I don't follow weekly themes etc because I feel that is inappropriate at the level most of our kids are in home daycare. When you think about it, if you did a week of dinosaurs when a child is 18 months old then they would be 2 1/2 years old before all of the dinosaur stuff got hauled back out a year later to do the theme again. What about the months in between when a child is interested in dinosaurs?

I read a book each day and do activities based on the book, we do a lot of seasonal stuff and that helps us with things like colours, shapes etc so the basic academics. Then the learning comes from what we do with the book theme.

A lot of learning is not academic at the toddler level but is skills based and learned in their play. I am more likely to find ways to extend the play than do a formal circletime program. Start by choosing a toy for the day and then play with them, show them new ways to use the toy or add elements to the play to extend it such as a shoebox with a hold cut out as a garage for parking cars and then count and name the colours of the cars as they go in to park. Line up the blocks along the grout lines in the kitchen floor. Then go along and have them name the colour of each block as you point to it. Do it a few times and see how fast they can go.