My program is a year around one, where by each day we do a balancing act between basic routines, planned and child guided activities. The routines are important for learning basic self care skills and to make the child comfortable in their environment. Activities not only make our day more fun but increases a child natural curiosity. Taking the time to explore what the children are interested in, right at that monument allows for learning that has more meaning to the child. Not only do these things increase the child's understand, but it also develops their self confidence and self esteem.

Our basic day may go as follows:

 7:30 Arrival and free play

 8:20 Good morning Gathering

 8:30 Breakfast, Bathroom/Wash up

 9:00 Circle time

 9:15 Structured Play activity -

 9:45 Art/music Activity

10:30 Bathroom /wash up and snack

11:00 Large motor skill activity

11:45 Table activity while I get lunch

12:00 Bathroom and wash up

12:10 Lunch

12:30 Bathroom break, Wash up and Teeth

12:20 ABC/Color and shape video to watch while laying down

 1:00 Quiet time/Naps on cots

 2:30 Quiet time activities (reading, coloring, puzzles)

 3:00 Bathroom, Snack

 3:30 Afternoon Circle time

 3:45 Afternoon Activity

 4:10 Room Clean up

 4:30 Bathroom/Wash up

 4:45 Free play

 5:00 Parents start to pick up

 5:30 Last child is gone.

Keep in mind there are many days where the children, the weather and possible field trips put the schedule in a tail spin. For example, Wednesday mornings the public libruary has "story time", some times we are able to go.

What do we do during activities? A mind blowing question when I think of all the art, music, craft, books and activities that we end up doing. The details of these change with the ages, interests of the child.

Recently I purchased "Beautiful Beginnings". It's a developmental curriculum program for ages 0-36 months. What it does is go through the different types of experiences children should have at 0-6 months, 6-12 mo,12-18 mo,18-24 mo, 24-30 mo and 30-36 months. I will be using this program as a basic sturcture to your your child's activites.

For the older kids they often make projects related to the current learning theme or their interest.  By provider a wide variety of art materials and the TIME away from other distractions, they can come up with some awesome things based around their interests.

General themes will help make the program strong in the areas of communication, gross motor, fine motor, intellectual, discovery, social, self-help and pretend.

Educational/Social/Self-Care skills that help your child are fully embedded into my throughout the activties and themes.  I use resources from my preschool classes, resource books I've collected over the years, canned programs such as Mother Goose, High Reach, Fun Steps and other programs found on the internet at Top100 Child Care/Daycare Resource Sites.