My daughter is two years old and madly in love with her world! She is learning voraciously and talking incessantly about anything and everything new she discovers!
My background is not in education or child development. (I was a CPA, who worked as an auditor at Ernst & Young, before becoming a stay-at-home mom at age 31.) So I would love to brainstorm with the blogging-moms community about structure, activities, and learning for the preschool child.
My 2-year-old can:
- Count to twelve by herself.
- Recognize most letters of the alphabet. (She is also learning the sounds letters make.)
- Sing the ABCs song and other simple songs like “Amazing Grace” and “Jesus Loves Me.”
- Fill in words in her oft-read books, if I pause in the story (i.e. “Corduroy is a bear who once lived in the. . . ” she will finish, “. . . toy department of a big store.”
- Recite short verses (for example, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord; for this is right. Ephesians 6:1.”)
- Look through her Bible story verse and tell you a short synopsis of each picture. (“God made light.” “God made Adam and Eve from dust.” “Noah built big boat.” “Abraham Sarah laughing–baby!”)
I don’t want to overwhelm her or push her–she is only two. But she loves to learn and she just devours everything I can teach her. Since she loves to learn letters, numbers, songs, and verses, I want to do some sort of “lesson plans,” in order to be focused in the things we are learning, rather than just randomly learning things that come up, which is basically what we are doing now.
Talk to me about:
- Preschool/toddler schedules (This is a big one for me!–how much one-on-one time with mom, playtime alone, reading time, helping time, naptime, etc.).
- Goals for preschoolers
- Activities to include daily/weekly/occasionally
- Methods of teaching/learning (and discuss how this varies between boys & girls: my son is 10 months old, so it’s not long before he’ll be a toddler too!)
- Lists of books we should check out from the library
- Childrens’ Bible verse programs you have found helpful
- Bible story books/visuals that seem consistent with the Scriptural text
- Also a discussion on early music training (she loves to sing and “play the piano” with me–I teach piano, and as a child, I started taking lessons at age seven, but I’m interested in a discussion of the pros and cons of starting music earlier.)
I’m all ears!
I would soo love to read dozens of blog posts on this topic tomorrow! So pleeeeze reply in the comments or link to your own blog! Thank you!
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i don’t have an answer for you, because i’m wondering the exact same thing! my 20 month old son stays home with my aunt four days a week while we work, and i want to provide her with a more structured lesson plan, like you. let me know if you get any good ideas!
valerie
She is doing so well already! That is awesome. Honestly, the best thing to do is read to her everyday. I try to take my daughter to the library once a week.
Also at age 2, she is still learning everything through play.
As far as schedules, we don’t really have one.
There are lots of printable sites that you can look into. Just look up preschool worksheets. I also have several posts on my blog that list some resources. I talked to a preschool friend of mine and she said focus on recognizing upper and lower case letters (even out of order), sounds that letters make, sight words (although I’m still looking for a good site for this), recognizing numbers up to 20, writing numbers and letters, lots of reading, use Brown Bear for teaching colors and color words. That’s just a few things to get you started. But don’t forget that’s stuff that should be learned by age 5 so don’t worry about pushing her too hard. Help her use playdoh to make letters, explore new mediums such as daubbers, markers, and chalk. And have fun.
I have two girls (ages 5 and 3). We have found the best children’s Bible to be the Read and Learn Bible published by Scholastic (and the American Bible Society). We got one for my older daughter when she turned two. It is very accurate, and the illustrations are wonderful.
I recently went back to purchase one of these Bibles for my younger daughter, and discovered that they have changed the binding and the cover. The quality of the binding is not good in these new copies.
However, I just went on half.com (one of my favorite sites for buying books online), and they do have the older version at a very good price. I am including the link below. I highly recommend this Bible!
http://product.half.ebay.com/Read-And-Learn-Bible_W0QQprZ46738375QQtgZinfo
I have searched for a Bible curriculum many times, and have not found one I was happy with. In then end, we have decided that reading from this Bible, singing songs, and memorizing verses is what we will do for now. Even my 3 year old is doing great with the memory verses. We do one verse a week.
As far as books to read, we like the Sound Box series by Jane Belk Moncure. I think they can only be purchased for schools or libraries, but hopefully you can find them at your library. They are called “My ‘A’ Sound Box” etc. There is one for each letter of the alphabet, and they are excellent learning books. In each book, there is a child who goes along and collects items beginning with the letter to put in a sound box. After reading these, we always had a great time making our own sound box (just find any cardboard box or plastic container, and let your child help you fill it with things beginning with the letter).
The same author also has a series called “My ‘a’ Book” etc, which I believe is available for anyone to purchase. The books in this series are virtually the same as the Sound Box series.
I hope this helps!
I would recommend http://www.momoflittles.com/, Crystal blogs at Money Saving Mom and started Mom of Littles to encourage and chronicle what’s going on right now with her 2 (and 3rd on the way). She writes a lot about what she’s doing for “homeschooling” right now.
I would make sure and teach the “big” letters and the “small” ones. Some kids learn only one form then have trouble later recognizing/writing both.
You might want to start a catechism, we use First Catechism by Great Commission Publication http://www.gcp.org/catechism.asp but changing the wording for some questions due to our Baptist beliefs (versus infant baptism).
You could also look for a big preschool workbook then start working on what’s appropriate for her (colors, shapes, writing).
Books- Dr. Seuss (rhyming and phonics), Curious George, Richard Scarry (lots of words/things to identify).
HTH, sounds like you’re doing a great job already!!
I did homeschool preschool for my oldest who is now a Kindergartner in public school. But I now also have a 2 y/o girl who sounds almost identical to your 2 y/o. I can’t talk about differences with boys v. girls – I only have girls. My best recommendations are http://www.letteroftheweek.com and http://www.childcareland.com. Letter of the week (aka Brightly Beaming) has awesome curriculums and it’s basically one hour each day. You can adjust the schedule to meet your interests and child’s interest/attention span.
I love Childcareland for printables. She creates a daily worksheet plus other tools like flashcards. I’ve printed tons of her stuff out, colored them, and laminated them to teach my daughters. I’ve also made them as gifts for family with little ones.