Just wondering if anyone would like to share their yearly preschool curriculum that they use in their daycare. I am still working on mine for the upcoming year. I will post it when it is complete.

Do you make your own up, or buy one.

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This will be my first full school year. I opened in March and only had my son and one other guy preschool age. Still pretty much that way. I have two more preschool age kids part time (Sat & Mon)... I should figure out what I'm going to do. My 4 (almost 5yr old) and the other 4 yr old I have full time will be going to a preschool program at school Mon & Tues. The bus will pick them up and drop them off. They're pretty excited for that.

My SIL gave me a bunch of her old daycare stuff and there were a lot of worksheets for letters, numbers, animals and other things in with it. I think I'm going to try to figure out what they're doing at school and continue that theme for the rest of the week. As for my two part-time preschoolers I have structured activities for them, but I don't know how in depth we'll get in with a curriculum.

I recently got an ad in the mail for preschool curriculum's both regular and Christian based, but being I had this stuff from my SIL and you can find so much stuff on the internet, I don't think I held on to it.

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I have checked into buying a monthly curriculum, but honestly can't justify the expense, when there is so much free info online. I did join Kidsoup.com for $23 per year. They have so much to offer, and I can easily build my curriculum with their activities and printables. It just isn't worth the $40 and up per month for a purchased curriculum. I have enough expense as it is with daycare.

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A site I found is lilbunnyhops.com It has LOTS of free printable worksheets for preschool and kindergarten levels. I haven't used it much, but I have used it on a few occasions.

I now wish I would have hung on to that flier I got in the mail as a reference, but I don't think this program cost was that high.

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I am thinking about joining kidssoup for supplemental activities to add to my curriculum. I have created monthly calendars for the school year using Microsoft Publisher highlighting the theme of the week, days closed, and a simple at home activity for each week to correlate with the theme. I got most of the ideas for the home activities at Preschoolexpress.com.

Here are my themes for the year... starting the last week of August...
Aug: Welcome to School,
Sept: All About Me, In My Neighborhood, Rainbow of Colors, Apples, My Five Senses
Oct: Fire Safety, Fall, Pumpkins, Night Animals
Nov: Turkeys, Healthy Bodies/Nutrition, The First Americans, Thanksgiving
Dec: Hibernation, The Gigerbread Man, Christmas Around the World, Reason for the Season
Jan: Winter, Into the Arctic, Martin Luther King Jr., Mittens
Feb: Groundhogs Day, Valentines Day, Presidents Day, Dental Health
Mar: The Hungry Caterpillar, Butterflies, St. Pattys Day, On the Farm, Easter
April: Seeds and Flowers, Gardens, Earth Day, Animal Habitats
May: The Sunflower House, Dinosaur Dig, Summer Safety

I Spy Colors Project:
We focus on one color for each month and do lots of activities to go along with the color. I also have the kids bring small objects to school to add to our RED collection or GREEN collection, depending on the month. The kids love the objects and we use them for sorting games. I also plan on using the color sond cd and flip chart from Frog Street Press this year. Here are the colors I use each Month:

Sept: Red OCT: Orange/Black NOV: Brown DEC: Holiday Colors JAN: WHite/Blue FEB: Pink

MAR: Green Apr: Purple May: Yellow

Numbers:
We focus on numbers 1-10 all year

Shapes:
We review all basic shapes all year

I hope this post may give you some ideas!

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I am using Funshine Express. I love it! The expense is an issue. I used to have parents pay for the monthly fee (weekly rates are fairly low where I live--$75.00 for three days and not many people need more than three days/week)

Now, I took that out, because it's more than parents want to pay. I really think it's a great program. It's accredited and covers all of the major topics of academics and more. I am thinking about using my yearly grant money to cover it this year ($65.00 or so per month for 6 kids). I have most of the equipment I need for now. (Next year, the renovations for the basement should be complete!!!! I am so excited to get that going I've been waiting three years already to start the daycare downstairs).

Anyway, I think this curricula has offered so much and saved me TONS of time. Everything is laid right out for you and there are a good 8-10 different activities to do each day (not all projects).

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First of all, how old are the kids. I have been in the field for over 30 years. Trends come and go. NO WORKSHEETS! PLEASE. Visit the NAEYC website. Young children learn through play. Provide an environment where the children can make choices. Have plenty of supplies available. Sing, dance, play with them, role model, teach them manners, and values. Playing will enable them to learn social skills, problem solving skills, incorporates language development, have books available, read as much as possible. Involve the children in the curriculum. What are their interests? Don't limit time on themes that appeal to them. If you see that your plan for the day or the week does not appeal to them, get rid of it. Include the children in planning. Take lots of photos of them interacting with one another, document what they say and post their words. Label things around the room. Don't stick to one program. Children are individuals with different backrounds and interests. Be a role model. They have plenty of time later on in life for academics. They will gain a more positive outlook on school if you let them be kids now. Don't take their childhood away. PLAY- it teaches them more than any curriculum book can. For art, have open ended projects. That means give them paint, collage materials, have easels up at all times, provide them with the things they need to explore, create and hands on experiences are more powerful than any curriculum book can offer to you. Please remember, children have different types of intelligences. Give them the tools they need to succeed.

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