Thursday, January 1, 2009

Toddler Curriculum Ideas

Mommy has been looking at educational curriculums and ways to get me educated and done with university by the time I'm 12 so I can start bringing in some income and pay off my huge debt from breaking things etc. (which is why I have no allowance coming my way until I'm 202).

Well, Ms. Shannon from Teaching TinyTots has some suggestions on toddler curriculum, and here they are!

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I get asked lots about how to introduce the toddler to Letters, Shapes, Colors and Numbers! I taught in the toddler room at 2 different centers and did it 2 different ways! I've done both ways to my LO and she seems to like one way better then the other!

1st way:

Do 2 letters, colors, shapes and numbers a month. So you would spend 2 weeks on each and so they would get through the alphabet a lot faster.

2nd way:

Pick a letter, color, shape and number for the month.

week 1: letter focus
week 2: number focus
week 3: shape/color focus
week 4 review all

example: Letter P: for the whole month do all throughout but you really focus on one primarily throughout the month, so you could do Penguins, Pigs, Photos, etc..., number go in order 1 thru ???, Color: Pink and Purple maybe , Shape.

Also I've read in many teaching magazines that you want to introduce them (toddlers and young 3's) to lower case first then after the can recognize all of them then do upper case! This is because over 90% of the written language is in lower case to the will recognize them first!

You can also start with the letters of their name too: so if your LO's name is Mike you would do M, I, K then E, then you can go on to last name letters etc...

I hope this helps some. The main idea is go with what you know your child likes and is around and the learning will happen! Make it fun and they will love learning! Don't force it and you will be amazed at what your LO's can learn and know!

You could also go literature based but that is a whole other post!:)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

sorry to hear you don't get an allowance till your 202! my mommy tells me i waste more cheese sticks then eat! so i feel your pain!:)

hope you had a great christmas and new years i did but i had a cold and mommy had to cuddle me lots! which i love :)

messyfunmommylife said...

You have given us sooo many good ideas to use with toddlers over the last couple of days! thank you thank you thank you!

Prasti said...

another great idea! esme, haven't you been doing this with your mommy already? you'll be way ahead of the game, girl!

Heather of the EO said...

I needed this! I have trouble staying focused, so you can just imagine how well I get an unfocused toddler and preschooler to stay focused! ha! This will help me...yeah, like I said, FOCUS :)

Danielle said...

I am realizing now I should have started lowercase with E-but she can recognize hald the uppercase alphabet already so I am not too concerned. Names are huge! they mean a lot to kids and a great start for teaching many concepts. I used names a ton when I taught Kindergarten!

Jennifer said...

So now that you are pretty much done with the alphabet, do you think you'll go literature based? Or start over with the ABC's?