Teaching Tots: Our Summer Curriculum

I'm a week behind on my "Teaching Tots" series, and I apologize for that! I wanted to catch up with one year olds last week, but since I'm behind, I'm going to go ahead and share the summer curriculum that I've planned for Gretchen.

I divided our curriculum into 2 days per week for the month of June, with some catch up days at the end. I decided that I wanted to teach Gretchen the alphabet, numbers 1-10, and review all of her colors. I might even try to throw in her shapes.

If you have a two year old, do not expect them to know their alphabet or to even count correctly. As long as they are saying numbers (they don't have to be in order) they're on track! A 2 year old should however be learning basic shapes and colors, but probably won't master them until they are 3 years old.

Gretchen however, can identify many letters, and knows all of her shapes and colors- so that is why I choose this curriculum.

Our teaching days will be on Monday and Wednesday mornings. We have story time at the library on Tuesdays, and i'll probably send her to daycare 1 day per week to keep her use to the routine. We'll also pick up swim lessons this summer.

I choose morning time because Gretchen will have eaten breakfast, and because I can incorporate our curriculum into lunch, and we'll have the afternoons free for outdoor play, swimming, and working out.

I decided that we would work on 5 letters per day. The first day we'll focus on A-E, the 2nd F-J, and so on. Since Gretchen already knows many of her letters, I didn't think the task would be too daunting.

We'll also focus on 3 numbers at a time. However, we will be doing 3 letters per week, rather than day. Right now, Gretchen is counting 2, 5, 2, 5, etc. She rarely starts with 1, and has difficulty remembering 3 and 4, even though i've heard her say the numbers.

Lastly, we will focus on 1 color per day- straight through each color of the rainbow, followed by white and black.

The last week and a half of June is reserved for review, and for catching up if we get behind schedule.