Friday, October 28, 2011

Structured Learning Activities with a Young Toddler

Recently, I've begun implementing structured learning activities into our day for Peanut. Although she is just over 16 months old, I can already see the benefit these early learning sessions will have! We plan on homeschooling, so getting into a routine of daily learning will also be really helpful when she starts more formal preschool studies.

When I first started researching homeschooling, I thought for sure that I would not have to worry about it until she was at least 3. But the more I learned about early learning and the more I watched her develop and grow, I decided to start doing structured activities with her, even if just for 15 or 30 minutes a day. The great thing is that she has fun and is learning without even realizing it!

I've been able to find quite a few free young toddler curriculum online, and so far we have been following Pam's House Young Toddler Curriculum. I love how flexible it is and how you can just pick and choose what you want to do. I also love the Christian teachings included. Since Peanut is still fairly young and not really talking, I can just repeat lessons a few times if I need to. This is going to come in handy when I am busy taking care of a newborn at the same time. These lessons are structured so that you can quickly start and stop different activities if needed. I borrow books for the week from the library, and am working on getting our "school" supplies stocked so I can more easily do projects that involve things like construction paper, glue sticks basic craft supplies or crayons.

If you're interested in teaching babies and toddlers, here are a few more links I found that were helpful:


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