Theme set up

Hello!

I am currently on Matt leave and taking this time to set up for my Home Daycare starting in August. I need some guidance as I really am getting overwhelmed. I want to go into this organized as much as possible but don't want to have unrealistic ideas of what I can do. Please let me know what you think about this....

I would like to have weekly themes. My day would start of with the typical circle time of weather wheel discussion, story song, ABC and shapes, and day of the week. Then I would Introduce the weekly theme in which I would have a box of items for this theme. Every week a different theme. During the week all our crafts are theme based.

Do I set up for the whole year of weekly themes? I want to get everything done as much as possible so pre prepping is to a minimum so I can spend the evening with my family.


Any tips? Any advise? Thanks so much!!!!:)

I would do general seasonal themes- don't get me wrong I think your idea is great but I am a) lazy and b) do not have that much space to store things.

Could you start by making a list of the themes you wanted to do and work from there?? Like for veggie week say you needed a bunch of broccoli etc and then you could pull it together before the week began?

It depends on the ages of the kids. My daycare kids are all under two and they would not have the attention span to sit through all of what you mentioned above and most of it would be beyond their abilities. Then again, I am new to daycare and wonder if some of the more seasoned providers are able to do stuff like that with the under 2's?

I take only toddlers too. And most "circletime" routines are beyond them both academically and physically in terms of sitting. I do things in small bursts such as a 5 minute lesson with an alphabet toy or a short feltboard fingerplay type rhyme. Also I find if the circletime is to ritualistic in the sense of the same thing over and over each day they do become bored quickly. If you are going to have some older children then the 2 year olds or at least some of them will enjoy sitting with the big kids and pretending to do what they are doing. Whether they understand much is up for debate or are they just repeating what they have memorized. The thing with big kids is they are doing the interacting with you and answering questions and putting things on the board which shows the 2 year olds what to do. With just 2 year olds you soon come to feel like a circus performer as you tell animated stories, do lively actions to songs you sing yourself, etc.

I also find that circle time works better at playgroups where there is a large group of children and the little ones follow the older ones. Also, then you are not the leader, so you are free to sit with the kids and help the little ones understand what they are supposed to be doing.

Congrats on starting your own daycare this summer.
I think it is great that you are being pro-active but have to agree with the others who said it depends on what ages you will be caring for. Most kids don't care about circle time very much until around 2 years old. The 18 month olds LOVE songs but they don't care or understand weather and 2 year olds can't really understand weather much yet either. They might understand snow and rain and that is about it :) so for days like rainy days you might want to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider and Mr Sun and Rain rain Go Away and that might consist of your circle.

I find the best programming for mixed aged groups is to base it off a book. Ie. The Very Hungry caterpillar and you do art time painting large caterpillar cut outs, you shape noodles like caterpillars for lunch and use fruit from the book for snacks etc. Do a sensory tub with spaghetti noodles and hide plastic food inside it for the kids, etc
You could do themes with Knuffle Bunny, Robert Munch, themes on leaves in the fall where you go out and do simple stuff like collect leaves and make leaf bouquets. Keep it simple because it really is hard to appeal to young and older kids with varying degrees of attention and grasping a 'theme'

I also agree with Kangeroo Mama that kids LOVE the Circle time at Early Years where it is a large group of 10+ kids whereas they really don't enjoy it much at the house. I do one of two quick songs when we do circle at home and then read a story during the circle. I might talk a bit about something off tangent and educational depending on what comes up or use the time to have a 3 yr old tell me something they did last night etc. Be prepared for the 12-18 month olds to go running or crawling out of the circle and that is alright. That is just how it is at that age:p:yes:

I have a 2 and half and almost 3 who I am thinking of starting more crafts and letter and #'s with but it may not happen till sept now. The only interest they have before this age area is playing and they SHOULD they are 2 thats their job!!! 3 yes more mature and ready for learning and sitting and concentrating, and also understand way more than 2 yr olds. BUT Playgroup is fantastic for play and circle, I love taking the kids every week, they learn to sit when its time, to respect the teacher, to participate and listen. My kids learn alot from this activity. You can direct them without having to teach and yell sit down. Or what I'm going to try is teaching when they are eating, ex snack and lunch you have full attention there and it only needs to be 5-10 mins of whatever, showing the alphabet, numbers, I like leap frog alphab dvd at lunch.

Setting up a curriculum can always be a lot of work, I find lamenating things the most time consuming of all. In any event, I work with young toddlers and typically I do monthly themes i.e. May was the garden and weekly we would break it down to flowers, vegetables, bugs. But many times these weekly themes carry through to the next week.

I find a different weekly theme at this young age isn't necessary and I try to focus on what the kids seem to be interested in. They love the bugs...so that has seemed to last the longest here.

As for circle, I've always found my little ones to love circle. I've never had any trouble holding their interest. I have a puppet that we use every circle that sings hello to the kids and they love to hug and kiss it. We do the calendar and check the weather and a fun song followed by a story on the felt board. As long as there is music and action (finger play, felt board story) you'll have the kids attention. I have a little shaker that i shake when I'm about to start circle and as soon as I shake it they start running for the spot on the mat for circle time.

I keep circle time very short...it only lasts for several minutes. But throughout the day, I'll do other learning activities in little bursts, color games, counting fun, always reading and lots of singing.

I do cirlcle with my group, they love it and have no problem sitting through it. Although it`s not all sitting, I break it up so we stretch and they also participate. They get to take turns putting the date on the calendar and the weather stickers. We do a couple of the same songs everyday (Oh Canada, Good morning, the more we get together) and some different ones depending on our Theme.
I usually plan my Themes a few months in advance but I don`t do one for every week, I do monthly (and break them up into mini themes). For example I might do community helpers and spend a week talking about emergency workers (police, ambulance, fire fighters) with a trip to the fire station that week. Next week talk about Farmers with a trip to the Farm and then talk about Doctors, nurses and Dentists and the last week talk about all the other CHs like Teachers and Postal workers. I pre order any books I want online from the library so I can just walk in and pick them up and not search for them. I print off work sheets and coloring pages and organize craft ideas the month before. I work letters, numbers, colors and shapes in all our Themes, ie. F is for Firefighter. The truck is red and cut out rectangles, squares and circles put together to make a Fire truck. etc
I don`t know where you live but our libraries have some theme kits that they lend out.