Early Childhood Curriculum Recommendations?

[hennaLisa]

I have four children age 16 months to almost 3 years old in my care during the weekdays. I would love to find a toddler or preschool curriculum workbook to give us a little more structured activities, especially for the two who are older.

I would like it to be:

- definitely secular

- available in Spanish if possible, although I know that is unlikely - we're a bilingual program - English and Spanish

- simple without the need to purchase tons of other materials and resources to use it

Any suggestions? I'd love any leads!!!

[Nicoleandco]

We are using Core Knowledge-Preschool and Kindergarten.  I like it because I get to make my own activities and lesson plans...CK just provides an idea and information.  

I'd also be interested in hearing about a bilingual program. 

Take care! 

[Mittsy]

We are loving Little Acorn Learning!

http://www.littleacornlearning.com/

[hennaLisa]

The Core Knowledge Program looks interesting. I see the teacher's guides are free for download, which is nice. Which materials have you purchased from them? Thanks!

[hennaLisa]

Thanks for the tip on Little Acorn Learning. It's neat that it is designed for childcare, yet much more natural-parenting than the typical daycare curriculum tends to be. I love the samples. Mittsy - do you supplement with anything, or just use the monthly guides?

[onyxravnos]

i 2cd little acorn. its wonderful and perfect for babies - k and easy to tweak for age/ability i have a whole year from '08 and I've been using LA for 3 years now.

You really don't need much more then the guides most crafts will be crafty stuff you have on hand anyway or are really easy to get from Joann's or Micheal's. and it can be adjusted easily to work with stuff you DO have on hand. it's also nice because it's already laid out day by day so you don't need to pull together what to do each week.

if you want some more inspiration i would suggest Christopherus Kindergarten 

with your Three to Six Year Old http://www.christopherushomeschool.org/bookstore-for-waldorf-homeschooling/early-years.html

[Mittsy]

I am planning on introducing some of the suggestions from Donna Simmons' book, Drawing with your 4-11 year old. We get any books that interest the kids at the library, take frequent field trips to wherever our hearts desire, and sign the kid's up for age appropriate classes(in the past we did a program with the US Botanical Gardens, next will be a Kindermusik class). That's all we supplement and we're perfectly happy with it!

http://www.christopherushomeschool.org/bookstore-for-waldorf-homeschooling/publications-for-grades-1-through-5/drawing.html