The pedagogy of Anton Semyonovich Makarenko. Anton Semyonovich Makarenko (1888-1939), Russian teacher and social worker. He was the most influential educational theorist in the Soviet Union. Makarenko studied at the Poltava Teachers’ Institute and graduated in 1917 with honours. In the 1920s he organized the Gorky Colony, a rehabilitation settlement for children made homeless by the Russian Revolution and who roamed throughout the country in criminal gangs. In 1931 he was appointed head of the Dzerzhinsky Commune, a penal institution for young offenders. Makarenko was the author of several books on education. Kindergartens. Children from 3 to 5 years old attend nursery school, an optional school where children play together and learn to socialize. Children from 5 to 6 years old are to attend kindergarten, which is compulsory and is considered a part of elementary education. Kindergartens in the US prepare young children for elementary school and develop basic skills and social behavior by games, exercises, music, and simple handicrafts. Kindergartens as educational institutions for preschool education are attended by children not only in French-speaking countries but also in such places as Scandinavia, Poland, Russia, and Israel. In Italy, a child goes from the nursery school directly to the primary school. In Germany, in addition to the kindergarten, there is the school kindergarten, which is for children of school age who are not considered sufficiently mature, and which therefore serves as a kind of preparatory school for primary school.