toddler curriculum?

[blondeviolin]

My daughter and I do "table time" in the afternoon while my son takes his long nap. She seems to enjoy and thrive on it. I've done a few things online, including www.letteroftheweek.com (their preparatory curriculum is a bit too young for her, though, even though she's just barely 2). She really enjoys having centered time at the table doing a craft or something like that.

Any resources or ideas? We do lots of learning through play, too.

[LilyGrace]

Lillian's site, www.besthomeschooling.org has a LOT of before-school resources and ideas.

[Lillian J]

Thanks, Lily! The page with all that sort of thing is here - preschool & kindergarten activities. Look underneath the box of articles for annotated links to sites that have lots of fun ideas.

Later, if you go back up and read the articles in the box, the first two have ideas for slightly older children - and in the rest, you'll find quite a few by well known educators and researchers who feel that study of the 3Rs should be started a lot later that it's widely done today. - Lillian

[blondeviolin]

LOL I guess I should say that I'm more looking for crafts and play ideas that would encourage learning. I'm not wanting to sit and make her read or know her numbers at letters at two. LOL But after a while coloring and pasting and cutting get boring and I run out of ideas...LOL And she asks me when Emmett goes down for his nap, "Table time? Sit up?"

[elizawill]

www.letteroftheweek.com has a curriculum for toddlers. i've not used it but it's free...so worth looking at. i also like www.preschoolrock.com and any of the dltk websites are good imo. http://www.dltk-kids.com/ also, pbs kids or nick jr. etc always have cute ideas for toddlers.

hth!

[Cisne]

Without a doubt Before Five in a Row. You can check out their website at fiarhq.com
We LOVED it!
Michele

[elizawill]

Originally Posted by Cisne

Without a doubt Before Five in a Row. You can check out their website at fiarhq.com
We LOVED it!
Michele

oh yes!!! awesome suggestion!!! scratch my other ideas!!

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by blondeviolin

LOL I guess I should say that I'm more looking for crafts and play ideas that would encourage learning. I'm not wanting to sit and make her read or know her numbers at letters at two. LOL

Well, you just never know these days - we get questions about younger and younger ones all the time. I had a call once from a man who said he thought he'd better do some homeschooling research because his wife was going to be having a baby soon, and they knew things were going to get busy. I asked how old the others were - he said there were no others. The poor babe in utero was the one they had in mind - they didn't want to lose any time. : - Lillian

[maybemom05]

It's not table time specifically, but I have really enjoyed "slow and steady get me ready". Don't have the author's name handy, but you can find it on Amazon.

[tallanvor]

If you are just looking for craft ideas, there are a lot of really good craft books out there. I will have to see if I can find specific ones later than I've used. Right now I've got a little one screaming at me.

[annettemarie]

There are even lots of online resources. You might want to google some child care sites. They have lots of process-oriented craft ideas.

[heket]

Besides the other sites mentioned, there's also:

http://www.first-school.ws/
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html
http://www.thebestkidsbooksite.com/

Network channels have sites as well, as in Playhouse Disney (playhousedisney.com), Sprout (sproutonline.com), Noggin (noggin.com), etc. In case TV characters are ok.

I would second getting a copy of Slow and Steady. It has a nice layout of age appropriate crafts/ learning.