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I found this website to order curriculum's they are expensive but you can buy the version to print yourself much cheaper. I see it had a sale on ages 2-6 I think. Just wondering if anyone has purchased from this company?? (link posted below) My dck are only part-time but I thought it would be good to use with my own children as well.
https://www.abchomepreschool.com/pro...category_id=16
Never used that company before, you should give it a try. That is a "sweet" deal! The curriculum I use is quite a bit more expensive. I didnt notice, but is there a money back offer?
I also ask for 5$/week preschool tuition during the school year, that is also something to think about if you dont already do it, really helps cut down cost.
Should we be worried about an educational provider who doesn't know that the plural of curriculum is curricula and not curriculums? I wouldn't expect a layperson to know that, but an educational supplier? That is very strange... I'm sorry, but that really makes me question their pedagogy.... but then, I have spent 30+ years developing curricula, so I could be very jaded....
Yeah I wouldnt be willing to give my credit card to this website. Just seems crappy and sketchy. And no educational reasoning for why they think a 2 year old needs an 'educational curriculm'.
Thanks for the giggle Treeholm.
I am cheap and would not 'pay' for something I could easily develop for free .... the Internet is full of free ideas on activities and early learning for children .... and 'boxed curriculum's' for this age group is currently being shown by research done on the preschoolers who've 'lived it' to actually do more harm than good.
Here is Ontario they have just scrapped their entire 'boxed kindergarten curriculum' where every classroom across Ontario for decades has been doing penguins at the same time and so forth in favor of returning to the inquisitive play-based child led curriculum of 25 plus years ago before we got all focused on 'test scores for reading, writing and math and crap' .... the early years are suppose to be about developing 'learning skills' .... aka learning HOW to learn and work both as an individual as well as within a group .... it is not about mastering ABC, 123 and so forth ... they have 20 years of formal education to master 'academics' and the fact that we have pushed children into a 'academic curriculum' has resulted in children getting 'turned off' of learning in the early years and doing WORSE in school instead of better.
I do not do preplanned themes or anything like that ... my children learn through their play as we discuss topics of interest to them ... I set my environment up to stimulate them and add things to it to reinforce phonic letter sounds and literacy so forth and we go out into the community and get exposed to new things there as well and than I come back and add or arrange things into the program based on what they show interest in learning more about based on observations of what they are talking about and asking about ~ costs me very little 'money' in the curriculum but rather focusing my cost on creative art supplies and other 'hands on' learning and all my kids head off to JK 'ready' to thrive with the ability to recognize their own name, print their name because we add our name to art projects, label our belongings and so forth and typcially know most of the letters of the alphabet because they come up in discussions of other friends letters or the interests in Zebras or what not, they count and know their shapes not because we did 'themes' on them but because these concepts come up naturally in our play everyday ~ we count how many grapes we have and how many each of us would get to be 'fair' or we sing songs with numbers in them, they notice concepts out and about and I take advantage of teachable moments to reinforce them.
Save yourself some money ~ preschool curriculum should not cost you $$$ for standardized worksheets or coloring pages around a 'theme' and so forth!
Hear, hear Reggio! I did my student teaching in Kindergarten in the mid-80s, and emergent/child-led learning was far more prevalent that it has been in recent years. I'm delighted they are moving away from a standardized kindergarten curriculum and back to a more child-led one. As hard as that is to implement in a classroom of 25 4-year olds, I look forward to doing it with my two 3.5 year olds... the babies will just play along, I'm sure LOL
i have 5 kids (3 - 6yr olds!) here today so i haven`t had time to read the comments but i have used this website before with no problems. i catn remember right now how good it was, i`ll come back later tonight when i can think. but there is one i use all the time, it is so good, and so playbased.. its called adaycare.com.. one of my favorites but you have to pay as well.
I don't pay for curricula (haha treeholm). I make up my own themes and put them on my calendar, go online to the library and put books on hold to pick up every Monday for my theme of the week, google crafts and songs and games, and all that is for free. It takes my time but all my group is 4 and under and they don't need school aged teaching, just the basics. I'm planting seeds in their minds that they can use later when they learn about things more in depth at an older age at school.
I also don't think children who are under 4 need formal programming. Play is their learning, and if we respond to their questions and curiosity, I personally think that's ideal. There are many years ahead of having to learn something that is predetermined by someone else's agenda, sigh....
I agree, however I do still love my themes because it makes me feel like a teacher. We are X for x-ray this week and I have the skeletons on the wall and even my 1 year old boy who is advanced in his language understands he has bones in his body now. Ahem, we also did Y for yummy things so we ate everyone's favourite treats this week, but it's only one week and we are celebrating 2 little ones going off to JK soon. I can't believe next week is Z for zoo and we've been from A-Z since Jan. 1st.
