Switching From Care to Education

[Kcole1075]

I want to be more of an educational childcare. I need to buckle down and do it. I know all the resources( i know which curriclums i like and all the free websites and stufff)but on my weekend I put family time and relax time first instead of planning.

I have a mixed age group. During the time I want to do my circle time I will have a kindergartener, a four year old and 3 two year olds.

Those of you who have mixed age groups do you give diffrent activities for diffrent age groups? I think this is what I have the most problem with because they are all at such diffrent places.

The four year old is way behind so I might have to start him with some lower level stuff. And the kindergartener is very advanced for his age. So he would be bored if he had to do "baby stuff".

[Leanna]

Those of you who have mixed age groups do you give different activities for different age groups? I think this is what I have the most problem with because they are all at such different places.

I find I can modify many activities for the younger ones. For example, if pony beads and yarn are out for stringing, I give the toddlers large wooden beads. If the older ones are painting, the younger ones can fingerpaint. If the fours are drawing and dictating a story for their journals, the toddlers can draw/scribble, etc.

[Kcole1075]

I have a lot of toddler curriculum so I think that I can just making it more difficult for the kindergartener.

I am going to observe and evaluate the 4 year old a little more. He is my newest kid and isn't where he should be. So he is going to be playing catch up.

[MarinaVanessa]

For me circle time doesn't work but I have younger children in the morning. I do morning meeting instead and we don't have to sit. Most days we stand while we talk about what we are doing for the day. For me it's very short since I have 2 one-year olds and my own 3 year old. Maybe like 5 minutes plus our morning song and weekday song. I do very informal instruction and I just incorporate it where I can. If we are talking about rectangle and a child is playing with blocks I'll ask the child if he has used any rectangles in his building, how many, why it's a rectangle etc. We go on walks and do shape hunts etc. It's mostly to introduce and expand the language of the younger ones while the older ones get most of the new concepts.

Once the preschoolers get here we do more activities like cooking, cutting and pasting but I include the toddlers, they just get more help from me if they want it.

For me, having a general routine and not too many activities helps. So does flexibility. If I have something planned and the children show interest in something else I'll drop what we are doing or skip it altogether and move on to what they are interested in. You can pretty much incorporate what you had planned to do and relate it to what they now are interested in anyway.

For example, we were talking about police officers and I had planned an outdoor game to go with that topic so I asked if they wanted to go outside to play a game. While outside someone found a worm and then no one was interested in the game anymore. We stopped the game and focused on the worms. I took the opportunity to talk to the children about how to handle the worms by talking about how delicate they are and how we should keep them safe, like police officers keep us safe. The discussion went on about how police officers serve us by protecting us and helping us. The children then were police officers and brainstormed how they could keep the worms safe: being kind and gentle, being friendly, making them a home, giving them food and water etc. Together they built a small "city" for the worms and hunted for more and added them then "patrolled" each other by reminding each other when someone was too rough. We lost two worms because they were handled too roughly and the culprit was put in "jail" to think about what they had done (the children initiated this, it was all very interesting to watch). One 3yo DCB dropped a worm and 3yo DCG gave him a "ticket" which he had to pay. He said that he had no money and 4yo DCB suggested he do "community service" by collecting rocks and sticks to make the worm city bigger and so he did that.

The younger ones get exposed to the language and participated by collecting worms and supplies to build the cities while the older ones shared what they learned or already knew. This is how my everyday looks like pretty much. Just be prepared to toss everything you planned out the window for something else that the children are more interested in .

[Familycare71]

For me circle time doesn't work but I have younger children in the morning. I do morning meeting instead and we don't have to sit. Most days we stand while we talk about what we are doing for the day. For me it's very short since I have 2 one-year olds and my own 3 year old. Maybe like 5 minutes plus our morning song and weekday song. I do very informal instruction and I just incorporate it where I can. If we are talking about rectangle and a child is playing with blocks I'll ask the child if he has used any rectangles in his building, how many, why it's a rectangle etc. We go on walks and do shape hunts etc. It's mostly to introduce and expand their language.

Once the preschoolers get here we do more activities like cooking, cutting and pasting but I include the toddlers, they just get more help from me if they want it.

For me, having a general routine and not too many activities helps. So does flexibility. If I have something planned and the children show interest in something else I'll drop what we are doing or skip it altogether and move on to what they are interested in. You can pretty much incorporate what you had planned to do and relate it to what they now are interested in anyway.

