Schedule & Curriculum Update

I've decided to make a few tweaks to our current schedule and curriculum. The changes for our Schedule are pretty minor - just moving things around a bit. I've been researching and like Waldorf's philosophy of having a daily rhythm so our new schedule reflects that. The biggest change is while before we were more focused on time, now it’s about having a consistent flow to our days. For instance, before, if we got up late, we would skip/move around things in the schedule to play catch-up. Now we try to keep the daily pattern/flow intact regardless of time. This way we both know what to expect during the day. It’s only been a couple of weeks but it’s going really well…


Daily Rhythm:

• Mommy’s Early Morning Routine
• MunCee Wakes Up
• Breakfast
• Tot School Session 1
• Morning Nap
• Lunch
• Tot School Session 2
• Afternoon Nap
• Free-Play/Field Trip
• Outdoor Gym/Nature Walk
• Dinner
• Bath Time
• MunCee’s Bedtime
• Mommy’s Pre-Bedtime Routine

Weekly Rhythm:

• Monday:            Planning Day
• Tuesday:           Grocery Day
• Wednesday:     Laundry Day
• Thursday:          Cleaning Day
• Friday:                Fun & Frolic Day
• Saturday:           Anything Goes Day
• Sunday:             Family Day

The other changes are related to our Curriculum. As in my previous post, we use a combination of several books and blogs to come up with something that works for us. The major change is that instead of a subject per day, we will do all subjects each day and the same activities all week. There may be minor variations to the daily activities but the key idea is repetition. We’ll also reintroduce Circle Time and use our morning session mainly for Educational Media and free exploration of our Tot Trays. So, here’s the new format…

Tot School Session 1

Circle Time:

• Welcome, Calendar, Weather & Action Songs
• Yoga
• Godly Character Trait

Educational Media:

• From our selection of DVDs – Letter Factory, Preschool Power, Preschool Prep, Sparkabilities, Signing Time, Trebellina, Themes to Remember, Your Baby Can Read

Tot Trays:

• New trays set out each week for free exploration

Tot School Session 2

Activites:

• Practical Life
• Sensorial
• Language
• Math
• Culture

Library Time:

• Before Five In A Row (BFAIR)

I’m excited to see how this new approach works out! New posts will be labeled Tot School (instead of Teeny Tot School) to represent the updated curriculum.

We're on a schedule... finally!

We've been following this schedule for a few weeks now and it's going really well. We're both much more relaxed knowing what to expect during the day and I can actually get some housework done when she's napping so "yay"! I suspect we may have to change this soon since I've heard that toddlers usually move to one nap instead of two but we'll just follow her lead and see what happens. 

Here's a typical day for Mommy & the Munchkin! (special thanks to FlyLady.com... awesome, awesome site!!!!)

7:00 AM:           Mommy does her "Early Morning Routine"

8:00 AM:           MunCee wakes up, gets dressed, has Breakfast

9:00 AM:           Nature Walk (with our dogs)

10:00 AM:         Morning Nap
11:30 AM:         Snack

12:00 PM:         Tot School - Session 1

1:00 PM:           Lunch & Free Play

2:30 PM:           Afternoon Nap

4:30 PM:           Snack
5:00 PM:           Tot School - Session 2

6:00 PM:           Dinner & Free Play
7:30PM:            Bath Time
8:00 PM:           MunCee's BedTime
9:00 PM:           Mommy does her "Pre-BedTime Routine" and relaxes with Daddy! ;-)