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Lavender 02:29 PM 08-29-2013
Originally Posted by Unregistered:
Hi Everyone!
I just stumbled on this blog and was ecstatic to find a group of such enthusiastic daycare professionals. I could really use your help. I am a stay at home mom living abroad with my 13 month old son. My husband and I are raising our son in a bilingual house. We have chosen not to send our son to daycare here, because the daycares where we live are all run in the local language, which is barely spoken beyond this very limited region. We don't want to trade his English learning time for a little used regional language, especially since we plan to leave this region before our son begins school.
So,...It is up to me to educate my son and help him as much as I can to be ready to start preschool in the States. Do you have any curriculums that I could follow that would practical for a home setting? I know I can't replicate a daycare setting in that I don't have all of the toys, nor the group of other kids with whom to watch and interact. My background is in marine science, not childhood education. What would you as educators recommend to someone in my situation? I feel like I am failing my son. I try to have activities each day, but don't feel that the activities are structured enough, nor do they complement one another. I may have unrealistic expectations about how focused my son can be on any one activity. He cares more for the light switch than any shape sorter:-) He loves books, but rarely sits still for a story unless it is before bed (he gets 2 naps and bed, so 3 stories per day).
How much should I be forcing an agenda and how much should I just be elaboratiing on what he finds interesting? Are there any books or resources that you could recommend for someone in my situation?
I am interested to learn more. Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can offer.
kind regards
I am a lead teacher of mobile infants up to age 18 months. Every day I take them outside or substitute a large motor activity if we can't go outside, I provide a sensory activity, an art activity, and one more fun things. We read lots of books (get more at the library that I don't have at home), I sing songs and do fingerplays plus play music and dance. I try to do simple themes as repetition is good for learning at this age. This week I did a water/fish theme. Some of my activities:

"swimming" in a baby pool with stuffed fish
"swimming" with rubber duckies
crawling in a tunnel
stepping on a sensory mat
Playing with warm, soapy water and bath toys in sensory table
Playing with ice
Regular water play
Putting paint on fingertips which they spread on wooden fish, then giving them a paintbrush and water to spread the paint around (making rainbow fish)
Squirting food coloring dyed water on paper and manipulating it

I don't use a specific curriculum, instead I base my plans on observations of my kids and their families plus what is going on around us. For example, I planned a sun/sunflower week during a week I knew was supposed to be sunny all 5 days.

With this age, IMO, all you ready need to do to meet their developmental needs to to read, talk a lot (narration and good interactive child-directed speech), and provide them opportunities to explore the world and what their new-found mobile bodies can do.
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