For example, we were talking about police officers and I had planned an outdoor game to go with that topic so I asked if they wanted to go outside to play a game. While outside someone found a worm and then no one was interested in the game anymore. We stopped the game and focused on the worms. I took the opportunity to talk to the children about how to handle the worms by talking about how delicate they are and how we should keep them safe, like police officers keep us safe. The discussion went on about how police officers serve us by protecting us and helping us. The children then were police officers and brainstormed how they could keep the worms safe: being kind and gentle, being friendly, making them a home, giving them food and water etc. Together they build a small "city" for the worm and hunted for more and added them and "patrolled" each other by reminding each other when someone was too rough. We lost two worms because they were handled too roughly and the culprit was put in "jail" to think about what they had done (the children initiated this, it was all very interesting to watch). One 3yo DCB dropped a worm and 3yo DCG gave him a "ticket" which he had to pay. He said that he had no money and 4yo DCB suggested he do "community service" by collecting rocks and sticks to make the worm city bigger and so he did that.

The younger ones get exposed to the language and participated by collecting worms and supplies to build the cities while the older ones shared what they learned or already knew. This is how my everyday looks like pretty much. Just be prepared to toss everything you planned out the window for something else that the children are more interested in .

Love this!!! Cracked me up . Imagine him going home and sharing he had to do community service because he didnt have money to pay of the dropped worm ::

[Kcole1075]

For me circle time doesn't work but I have younger children in the morning. I do morning meeting instead and we don't have to sit. Most days we stand while we talk about what we are doing for the day. For me it's very short since I have 2 one-year olds and my own 3 year old. Maybe like 5 minutes plus our morning song and weekday song. I do very informal instruction and I just incorporate it where I can. If we are talking about rectangle and a child is playing with blocks I'll ask the child if he has used any rectangles in his building, how many, why it's a rectangle etc. We go on walks and do shape hunts etc. It's mostly to introduce and expand their language.

Once the preschoolers get here we do more activities like cooking, cutting and pasting but I include the toddlers, they just get more help from me if they want it.

For me, having a general routine and not too many activities helps. So does flexibility. If I have something planned and the children show interest in something else I'll drop what we are doing or skip it altogether and move on to what they are interested in. You can pretty much incorporate what you had planned to do and relate it to what they now are interested in anyway.

For example, we were talking about police officers and I had planned an outdoor game to go with that topic so I asked if they wanted to go outside to play a game. While outside someone found a worm and then no one was interested in the game anymore. We stopped the game and focused on the worms. I took the opportunity to talk to the children about how to handle the worms by talking about how delicate they are and how we should keep them safe, like police officers keep us safe. The discussion went on about how police officers serve us by protecting us and helping us. The children then were police officers and brainstormed how they could keep the worms safe: being kind and gentle, being friendly, making them a home, giving them food and water etc. Together they build a small "city" for the worm and hunted for more and added them and "patrolled" each other by reminding each other when someone was too rough. We lost two worms because they were handled too roughly and the culprit was put in "jail" to think about what they had done (the children initiated this, it was all very interesting to watch). One 3yo DCB dropped a worm and 3yo DCG gave him a "ticket" which he had to pay. He said that he had no money and 4yo DCB suggested he do "community service" by collecting rocks and sticks to make the worm city bigger and so he did that.

The younger ones get exposed to the language and participated by collecting worms and supplies to build the cities while the older ones shared what they learned or already knew. This is how my everyday looks like pretty much. Just be prepared to toss everything you planned out the window for something else that the children are more interested in .

Now this makes me want to focus more on my older two!. I was thinking since I had three 2 year olds to focus on them. But now I might switch it around and base it off the older two and involve the little ones.

[MarinaVanessa]

Now this makes me want to focus more on my older two!. I was thinking since I had three 2 year olds to focus on them. But now I might switch it around and base it off the older two and involve the little ones.

This is sort of what I do. I always include the younger ones in everything and it still works. While the preschoolers get the "meat & potatoes" of the activity the toddlers practice skills and learn/get introduced to language.

Ex: Activity about a letter is cutting out pictures from magazines that start with that letter and making a collage. All of the children sit at the table (for as long as they're interested). The older ones help each other through conversation and cut out the pictures/letter while the toddlers pretty much just practice their cutting skills, tearing paper, gluing etc.

[MarinaVanessa]

Love this!!! Cracked me up . Imagine him going home and sharing he had to do community service because he didnt have money to pay of the dropped worm ::

Yes, it was great. I pretty much just stayed out of the way unless I was asked something and they did the rest. They used words that we had discussed before and it was pretty great what they remembered. These are the times that I wish that I had a camera in my eye that recorded everything or at least that I didn't leave my phone inside. ::