As a former teacher, I started circle time at home with my kids. I bought a complete pack that would include everything I would need for the next few years. Yes, I could have made it cheaper and cuter, but this was so much easier and with two toddlers at home, I didn't want to. When we started circle time it was only 2-3 minutes long. We kept increasing it so that by the time they were 3 years old, they could sit and focus for around 12 minutes. I should state that when I say sit and focus it includes many different activities and songs, not just being still and listening.
We started when the kids were 21 months old with just the calendar. At first we didn't even pay attention to the numbers. We started with a simple AB pattern using colors. Once the kids could continue the pattern independently, we did start counting the numbers on the calendar as well. Following the patten and counting the numbers while pointing at them also teaches an important pre-reading skill... left to right and top to bottom. Knowing this is how we follow text is crucial to reading when the time is right. Eventually we moved onto other patterns and focusing on the day of the week.
I taught them a song about the Days of the Week - pointing at each word as we sang it. We would figure out what day it was and then add that to the strips you see above the calendar. Pointing at the current day, moving back one for yesterday, and forward one (from today) for tomorrow to help them visualize the time. By using the phrases "Yesterday was..." "Today is..." and "Tomorrow will be..." will seem repetitive, but it's a great way to teach proper grammar.
Once this was all going well, we added a song about the Months. I held up the words and pointed as we sang each one. This is beginning word recognition.
At the same time we started the calendar, I introduced these two concepts as well. The weather one is fairly self explanatory - we look outside and move the arrow to what the weather is that day. I also taught my kids the Water Cycle Song. It's a great way to introduce evaporation, condensation, and precipitation all of which are directly related to the weather.
We also talk about the seasons. Rather than introducing them all at once, we started with the current season (Summer) and talked about what happens. I introduced each season as we came upon it so it took a full year before they knew all 4 seasons. They can even tell you 3-4 things that happen in each season as a way to help remember it. "Summer is hot, hot, hot and we wear sunscreen." "In Autumn the leaves change colors and fall off the trees." "In Winter we wear coats and it might snow." "In Spring trees grow leaves and flowers bloom." There are more, but you get the idea. This, of course, depends on where you live. If we lived in Canada, I would be able to promise snow in the Winter.
We didn't add graphing for a full year after starting the other things. I would love to say this was a good idea, but honestly I put it off too long. I should have introduced graphing much earlier. We graph the weather over the course of the month, the number of books by specific authors on the bookshelf, and above is a graph of what vehicles drive by our street. This is a great way to introduce collecting data, graphing, more/less/equal, and interpreting information.
We also keep track of the number of days in school. Of course, this actually is just a count of how many times we have done circle time. While this obviously teaches counting, it later helps teach other things. We added a discussion on place value, carrying in addition, and counting up from a number other than 1. It's much more difficult for a child to start counting at 12, 23, or 64. We also decided that once we got to 250 we should start over again. That's more than enough days in a "school year."
When the kids were 33 months old, they became fascinated with money. They knew that Daddy goes to work to make money and that things cost money. Yet, it isn't very often they actually saw money. We tend to pay for things with our card and between auto bill pay and online shopping, it was all very abstract. We learned a song (notice the theme) about each of the coins and this was the same time we introduced family contributions (jobs they do because they are part of the family) and chores (jobs they can do to make money). I will get into that in another post.
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