Two retired elementary teachers and teacher educators, Flory Simon and Charlotte Stocek, draw on their teaching experiences, especially with children (ages 6 - 9) in multi-age classrooms where children and teachers remain together for multiple years. John Dewey, Nel Noddings, Montessori, Freire and the work of Ken and Yetta Goodman inform their teaching practices to create caring democratic classroom communities. School is envisioned as home and classrooms as families for students with the teacher as a facilitator, guide, and committed lifelong learner. A chapter on co-caring with the school and families united in efforts to serve children reiterates the caring theme that is a thread woven through the book.The authors believe democratic values must be part of children’s schooling in the early grades with freedom of speech, movement, choice, and project work based on students’ personal interests, as Dewey advocated. Change in our schools toward democratic values will greatly involve classroom teachers and take time with a step-by-step approach as well as ongoing commitment. The importance of talk in multi-age classrooms with students and teachers learning from each other is emphasized along with its connection to written language that is also used to communicate and make meaning, as advocated by the Goodmans.