Baby Z and Friends update (11-18 months) daily lessons

[waterdreamer]

So in less than a week Baby Z will be a 1 year old!! How did the year fly by so fast!

I have really kicked things up a notch during daycare hours. I'm managing one, sometimes 2 major lessons times during the day. I took advice from the Tweedlewinks Overview course, and instead of breaking things up into a bunch of mini lessons, we are doing 1 to 2 circle/highchair time each day. On  typical day this is what Baby Z and his friends are doing.

-Little Math
-Little Reader
-Little Musician
-Wink to Learn Speak and read Flashcards
-Meet the Letters flashcards
-weekly lessons from an old school version of World Book Early World of Learning box set. The past two weeks have been about size.(Books, flashcards and puppets)
-65 day math programme
-Right Brain Education Shop Phonic lessons
-Right Brain Education Fast Lower case alphabet
-Right Brain Education Fast upper case alphabet
-2 sets of random physical flashcards(this week is rainforest animals and opposites)
-Count to 100
-Count from 100-1
- Days of the week
-Months of the year
-Sign Language Alphabet
-Tweedlewinks(one lesson a day for 5 days and then move on to the next lesson)
-Wink to Learn Speak and Read English

I'm planning on adding calendar time. I just need to buy a large one and I think I can get it cheaper in the states when I go down there in a few weeks. Also I have a little boy starting who's first language is Chinese, so I will be starting Little Chinese when he starts coming next month. Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe I'll start Speak and Read Chinese too. Also as soon as our income tax return comes in I'm hoping to get a bunch of Preschool Prep printed materials.

The rest of the day the kids have free play, story time, long walks in our new 4 seater stroller wagon, trips to the store, etc. I feel like there is so much more I could be doing, like EC, physically superb program, etc. But with 4 kids under 2 its just too crazy!!! What do you guys think? Any ideas? Comments, Suggestions?

[linzy]

It sounds really well rounded. I wish that more daycares/preschools were available with committed teachers/parents like you.

[Wolfwind]

waterdreamer, this is so cool!  Do you mind if I pick your brain a little bit?  My Baby S is just over 9 months and I would love to copy some of the things you do!

So, how long does this take?  They sit in their high chairs for that long?  Do you let them have things to manipulate with their hands or do they just watch?  What do you do when someone decides to scream/crawl after the dog/pull another kid's hair?  Did you start doing these all at once one day, or did you add one thing and then one more and get it to this length imperceptibly?  Why does Tweedlewink recommend one big session over lots of mini-lessons?  (I'm getting the Tweedlewink course for my birthday, in one month; I'm so excited!)

As for the other areas you mentioned: EC is fabulous, but I cannot even imagine doing it with 4 under 2.  I struggle with an almost-graduated 2 year old and one baby.  If you're feeling ambitious and really want to try, just take off their diapers and have enough potties that one is always within arm's reach.  (Ikea sells a nice one for five bucks.)  And be ready to clean up messes. 

But physically superb probably doesn't take much more than the walks you're already doing.  Just encourage them to get out and walk every time.  You won't go very far very fast, but they'll improve.  If you can build or buy a brachiation ladder, go for it.  We hang on the bars at every potty opportunity/diaper change, which gets you to 10 times a day really fast.  At 30 seconds a person, it takes us a minute and a half, so it doesn't slow down the diaper change much.  I also do one balance exercise on the way to the monkey bars, but that's with one baby; four would be a lot harder.  I have been amazed at how my 2 year old's physical abilities have taken off since using the monkey bars daily.  And we're still just hanging, not swinging.  You could also try using the balance activities as rewards; Baby S loves them.  (Big Girl A hated them, however, and we quit; now she likes them, but she's too big for me!)  When they walk a long way on your walk, or run, or do something great, snatch them up and swing them around joyously.  If you keep the list of balance exercises handy, eventually it'll become habit to do them.  More than half are just swinging the child around in different orientations.

[Mandabplus3]

Don't bother buying a calender. Print one free from the Internet in À3 size. Then you have nice paper to draw on for patterning. Stamping of the days and you can decide how many months to show at a time. I bought one and in the end we cut it up for the pictures, gave the kids the number pages to draw on and printed out a bigger one free.      
I am often surprised at just how much learning you can fit in one day if your focus is good. Of course some days it all goes to the dogs but usually we as teachers are our own worst enemy. Assuming our kids cannot handle as much as they actually want to learn.

[TeachingMyToddlers]

I love this! Way to step up your game. 

[waterdreamer]

I'm so so so sorry for my late reply. I'm interviewing right now for a new daycare child and it is Baby Z's birthday on Sunday, so its been busy.

waterdreamer, this is so cool!  Do you mind if I pick your brain a little bit?  My Baby S is just over 9 months and I would love to copy some of the things you do!

So, how long does this take?  They sit in their high chairs for that long?  Do you let them have things to manipulate with their hands or do they just watch?  What do you do when someone decides to scream/crawl after the dog/pull another kid's hair?  Did you start doing these all at once one day, or did you add one thing and then one more and get it to this length imperceptibly?  Why does Tweedlewink recommend one big session over lots of mini-lessons?  (I'm getting the Tweedlewink course for my birthday, in one month; I'm so excited!)

It depends on the day. There was 2 days this week I skipped lessons all together. The kids have been fighting random colds and I could sense they were not going to respond well. Wednesday I timed it, the kids sat for 45mins. They could have sat for longer, but I didn't want to push it. I started first with BrillKids programs. Then added in some of the other things. We usually do lessons during snacks, so their hands are busy. If someone screams they are asked to stop. They love lesson time so much they usually stop. But usually that doesn't happen because I gauge their moods. If I can tell one child is sour and grumpy, I will wait to run lessons until that one is down for nap. Pamela from Tweedlewink mentioned when they structured their preschool/daycare with more right brained education, one class did really well and the other had a MAJOR increase of biting and behaviors like that. She found the teachers in the good room were doing big groups of lessons twice a day. The group having issues, the teachers were trying to do mini lessons throughout the day. The teachers were stress because they didn't want to leave anything out and the kids were stressed because their play time keep being interrupted. I usually put out finger foods for them to eat while they watch to keep their hands busy.

[Wolfwind]

Thanks so much for your information!  I've started to doing my Doman words & math homemade LR/LM programs back to back at the breakfast table, followed by LMu.  My nine month old looks forward to it and starts clapping as soon as I bring out the computer.  It's been great!  Her big sister watches, too, and then does Reading Bear afterward.  I never would have thought they'd concentrate so long!  Thanks!

And it makes a lot of sense that the parents/teachers would be more stressed by trying to fit in lots of little lessons.  I know I was.  Doing it first thing in the morning makes it easier to relax the rest of the day.

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