Curriculum choices for Little T

Okay, as promised I am giving you the limited curriculum choices for our 2yo. Curriculum for the 2yo, you may ask. YES!!! Start them as early as possible!! The more they soak up now, they better off they will be later! That’s my philosophy anyway. They are sponges in these first precious years of life. So, give them all you can!! Go for it!!

Now, let me clarify a few things. We will most likely have a set aside time for his “schooling,” but with him still taking naps it may fluctuate from day to day. Just wanted you to know that we don’t have a perfect household and we’ll go with the flow around here (as much as this momma can stand anyway)! ;) So, here is what we’ve chosen:

Book work - As I mentioned in my previous post, Tyler went to a fantastic preschool starting at the age of 1. He did great when he actually started curriculum at 2yrs old. So, we’re going with what they use this year to see how it works. We are going to use the A Beka Two Year Old curriculum. They work on numbers and coloring for this age, which could prove challenging enough with little T. He wants to “color” when bubba’s doing his work, but it is VERY short lived – so we shall see how this goes! Anyway…specifically we are going to use Numbers and Skills with Button Bear and Learning Numbers with Button Bear.

Flash Cards - Now, A Beka does have flash cards that you can also get to use, but we already have some, so we’re going to stick with those. I recommend having several different kinds of flash cards to use. First, I recommend number flash cards. These will only reinforce what you’re teaching in their book work time. Second, I recommend have just letter or alphabet cards. I use these. Personally, I don’t like the ones with pictures on them as I think that can be confusing for kids. I would choose ones that are just Letters. Now, where the words and/or pictures come in are the Sight Words cards. I use these. I love the ones we have (we found them at a garage sale - SCORE!!). They have a word with the picture on the front and then just the word on the back. We have already started using them with little T. We are currently working on just naming the pictures. Then, eventually they will begin to recognize the word along with it and finally they will be able to recognize the word by itself. I LOVE that!!!

Big Skills for Little Hands series – These are GREAT!!! I’m hoping to get at least the I Can Color! for Toddlers book this year. We’ll see how that one goes before we progress to the others. There are 4 total in Toddler series: I Can Color!, I Can Cut!, I Can Paste! and I Can Trace! I am thinking that for this year we’ll work in the I Can Color! book for extra practice and mix it with our A Beka Curriculum. I will probably do I Can Paste! next, but will wait until he’s closer to 3 to attempt that fiasco in the making!!

Videos & TV shows – First, let me say that TV time in our house is very limited. And, second, we are extremely picky about what the kids can watch. Now, that being said, we will use a variety of videos/tv shows in our curriculum that will actually suit both of our boys. We watch a LOT of PBS in our house and so some of those shows are played throughout the day as well. Some of our favorites are Signing Time (my new favorite!!), Word World, Sesame Street (little T especially likes Elmo), Super Why, Sid the Science Kid, Between the Lions and The Cat in the Hat knows a lot about that. There are a few others that I allow Tyler to watch, but as I’ve already mentioned it is limited. We do own some videos that they watch, but again they are PBS shows on video! We have several Elmo videos, which little T especially likes. They teach many different things and then we talk about some of those teachings with Tyler (since he’s older & able to comprehend the “moral of the story” things). We also have a Sid the Science Kid video and a couple Bob the Builder ones. I am not a huge fan of Bob the Builder (mainly because I can’t stand the theme song), but I must say Tyler and I have had some great conversations about sharing, selfishness and stubbornness from them – so I guess they’re not all that bad. We also have a variety of Biblical videos, but I will discuss those in another post. (Just didn’t want you to think we we’re not teaching our little about the Bible – WE ARE!!!)

We will also do music time for both boys, but again that will be in another post. I have so many things to say about that subject, so I will stop here! ;)

So, there ya have it!! Our choices for the 2 yr old are complete. I am optimistic about this year (we’ll begin in June officially – again, I’ll discuss why in another posting). If you’re thinking about starting up some teaching at home, I hope this helps you with your choices. Feel free to comment or make other suggestions! I’m not the expert by any means. These are just what we’ve chosen to do that will work best for us! There are so many options out there!!! Just start exploring and go!

Many Blessings!!