I also teach wherever we go and whatever we do, stopping to look at gardens and insects and police cars and garbage trucks and fire hydrants, you name it.
That is such a cute idea doing a letter per week! Gonna have to steal that!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Momof4
I guess I would be "coined" as the "idiot of the group" ;) I use a preschool program that I discovered over the years and wouldnt change a thing. I ask the parents to help a little with the cost and the kids LOVE it. When the children hit the age of about 3yrs (for most kids) they have heard of "school" and want to go...I take them. The program that I use is made really well, and contains EVERYTHING you need to have a "day at school" the only thing I have to do is a little prep work, I have tried setting up my own stuff in the past and...well, its just too much work (for me). This program is adorable! It comes in a box that looks like a school bus and when the delivery man brings it..the kids JUMP FOR JOY! It's so worth the money. lessons, crafts, activities to spark! Every month has a theme. I manage to save a little by dragging the month out for two instead, we have a "slow paced education" :)
just a response to the comment up top, re: the misspelled word. I do know alot of the people who develope these programs for children are common people like MOST of us, women who are stay at home mommies or "undereducated" daycare providers who just know the ins and outs of children. I'm sure alot of these programs are quite cute and enjoyable for the children as well as educational, they just may not be at everyones level of expectation. None the less, educational for the child. :) :)
I know your joking but I just wanted to say that I hope I did not come off as implying there was something 'wrong' with themes or a purchased program ~ I just do not like to pay for something that I can do myself for free or less.Quote:
Originally Posted by kidlove
I used themes up until 2005 myself and I own the Jolly Phonics program in its entirety cause I bought it back in 2000 and still enjoy 'portions' of it even in my current curriculum today ~ there are lots of things I loved about themes cause they allowed me to be organized I had my program planned out months at a time in file folders with the crafts cut out and prepared and all the related activities to my little theme and list of things needed for science and so forth and as someone else mentioned it made you feel 'equal to a teacher' in the school system cause you were doing all the same things the schools did and yes there were children who enjoyed the crafts and theme related games and activities for sure and I admit I was actually terrified initially to have to work in a centre with this 'child led emergent' curriculum cause I thought it would be bedlam and impossible and so forth specially after having spent over 15 years with the tired and true themes I knew and with great success as I knew it.
I do not share my passion for Emergent Curriculum or the work in Reggio Italy to imply it is the only way to go but because after so many years in the field I am re-inspired by this different pedagogy and I am continually amazed by children and how they can lead their own learning with open ended materials and focusing on the environment as their teacher .... kinda like how when your girlfriend meets a new boy and ALL she talks about is how awesome he is ;)
We are all on a different pedagogy journey with different goals and objectives for our programs ... to be honest there is stuff I love about all the various pedagogy's out there and incorporate into my program ... there are parts of Montessori that inspire me, aspects of Highscope inspire me and I still love the 'circle time' that is traditional in the theme based program and would not want to give that up either.
kidslove - i used the paid curriculum as well! the small amount of money was worth it to me. They learn so much and its all laid out for me. Where do you buy yours from?
No reggio: no offense at all, just was joke to the point of: over or under educated......we can ALL do a TERRIFIC job in child care!!!! :) :)
shopgirl: The preschool program I use is called "Mother Goose Time" www.mothergoosetime.com , such a GREAT program, so cute, eye catching and the parents always comment on how cute the little crafts are the kids bring home. The kids really enjoy it and the best part is.....I do stretch it out so I use one month for a two period. Saving money. I am located in the US but I happen to know they deliver to canada. check it out. and dont forget, you can always ask the parents to help pay tuition, I ask for 5$ week and I dont have to take much out of my own pocket. ;)
I also came up with a FREE idea to work with the kids during off seasons or if I didnt have enough kids to do preschool, they LOVED it as well. I called it "specials" , every week I would type up a letter with the next weeks "specials" on it. But the kicker was...the kids picked the weeks list. I had a bucket labeled "for the week" and another labeled "for the day". In the "for the week" bucket would be tickets labeled with everything from every color to number and letters, animals, food groups, plants, weather, etc. the list is endless. then in the "for the day" bucket would have things like, color, set the table, pick whats for snack, pick a show, pick a game to play, etc. that list is also quite endless. Now, at the end of every week, I would allow the kids to pick from the "for the week" bucket to help set up the next weeks activities. they would do this by first picking a number on a popsicle stick to pick the order they had a turn and needed to then put themselves in order and wait their turn. I would do the same for the "for the day" bucket, each day when all the children arrived, we would pick a number, get in order and then pick a for the day "special"......t hey love this!!! it gets them ALL involved and excited about the days plans. the parents also LOVED the weekly letter that went home re: the next weeks specials, also helped get the parents involved in their child week, gave them some dinner talk :) During the week the parents were encouraged to help the child bring things from home to help with each days "special" ie. on red day, they wore red clothes or brought a red snack to share, on animal days they would bring that animal (stuffed) from home to share and so on. They really enjoyed "store" they would bring their own shopping carts and purses. (everything costs 1$ so they learn to count money and count change) lots of fun!!!!!!
