A New School Year Beginning, New Learning Opportunities

My favorite, little student.

With the start of the school year on the horizon my teacher side is itching to create lessons, to provide meaningful learning experiences, to go on field trips, to facilitate art projects, to organize things and put them in cute containers.  At this time of year I would typically be finished putting together my classroom and would be starting in on those first week lesson plans really focusing on the first couple days of school because they are the most crucial.  They are the days when students learn your rules and procedures and what you expect of them.  I love the start of school.  Ever since we made the decision for me to stay at home I've had all these learning ideas marinating in my head for things I could do with Carter.  As a teacher I like to have objectives, a list of what is crucial to teach.  Working from objectives I am then able to create lessons based on what my students need to know.  I love going through the thought process of how to engage students and make them interested in the topic and then coming up with activities that range from movement, songs, crafts, etc. to help them learn.  To get me started I looked at what 18 month olds and 2 year olds should be doing cognitively, physically, and socially.  Carter already had the 18 month old stuff down so I decided to focus on skills 2 year olds should be mastering.  I weeded out things I feel Carter is proficient at doing and my objective list looks like this:

Carter's Learning Objectives:

1. Know the names of and be able to point out body parts.  (He has nose down and is iffy with the rest).
2. Know names of objects and be able to point to them when asked.  (He can do this with a few things, but it is definitely a work in progress.)
3. Sort objects based on size or color.  (He's actually able to do this when he's interested, but definitely needs practice).
4. Play make believe.  (He's started doing this a little bit, moving his animal figures around and making them talk, it's freakin adorable!)
5. Match like objects together, for example match a circle with a circle.
6. Speak in short phrases and 2-4 word sentences. (He's done some 2 word sentences already!)
7.  Follow simple instructions.

He's already building towers with blocks like a champ!

For a while I had been thinking about doing themed weeks with different activities to do and different books to read about the chosen topic with Carter once school started.  I wanted our summer time to be totally simple, just enjoying each other and not having any structure other than our eating/napping schedule.  On Thursday I got excited and decided to make a spiral notebook full of all my ideas.  I made a page for each weekly theme and then added activities to go with the theme on the front of the page and books we own/we've read from the library on the back.  I'll add more activities and books as I scour the internet.  I was shocked when I went back through and realized I had 34 different themes written down.  I'll have a great start!  I know a lot of what we do will be over Carter's head, but it will still be fun.  Most of the activities will be for fun and for exposure and I'll add in some activities to practice with the objectives listed above.  Each Monday after we've completed the weekly theme I plan to write a blog post about our week of learning highlighting what Carter loved, what was a bit advanced for him, etc.

I figure there are some weeks we will go back and revisit when he gets older or simply because he enjoyed them so much.  Some themes may spread over multiple weeks due to all the opportunities they provide.  My goal for each week is to include a field trip/interactive experience of some sort, lots of books on the topic, crafts, songs, a way to play make believe related to the topic, lots of movements, and a special snack.  I'm really excited and can't wait to delve into the first week!  The theme for our first week will be Babies.  Friday, August 8th, we have a trial run with a 9 month old boy who I will be watching twice a week.  I'm hoping some practice on the days before he arrives will help Carter and then our field trip/interactive experience will be a baby coming to visit.  Some other themes we will be doing later on will be Ocean/Fish Week, Pet Week, Transportation Week, Shape Week, Body Parts Week, Nature Week, Movement Week, and Tools Week to give you and idea of what we'll be up to!  I am so excited for this adventure of staying home and teaching/learning with Carter!!!