I just found out that the state of michigan (where i live) is giving out grants to home daycares to teach preschool in home. I do a letter per week but would like more substational themes. Does anyone have a list of themes they do per month they would like to share?
You can research pre-made curriculum that you can order and then use their ideas to create your own program. Check out
www.homepreschool.com,
www.adaycare.com, and then google preschool curriculum and you can get ideas off other prepared curriculum.
You can also use the Active Learning Series, The Creative Curriculum for Family Childcare and you can research on google - or call local schools and ask either the secretary, a kindergarten teacher, preschool teacher, or the principal if there is a preschool curriculum that the public schools use in your area and if so, would you be able to find that curriculum online. If so, you can use that to get ideas as well.
I use all the above curriculum to create my own curriculum here.
I have ages 1-4 years old and have taught themes from the above mentioned prepared curriculum sites as well as others I googled. Some of the themes are:
our body, the five senses, my family, community helpers, farm animals, ocean animals, the rainforest, family pets, healthy habits (eating healthy, brushing our teeth, taking baths, etc.), zoo animals, jungle animals, recycling, weights and measurements, plants, living things vs. non-living things, countries around the world - you can cook food that is traditionally eaten in the different countries, of course, the holidays are all a theme for a week, Christmas around the world, transportation, colors (including blending colors to make new colors - easily done with paint), letter of the week, number of the week, etc.
There's SOOO much that you can create a weekly/monthly theme out of! If you research it a bit and just think about daily activities, such as grocery shopping ( you can make that a theme - eating healthy - teach about eating healthy by first making the right decisions while grocery shopping. Or mailing a letter can create the theme of Post Office. You can have the kids (if you go on field trips go to the post office) learn all about writing and mailing letters. Alot of what we do on a daily basis can be turned into a theme. It just takes some imagination and some research online or in the library to make it fun and interesting to the kids.
We also do circle time which includes the calander, weather, going over the colors, numbers, counting to 50, colors, shapes, sight words, phonics, singing, and dancing, fingerplays, etc.