The idea of curriculums and themes and adult led teaching vice child led learning were things we discussed in our childcare association at one time when setting up the workshops for the new year. A lot of the terms out there are confusing Early childhood for example means toddler to me but if you look at any teaching resource manual from the major publishers that says themes for early childhood on it the age range of the intended student is age 3-5 years. For us in Ontario at least that is the JK/SK group not what we have in home daycare for the most part. What this does is confuse both caregivers and parents on exactly what they are supposed to be "doing" with children aged 1-3 years. This group needs to experiment with why towers fall over when you put the big block on the top and the small one on the bottom or why only 6 hot wheels cars fit in the blue tin but 11 cars fit in the red tin which is bigger. That is the curriculum of toddlers. And it can be planned just the same. Gather the children together with some objects (whatever they are interested in at the time - cars, dinosaurs, lego) and some containers and count as you put things in and out of them together. Then leave the containers and objects available for the children to redo the experiment. This is math and science at the toddler level.
About the letter of the week concept - there is a website I think it is just called letteroftheweek.com that does just that. As someone mentioned these are just parents that are sharing what they are using with their own children. In many cases they are homeschooling families. I have never bought these types of programs since I am not a sit down do seatwork kind of teacher - here we "learn to play and play to learn".
My daycare is structured with field trip days (3-4 per week), learning and crafting days (1 per week, bad weather day if possible), and imagination days (also bad weather days). On the learning day I cover all the teaching about my theme of the week and we do our craft that pertains to the theme. On imagination days we are playing the way playfelt described and I'm giving the children encouragement in their role playing games, like turning the kitchenette into a drivethrough restaurant, a hospital, etc.
There are so many ways we can teach and I've heard parents say before that they don't know how to teach their child. To which I respond, you are teaching your child every day whether you know it or not just by playing with them, talking to them and showing them the world around them.
I didn't mean to judge anyone else's methods of running their daycare at all. If you want to buy a curriculum and that works for you, by all means go for it. I certainly didn't have my system in place the first few years I was in business but the last 2 years it's been working great for me. You have to experiment with what works best for you because we are all so different. That's why the parents look at a lot of different daycares before they choose the one that is best for them.
For some reason where I live? or maybe its just the "going thing". Alot of parents are pulling their kids out of daycare at 3's and 4's and sending them to pre-school, not I have had some who were willing to drop off in am, pickup for preschool by noon and bring them back for the rest of the daym JUST TO GET THEIR CHILD that "much needed" education. That has ALOT to do with why I chose to go ahead with a full out preschool cir. in the first place, wanted to give the parents that extra "visual" of the fact their child was learning here and they didnt have to feel they had to make the choice to remove them for that time and all the extra travel it required was nuts, IMO. Just last year though was when the whole preschool craze seemed to be at its high, so thats when I decided to take a year off the themed program and go for the bucket idea with the "specials" every week. Do you all find that preschool is the BIG THING! with parents these days? or is Canada different on those views?
I'm certainly not judging how others run their programs either, and I do like the idea of themes. Personally, I think my approach is a blend of montessori and emilia reggio, which means taking the idea of themes and a sense of order from Montessori, and letting the children dictate the curriculum from Emilia Reggio. My issue was that someone selling curriculum as a business should know enough about the field to use the jargon correctly. If your doctor wrote you a "perscripton" wouldn't you be a bit concerned LOL?
In school I learned to conjugate all my verbs correctly and what the plurals were and how to write things grammatically correct and then my new mother tongue became toddlerease. Not everyone even had the benefit of proper training in language use and write how they talk and talk in a way that people understand. Mothers helping others don't have the benefit of publishing company editors, etc. My gang doesn't use language corectly and accepts what I say even if I use a dangling participle. Spell check is only so good. There are also different acceptable translations depending on if it Canadian, American or British English too. Mistakes like that would not cause me to buy or not to buy something if what I was buying did not involve the need for that degree of properness. Just like some insist on doing small letters first and write even proper words in all small letters. Some make titles stand out by using all uppercase letters. Others use uppercase at the beginning and lowercase for the rest of the letters. Diversity and why we do things is part of education too.