Spinoff - preschool in your daycare

Since I have this question anyways and it might help Dodge as well with her question. How many of you offer preschool curriculum in your daycare? is it informal as in we sing abc's etc learn our colours or do you purchase and follow real preschool curriculums or homeschool packages?

i was thinking of offering preschool curriculum when I open. Does everyone do that? Does everyone have expensive programs they follow so me saying we learn to count to 10, sing abc's etc isn't enough cause lots of daycares have "real" programs out there? i have no idea what other daycares do. Do i need to follow official preschool programs to be competitive.

dodge - this question I have anyways might help you in finding out how many daycare providers already offer preschool curriculums within thier daycares. I have no idea. Maybe they all do anyways or maybe just a few select in which case you might have better luck with opening a preschool.

and for that matter who does not offer any of that. How many of us are just straight daycare providers. We play, we sleep, we eat, we are loved and taken care of but there is no additional learning besides what just comes naturally being exposed to tv or colouring pages etc?

I am not a teacher but I do teach ABC's, phonetics, numbers and counting, colours and sight words. All my 2 year olds know there ABC's and phonetic Alphabet. I work with my kids on learning to write there names too. We do circle time, sing tons of songs, learn rymes and do storytime.

Most of my kids can't sit to long during storytime but yesterday I turned on classical music and they all sat for 3 stories. Will try that again today.

I don't follow any lessons plan but use flash cards and pre school prep videos to get us started. Theses dvd's are amazing: http://www.preschoolprepco.com/

Kids can learn anything if you make it fun! Oh and we do tons of crafts, in the summer months we are outside exploring plants, animals, bugs, I love catching frogs and insets for the kids to explore, easier to teach animal and plant live cycles. We always plant Sunflowers in the spring, maybe try a small veggie garden this year, my kids love watering the plants every morning. Man I can't wait for spring.

Oh and I do large motor skills with music and movement every morning.

Do you find parents are really impressed with this? If I am opening does pretty much everyone have this so it is imperative that I do as well or do most not and so when you do it really gives you an edge?

I follow the kids lead and develop my own programs based on their excitment.

We play a lot! We do a structured story time/song time. We always talk about things like the weather and the days of the week. Then we learn throughout our day.

We talk about colours while playing with the blocks, we count how many carrots are on our plate. We work a lot on problem solving and independance.

If they are excited about trucks, we use the trucks to sort shapes... or coloured blocks etc. I "steal" a lot of ideas from the kindergarten classes and what my children are working on in school so the daycare kids are ready when they get there.

I couldn't follow a curriculum. I'm too "fly by the seat of my pants" LOL But... I believe we learn or have the ability to learn in everything we do.

I have never been asked about my "program" I've never had a parent ask about specific learning.. milestones... expectations etc.

We do a lot of preschool based learning here already.... I am just trying to decide if I want to do f/t 10/day daycare or whether preschool wpuld be a good idea...its been a tough year in so many ways, and my dh isnt nec. on board with f/t daycare anymore :(

I think parents expect to hear at the interview that you have a plan for a learning program but that it doesn't have to be a packaged purcharsed one. In fact a made up one based on what you can find in books and online can be better tailored to fit with what the kids need.

Most of our learning is built into our play as compared to a ok everyone come and sit for circle time sort of thing but a lot depends on your age mix - three of five are 18 months or younger and all are 3 or younger so that causes a different dynamic than if all of them were 18 months and over.

I should be able to start doing more soon as the two pass the 18 months and the baby will still nap in the morning giving us that hour to concentrate on more teacher led activities. But it still has to appear to the kids like a natural part of their day and not just learning in isolation for the sake of doing a program.

I don't have formal preschool education but I run weekly themes where my crafts, stories, games, songs and learning all focus on one specific thing for the week like butterflies, dinosaurs, gardens, artists and so on. I teach wherever we are and whatever we do, even walking down the street is a learning experience, nature, city features, vehicles, animals, insects. We have little sponges all around us soaking up everything we say, just keep talking and get them talking, observing, touching things for sensory learning and you are doing a fine job.

I do very little in terms of a curriculum. I used to offer it, and tried to do worksheets etc with my group, but they were all so little, and nobody was even the least bit interested or thriving. LOL

Then, as soon as that group was old enough to start wanting to dig in to a curriculum, we moved here.

I think that play based learning is what I am going to stick to. I have a few dry erase placemats, lots of number and letter puzzles and such that we do regularly, but I don't think I will go back to trying to implement an actual learning time any more.

I agree with alphaghetti.....I sing the alphabet and do numbers 1-10 daily sing songs and such but I Don't have a scheduled learning time...most kids start at 12 months old anyways so to answer your question most don't ask about that stuff until there kids are old enough...at least none of my parents did...I wouldn't worry to much about an actually curriculum play based learning is key.

I don't have a "curriculum" or a packaged preschool program...but that would not be my style anyway. I do offer tons of opportunities for learning in many different ways. I am always searching for new activities, new creative art ideas, etc to do with the kids. I prefer to do activities where kids learn for themselves and at their own pace. I do teach letters and numbers etc in a variety of ways, but we do not have a scheduled "learning time". For young kids, all day is learning time...they LOVE to learn and our job is to encourage and stimulate that love of learning rather than stifle it. Back to the original question, I know my dc parents see it as a huge plus that I do a lot of learning activities with the kids and keep them stimulated and learning all the time. I am not sure how much the other providers do or don't do in my area. Some probably do a lot and others do none. There is always a range and I think you have to do what YOU believe is good for the kids and you will attract parents who agree with what you are doing. There is no right or wrong.