Curriculum For 2013-2014 School Year

[lollipop101]

I have been doing child care for over 10 years and I have used Funshine Express in the past and have enjoyed it. The past few years I have made up my own curriculum but it was very time consuming so now I am looking into FunShine Express to use as a curriculum for my in home child care starting in September. I am a little uncertain if I should order Fireflies or Buttercups because of the ages of the children in my daycare. The ages they will be this fall are:

2 years
2 1/2 years
3 years
twins that are 4 1/2 years

I also have 3 infant/toddlers that will be 15 months old, 10 months old, and 5 months old but I don't think I will include them in the curriculum.

Also, the twins that are 4 1/2 only come two days a week and they also go to preschool, the 3 year old comes two days a week, the 2 1/2 year old 3 days a week, and the 2 year old 5 days a week. Most of the children are part time so would Fireflies or Buttercups be better for me? If I ordered buttercups for the 2 & 2 1/2 year old and Fireflies for the 3 & 4 1/2 year olds the price for the year would be around $750 which is a lot. If I got Fireflies for all of the children it would be around $526 for the year. Buttercups for all of them would be $350.

Buttercups would obviously be the cheapest route but I feel like it is geared for young infants/toddlers and not so much 3 & 4 1/2 year olds. In the same way, I feel Fireflies may be geared for older 3-5 year olds and the 2 & 2 1/2 year olds may not benefit. What would u suggest me to do?

If you have used different curriculum that you think would be better for me to use please let me know! Any advice is greatly appreciated

[Michael]

Welcome to the forum. Here are a few previous threads that may help:

http://daycare.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14580

http://daycare.com/forum/tags.php?tag=curriculum

http://daycare.com/forum/tags.php?ta...ine+buttercups

[smallwonders]

Hi, my name is Cheri. I have worked in child care since 1993. I am married with 3 children, ages 13, 9 and 5. I recently graduated with my Associates degree in Child Care and Development (20 years after high school, but better late than never). My dream has always been to have my own center. I decided to start small (kinda, I don't think there is anything small about this) and open a child care in my home. I am in the process of getting licensed by the state of Texas. I found this site while searching things to included in a parent handbook!

[butterfly]

Originally Posted by lollipop101

I have been doing child care for over 10 years and I have used Funshine Express in the past and have enjoyed it. The past few years I have made up my own curriculum but it was very time consuming so now I am looking into FunShine Express to use as a curriculum for my in home child care starting in September. I am a little uncertain if I should order Fireflies or Buttercups because of the ages of the children in my daycare. The ages they will be this fall are:

2 years
2 1/2 years
3 years
twins that are 4 1/2 years

I also have 3 infant/toddlers that will be 15 months old, 10 months old, and 5 months old but I don't think I will include them in the curriculum.

Also, the twins that are 4 1/2 only come two days a week and they also go to preschool, the 3 year old comes two days a week, the 2 1/2 year old 3 days a week, and the 2 year old 5 days a week. Most of the children are part time so would Fireflies or Buttercups be better for me? If I ordered buttercups for the 2 & 2 1/2 year old and Fireflies for the 3 & 4 1/2 year olds the price for the year would be around $750 which is a lot. If I got Fireflies for all of the children it would be around $526 for the year. Buttercups for all of them would be $350.

Buttercups would obviously be the cheapest route but I feel like it is geared for young infants/toddlers and not so much 3 & 4 1/2 year olds. In the same way, I feel Fireflies may be geared for older 3-5 year olds and the 2 & 2 1/2 year olds may not benefit. What would u suggest me to do?

If you have used different curriculum that you think would be better for me to use please let me know! Any advice is greatly appreciated

My practice has always been to order the curriculum for the older crowd and adapt it for my smaller ones. I'm too cheap to order multiple versions of something. I haven't ordered curriculum in several years as I've accumulated and created much of what I need now to be reused over and over for several years. I am constantly adding to it though or creating new themes, etc to keep it fresh. I was never a fan of funshine, but liked Mother Goose Time. Everyone seems to have differing opinions on which curriculum is better.

[butterfly]

Originally Posted by smallwonders

Hi, my name is Cheri. I have worked in child care since 1993. I am married with 3 children, ages 13, 9 and 5. I recently graduated with my Associates degree in Child Care and Development (20 years after high school, but better late than never). My dream has always been to have my own center. I decided to start small (kinda, I don't think there is anything small about this) and open a child care in my home. I am in the process of getting licensed by the state of Texas. I found this site while searching things to included in a parent handbook!

Welcome Cheri!

Originally Posted by butterfly

My practice has always been to order the curriculum for the older crowd and adapt it for my smaller ones. I'm too cheap to order multiple versions of something. I haven't ordered curriculum in several years as I've accumulated and created much of what I need now to be reused over and over for several years. I am constantly adding to it though or creating new themes, etc to keep it fresh. I was never a fan of funshine, but liked Mother Goose Time. Everyone seems to have differing opinions on which curriculum is better.

Hi, I'm just a new parent here! What were the things that you liked about Mother Goose Time that you didn't like about FunShine? Just curious! What does a day look like when teaching your child? Like 9 to 3 as far as a schedule or structure? I mean, I take it that no house work gets done except during their naps!

[butterfly]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi, I'm just a new parent here! What were the things that you liked about Mother Goose Time that you didn't like about FunShine? Just curious! What does a day look like when teaching your child? Like 9 to 3 as far as a schedule or structure? I mean, I take it that no house work gets done except during their naps!

I liked that MGT seemed to have more to offer. Each day had a lesson plan already laid out for me. If I didn't have time to prep, I didn't need to. I could just open the day's materials and run with it. I felt like funshine wasn't quite as planned out for me and required a little more prep to have enough to keep the kids busy.

My schedule varies from day to day based on weather, the ages and numbers of kids I have in care each day, what things we had planned for the day. If we are taking any field trips, etc. Basically I do our structured classroom time in the morning, but I'm somewhat flexible, as I believe you have to be when working with children in a variety of ages.