Here is my step-by-step guide to designing a preschool curriculum tailored to you and your child.
1. DETERMINE LEARNING OBJECTIVES
In order to outline a program that will include fun for your child and make sense for his or her developmental stage, consult a few skills lists for your child's age. SmarterKids.com provides a developmental checklist you can go through to evaluate your child's strengths and weaknesses.
Be sure to check out the Michelle Lewis skills lists for two- , three-, and four-year-olds . I found them daunting at first but now I'm actually I'm discovering that my four-year old is close to her model and it gives me some areas of accomplishment to work on with him. World Book has a Typical Preschool Course of Study.
2. CHOOSE MONTHLY THEMES
After you have established learning goals for your child, you can browse through some preschool websites to search for themes. Ideas for themes can be seasonal (fall, winter, spring, holidays) or they can introduce subjects, such as art, music, the alphabet or numbers. For example, bears can be a wonderful theme for toddlers. See my article, "Teddy Bears, Everywhere" for an extensive list of ideas and resources to use the bear theme. See also "Splash! Summer Fun Art Unit" for ideas if you want to do an art theme one month.
3. ORGANIZE YOUR RESOURCES
Now for the fun part. Cruise the preschool websites at this topic to choose fun activities, songs, coloring pages, poems, games, crafts to go with your theme.
As you gather your activities, book titles, craft projects, booklists, and other resources set up favorites folders and physical file folders as you go, labeling them according to the themes.
4. PLAN YOUR MONTHS
It will help you to stay focused if you lay out a plan on paper, writing out the activities to use each week or month and where to find them. To save time use one of the charts at Worksheets Unlimited .
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