jamiem 07:39 AM 03-22-2013
At what age would you recommend introducing a curriculum? Is this more for preschool age kids or even for younger kids? I just started doing my in home daycare in October so I am pretty new to this. I have a 7 month old, 2-1 year olds, and an 18 month old. Since they are so small we spend most of our time having free play. We still do a lot of different learning activities such as blocks, puzzles, flashcards, storytime in addition to playing with cars and stuffed animals and such. I also try and do more creative/artsy type activities once in a while-I have done finger painting with greek yogurt and a sensory table with oats. The problem is they all still try to eat everything so that limits what we can do. I want to do more but I feel like right now I would be wasting my time. What age would you recommend introducing more of a structured curriculum with circle time, themes, etc and how would you recommend getting started?
butterfly 08:10 AM 03-22-2013
When I first started I had mostly 2 year olds so that's when I started curriculum. However, now it doesn't matter what age I have, I still do curriculum. Not everyone is old enough to participate with all parts of it, but they do sit with us or play beside us and they pick up an amazing amount of information even when it appears they aren't listening.
Other ideas would be to just have more involved free play. For example, sit with the children while they are playing and talk about size, texture, that block is blue..., patterns, magnetic alphabet, etc. My kids of all ages learn so much from this. Even the basics of appropriate play, turn taking, sharing, asking politely for things, etc.