Toddler Class & Preschool - Spring 2010

I have been meaning to update our curriculum sidebar links since the new year - hopefully I will get it done over the next couple weeks.

Oh what to do with 2 little ones? I don't know, but I hope I have it figured out before our next little one comes along in July!!! Well, maybe I don't feel completely clueless, but today has been a "drive mom crazy" day for my 2 little girls - I caught them yanking down some blinds and they run away gigling when I came to stop them. Then I caught them dumping out flour and again they ran off giggling about being caught. My 3 year old decided to try punching me in the eye when I took away a cord that goes to our treadmill, oh so lovely. During N's club time (when I'm working with seven 6-9 year olds) they pulled out all the blocks, wooden train set, board books, puzzles, and cushions from the couch, and then begged for cookies. Then when I took them outside to burn off some energy they spent the whole time racing off (giggling again) to our neighbors stairs/deck where they noisily climbed up and down and ran away from my impatient attempts to catch them or lecture them into listening - my neighbor works a late shift. After I settled them into the sand box and they somewhat quietly played (don't throw sand - don't put sand in her hair - keep the sand in teh sandbox) they spent their bathtime (all of 5 minutes)kicking each other and dumping water out of the tub. Oy! Just another day!!


Thankfully most days are like today. As for our current plans, I don't think we have changed much from our Fall 2009 plans, but maybe we have??? I'm still working on being flexible, and don't commit to any "programs" or "plans" or "curriculum."

I do NOT get to pick the books we are reading anymore - these 2 girls have their favorites and we read them at least 2 or 3 times a day. Its always nice when they change things up with a new title. Here are some of their favorites right now:

We're Going on a Bear Hunt

The Ear Book by Al Perkins

The Hair Book by Graham Tether (couldn't find a picture)

Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree and Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

The Little Red Hen

Ten Tiny Fairies

Mother Goose

My Big Book

Let's Learn Portuguese Picture Dictionary

We do the "preschool" type subjects (colors, numbers, etc.) while we are reading or through the everyday things we do. For example, while we read Ten Tiny Fairies we talk about the colors of the fairies or when they pick out their clothes in the morning (and again at lunch time and then at snack time and for bed - lol) I'll tell them what color they are wearing or how many buttons I am buttoning. When I make pancakes we count how many I pour on the griddle. O counts the bread when she puts it into the toaster.

Books like My Big Book and the Portuguese Picture Dictionary are great for building vocabulary, because there are so many pictures and so many things to talk about. We talk about colors, and how many are there, and what is happening, and we pretend to eat pictures of yummy food (and sometimes farm animals too).

Often while I am working with my older kids these 2 girls join in how they can - during math they color on their own white boards or play with the math blocks. When we are working on picture narrations or copywork, they color at the table with us.

And when they get tired of hanging with us they will pull out their own activites from a nearby closet or head to their bedroom to play with their kitchen or baby dolls.

And of course they go on our nature study walks and other field trips. They are fascinated with animals right now so trips to Farm Country or a park are very exciting for them. They are expert bird watchers - at our feeder on our back porch, at parks, or driving around.

Even though we have plenty of up and downs, and crazy days like today, this age is so much fun. It is exciting to see them so excited about learning.

Toddler Class/Preschool

I prefer being really flexible for anything I do with my toddlers so I don't follow a specific program and we are constantly changing and adjusting. I'm sure that anything I've posted in the past we finished or stopped doing a looong time ago.

But O, my almost 3 year old, wants her own "class" and it is really helpful to devote 20-30 minutes to my two little girls before starting school work with my older kids.

We start by reading books together. They will usually pick a few that they are currently interested in, and I pick a few as well. The ones I pick we usually read for 2-4 weeks at a time, and have more of a learning aspect to them. Sometimes we read the books and sometimes we look at the pictures.

Books I've picked for November:

A book from My First Bob Books Pre-Reader Collection which includes the Alphabet set and Pre-Reading set -- I don't read these to teach my girls to read, but because they are simple and have a lot of familiar pictures for them to identify. They also like them because my older kids have used the other collections as they were learning to read, so my girls think they are using "big kid" stuff. And there are stickers.

First Rhymes: A Day of Rhymes with a Different Twist by Lucy Coats -- Author has re-written favorite nursery rhymes: "Humpty Dumpty stood on his head, Humpty Dumpty fell out of bed . . . "

Go, Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman -- has colors, opposites, and lots of DOGS, my girls' favorite animal.

