Do You Have Random or Scheduled Themes?

[Crystal]

Maybe you can start by talking about how to care and be respectful of the toads, what they should do if they find a toad (i.e. put them in a specific part of the yard close to the fence or give them to you and you can later take them on a walk to relocate them), you can talk about the toads life cycle, what toads eat, what kind of environment they need to survive, how a toad is an amphibian and what that means, other amphibians, etc. You can have the kids tell you what they need to survive and get a terrarium and find those things. Have the kids arrange it and catch one or two toad's as daycare "mascots" for the time being and only those toads are allowed to be played with (under supervision). That way the other toads will be safer .

YAY!! FANTASTIC ideas!

[Abigail]

I want to see a picture of a bunch of toads! We don't get those kinds of opportunities in the city here! LOL

(You could probably write a children's book [Toad-aly Daycare] LOL)

[melskids]

I want to see a picture of a bunch of toads! We don't get those kinds of opportunities in the city here! LOL

(You could probably write a children's book [Toad-aly Daycare] LOL)

LOL!!! i should rename my daycare....

friday they had about 25 or so in a bucket....i'm sure they are gonna be at it again monday, i'll have to post a pic...

BTW, i didnt mean to hijack your thread

[Abigail]

Melskids, ha ha, I got to reading and forgot it was even my thread! LOL

I know I can teach the kids what they're interested in, but if I don't have a scheduled routine for weekly themes they are missing out on what they don't even know. I think what I might do is create a weekly theme so we have something to do for crafts and songs and fingerplays and just other creative activities related to the theme. (Week 1-Week 52)--this way, some months have 4 or 5 weeks and they carry over from month to month so sending out letters with Week 1, Week 2, etc would be very organized and simple starting week one the first week of January to stay on a "business" schedule!

I don't believe having a scheduled curriculum is a bad thing and I need a better routine to feel like I have things under control and that I can play the "teacher" role. Besides, elementary schools even follow books, not "Johnny, what do you want to learn about this week" as the main means of teaching. LOL. So, I'm trying to prove to myself it's okay to have a set yearly schedule of activities to keep me sane! What does anyone else think of this?

Example: Week one might be SNOW, Week 35 might be Back To School, Week 43 might be Halloween, Week 47 might be Thanksgiving, Week 51 might be Christmas.

[kendallina]

Melskids, ha ha, I got to reading and forgot it was even my thread! LOL

I know I can teach the kids what they're interested in, but if I don't have a scheduled routine for weekly themes they are missing out on what they don't even know. I think what I might do is create a weekly theme so we have something to do for crafts and songs and fingerplays and just other creative activities related to the theme. (Week 1-Week 52)--this way, some months have 4 or 5 weeks and they carry over from month to month so sending out letters with Week 1, Week 2, etc would be very organized and simple starting week one the first week of January to stay on a "business" schedule!

I don't believe having a scheduled curriculum is a bad thing and I need a better routine to feel like I have things under control and that I can play the "teacher" role. Besides, elementary schools even follow books, not "Johnny, what do you want to learn about this week" as the main means of teaching. LOL. So, I'm trying to prove to myself it's okay to have a set yearly schedule of activities to keep me sane! What does anyone else think of this?

Example: Week one might be SNOW, Week 35 might be Back To School, Week 43 might be Halloween, Week 47 might be Thanksgiving, Week 51 might be Christmas.

I'm like Crystal in that I base activities off of their interests, but I'm also like you in that I like to have a plan ahead of time. So, this is my first year doing in-home (have worked in centers before) and I've organized some spreadsheets to get my ideas on paper. Each spreadsheet has the name of the 'theme' and then lists the elements of our day (circle, small group, outside, environmental enhancements for free play, etc) and I am working on filling each element with activities that go along with my theme. So now, when children are interested in, say, construction, I go to my construction spreadsheet and pull out the activity ideas that I want to use. I'm finding that I have more ideas than I have time to use (but that's because I only have MW kids and TTh kids). Also, if I'm feeling a little stuck on their interests for the week/month/etc then I can pull activities from another theme and introduce it to see if there is any interest.

Hope that helps...
Katy

Also, to clarify, I don't think it's awful for people to have set themes for the whole year, but I have definitely noticed that the children are sooo much more interested and willing to do the activities and extend on the activities if I choose themes based on their interests.

[Carole's Daycare]

I use Funshine Express, and so my themes are pre-planned- and they give me the entire years themes ahead of time- but they are not necessarily one week per theme- usually 3 themes in a month. I use it as a framework, but have the flexibility to move ahead if somethings not working, extend it if the kids show a lot of interest, and I occasionally insert a theme based on whats happening, seasonal, or the child's interests. In August we added a Fish/fishing theme because several of the kids had been fishing and sharing about it, and the other kids were interested, so we did several crafts, books, and pretend activities around oceans/fishing.