Toddler Activities: Activity Time with Preschool Lessons

Here's the basic layout of our Activity Time these days, now that I have a preschooler. My two-year old participates in these as well, although I do direct most lessons to my three year old's learning level. One day I'll manage to swing separate activities for both girls (maybe), but for now, this is it:

1. We talk about the day of the week, month, season, and what the weather is like outside. For the songs we sing, click here and here.

2. If there's an upcoming holiday or something special about that month, we discuss those. I've also been incorporating very simple lessons about time.

3. We talk about our letter of the week (for ex, the letter C). We're learning both upper-case and lower-case. I start by writing both letters on our dry-erase board, describing what it looks like and how you write it. Then I invite my toddler/preschooler to come up and trace my letter or write her own--both upper and lower case. Then we sing "The "C" says "kuh", the "C" says "kuh," every letter makes a sound, the "C" says "kuh." We also talk about the sign for this letter.

I fill a paper sack with "C" words and have the girls pull them out one at a time.

4. Then we read our books about the letter that we found at the library (or from our personal library).

4. We do a quick math lesson, usually with fruit. ("If I have three oranges and take away one, how many are left?")

5. Then we end with a craft, activity, or game that has to do with the letter or holiday or whatever else we're learning about! (This is my favorite part). In this example, we covered our letter C's with cotton balls. Then we ate cheese pizza for lunch.

My best advice (to my self included) is to not overwhelm yourself with ALL the information, preschool programs and websites and activities, etc that are out there.
Just have fun with your kids and keep it simple.

Activity Time/Preschool Schedule: How to Plan Time with your Kids

Last fall I enrolled my three year old in a preschool class at an arts academy that included piano and sign language in its curriculum. I was excited for her to get the "classroom experience" and learn from someone other than myself. After a few weeks, I felt disappointed about a few things:

1. After several requests, I was denied a copy of the songs they were teaching in her class (copyright). She was learning some songs I didn't know, so it was impossible to practice them at home.
2. Since I didn't know what my daughter was learning in each class, except for the letter and book of the week, I couldn't reinforce those lessons at home.
3. I didn't know any of the kids in her class or their parents.
4. I just felt plain jealous that someone else was watching my daughter learn new things for the first time. I have to hand her over to a teacher at some point--I'm pretty sure that homeschooling is not for me--but I want to keep her as long as I can. I knew I could handle preschool at home, so I pulled her out and we've incorporated some preschool lessons into our activity time.

I wanted to share my schedule with you because I think it's always helpful to see what other moms are doing. I'd love to hear about your routine as well. Here goes:

Monday: We visit our local children's museum called the Treehouse where they have "Toddler Time" which includes stories and crafts. This replaces activity time at home.

Tuesday: We attend our local library's "Discovery Time." We check out books for the week and play on the computer.

Wednesday: Activity Time/Preschool at home. For more info on this click here.

Thursday: We participate in a local preschool co-op with other mom's in the neighborhood, where five of us rotate teaching. In the fall I'll be joining/creating a Joy School group.

Friday: Activity Time/Preschool at home (review).

That's it. I love doing the co-op preschool because my kids get the social interaction they would at a public preschool, but with kids we know and play with anyway. I also know what the mom's are teaching so I can reinforce those lessons at home. I want to do Joy School in the fall for a more organized curriculum and music.

I think the key is finding what works for you and your kids. I felt so overwhelmed last fall as I considered my options for preschool. Then I realized that we enjoy our activity time at home together and I can prepare her for kindergarten competently. So far, it's working.

Any thoughts on this?