Before Five in a Row books -- The Five in a Row books are wonderful, but I prefer to just use the book lists for wonderful picture book ideas. Jesse Bear is very well-loved and O is always asking for it!!

Books girls picked today: The Bugliest Bug, I am Not Going to Get Up Today, and Oops-A-Daisy.

After we've read for a little while we play games. Right now they like laying the memory cards face up and making matches. In the past we've done puzzles, played with babies or other toys, and sometimes we also do activities like Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes or Ring around the Rosies. We also sometimes sing songs together - they are really getting into a song we are learning in anticipation of Christmas called Christmas Bells.

After about 30 minutes I let them pick some toys from the closet that are just for school time -- we have a house set, barn set, Noah's ark set, space ship set, blocks, puzzles, and quiet books. They also will join in when we are doing something they can participate in such as coloring, nature walks, listening to stories, etc.

Mom! Olivia's coloring in my math book!!

What to do with a 2 year old?! Out of necessity, I am mixing up our home school schedule a little to include some "class" time for Olivia. "Class" is what Olivia calls nursery at church, and she has started asking to have "class" at home. And because she has become disruptive to our morning lessons (i.e. coloring in kids school books during lesson time, throwing tantrums for attention, etc.), I'm happy to give her the wanted class time.

I'm not approaching this class time as "preschool." The objective is not for her to learn her letters, numbers, shapes, and/or colors, though these will somewhat be included in our class, but the main objective is for the two of us to spend time having fun together. I think this is really what she wants. That said, I don't want to have to create original lessons for her, especially when there are some wonderful resources out there with information already put together.

I have been using the new Nursery Manual, and Olivia loves to look through it. I use one lessson per week, and each day review the main idea from the lesson. Lesson one is "I am a child of God" so we sang the song each day, looked at the picture of the kids and talked about how they are all children of God, everyone in our family is a child of God, and some days we did the activity verse, "If your very, very tall (stretch and reach arms up . . . etc. "

We have been using Letter of the Week's pre-preschool lessons. Instead of a poster as suggeted at Letter of the Week, I put all the information for that week on a single white cardstock page. I point of the letters, numbers, etc., but mostly we have been focusing on the weekly theme-- reading picture books from the library, singing songs and nursery rhymes, playing games, and coloring pictures-- all centered around the theme. She can also color the pictures on the white cardstock page if she wants.

These are the two main resources I am currently using. Here are some of the other sites I use to find songs, games, activities, and coloring pictures:

It's Storytime

Online Storytime

Free Kid Crafts

Enchanted Learning

Preschoolers and Peace Blog

My time with Olivia is only about 15-20 minutes, sometimes Austin and Nyah particpiate and sometimes they don't, but it has made a huge difference in how Olivia acts while I am doing school with the older two. After our class time, she gets to pick a special toy from the high closet shelf- these are toys I have put out of reach and she can only play with them while I do school with the older kids. These are a house set (plastic house, people, furniture, etc.) , farm set (plastic farmer and animals), Noah's ark set (plastic ark, animals, Noah & wife), and play dishes and food.
I didn't use the toys the first week we were trying the class time, and Olivia wanted class time to go on and on, and would throw a tantrum when I'd stop. Now she has something else to focus on, and happily plays with her toys. When she tires with one of the toy sets, she and I clean up, and she can pick another one if she wants. Most of the time she moves on to the other toys that are around all the time. As part of our morning chores the kids to clean up their bedrooms, and this helps Olivia be able to find the toys she wants to play with- like her babies and baby stuff, Barbies, stuffed animals, etc. Sometimes Olivia wants to be working with us while we are doing school, so I have several activities for her to do then. I try to get her to do something similar to what the older kids are doing. When they are reading she can look through books, and there are many days she will look through one book after the other, until she empties a book shelf. When they are writing or drawing, I'll give her a coloring page about that week's theme, or we have lots of coloring books and paper she can pick from. She loves to take her turn on our big whiteboard after the kids have finished using it, but we also have a couple small whiteboards she can also use. We have lots of puzzles that she can do- some on her own, and I can help her put harder ones together when I don't have to completely focus on the older two, such as when they are listening to a story or working on something on their own.

Mid-morning (about 10a.m.) we usually have a snack-recess time, and this gives me time to feed her & Jolie, change diapers, read a quick story, or do whatever else needs doing (switching laundry, which Olivia likes to help me with- sigh, someday she'll grow out of it). Once school is over I make a point to spend a few minutes with her before I jump into making lunch or doing household stuff- we read a story, chase each other around the house, play ring-around-the-rosies, whatever comes to mind.