At Home Preschool for 2 Year Old

60 minutes a day? 5 minutes a day is appropriate for 2 year olds. Everthing should be play based till 5 or 6. Please take the time to read this article: http://www.homeeducator.com/familytimes/articles/13-6arti...

As to the social interaction thing, you are right to ignore people. The egoistical stage lasts till close to 4.

I was a preschool teacher and now a SAHM mom of 3 year old twins. I did not start my twins in preschool this fall simply due to the fact that they would have 3 years of preschool. (We will start next fall, though). At this point my kids know their ABC's, colors, counting to 10 on their own, 20 with a little help, animal names/sounds, etc., etc., and are very social. This is IN NO WAY me bragging here!! Just making a point that you don't need to be too structured with teaching preschool basics at home. The things I did - which I'm sure what many other moms do - are simple, like everytime we walked down the stairs we'd count how many steps we were taking. We'd look at colors (of any objects that happened to be around) and say their names, we'd sing the ABC's often, I purchased fun flashcards at Target in the $1 bins and always took THEIR cue as to when they wanted to look at them. For me, it has never been about "Okay, its time to learn!" Its just happens frequently and randomly through out the day. I am not saying that you couldn't have structure to your day and I'm certainly not telling you how to raise your preschooler, but I just wanted to give you some easy, everyday ways to incorpporate learning into your preschoolers day. Kids at this age are like sponges and EVERTHING they do is a learning experience! Its wonderful! Have FUN with your preschooler and take advantage of the everyday learning thats around you or that presents itself in a natural setting. And a fun, planned-out, some-what structured art project is fun too! I love doing those too! Best wishes!!

Candyland is good for teaching colors!

An hour at a time is too long. Break it up during the day. Maybe finger painting in the morning, book time before nap, crazy silly dance time while you're making dinner (for example). Maybe do an easy craft once a week since that would involve a little more prep on your part. Play doh is great, too. I learned at my kid's preschool that it's a great way to build hand strength and develop fine motor skills. He could even help you make it. Wouldn't hurt to have him 'help' with household chores, either.

As for websites, try sesame street, Disney jr., and nick jr.

We do a rotating preschool with parents from church from 10-12 once a week so it's my turn to host every 6 weeks. I just did the letter C, taught all the c sounds and words. We try and do the theme around the letter, including snacks that start with the letter.

I use an old preschool book from the 80's, it has tons of ideas! I would go to half price books and check out their educational preschool section, lots of great books there. But I do online resources as well:

http://www.kidslearningstation.com has tons of great worksheets

some good activity ideas here:
http://lessonopoly.org/lessonplansearch&&searchty...

http://www.everythingpreschool.com/lessonplans/

To help your child with computer learning, http://www.starfall.com is great and the leapfrog letter/math/word factory dvds are great backup cartoons that help kids link these concepts together.

For your child's age, most of their learning will come through play as opposed to lessons or worksheets.

www.thelearningboxpreschool.com has a great curriculum that covers all of these areas you described and all materials for each lesson and activity are included, pre-cut and ready to use. I was very happy with the program. My only complaint is the customer service is not the best. I was missing a few items from my kit. I was able to make do without the items, but still never received them even after emailing and calling the customer service line. Still the price of the kit was reasonable and the program was pretty comprehensive. My kids enjoyed it. They go to a preschool now, so we stopped doing it at home.
Good luck!
A.

I worked with my daughter at that age through play. We had color, shapes and letter puzzles that we would do together. I also started teaching to spell her name through a song and then started writing the letters in her name then the rest of the alphabet. An hour is a long time for a 2yr old to sit and do one thing. I was a preschool teacher before and love arts and crafts so I do alot of painting and making things in a teaching way. Little things to do can be drawing shapes on construction paper and painting each one. draw a letter on paper and have your son use cheerios to glue on the letter. Simple fun ways to learn!

Preschool really starts around age 3... any "school" that proclaims othewise is simply incorrect. If you were to observe in these settings, you will find that they do a lot of "free play" with short (10 minutes) periods of guided activities.

Those guided activities:
- puzzles
- play doh
- stories
- "collages"- gluing scraps onto paper
- sponge/finger painting
- sorting/categorizing items (anything you find in your house)

The whole point of early childhood education is to get your child comfortable with the idea of structured activities and routines including cooperative play. You can make ANYTHING into a structured activity or a routine. At that age my son loved to bake with me. It involved early measuring/math, direction following and basic kitchen safety- and he got to eat the outcome!

Just a thought.... keep doing what you are doing and set aside a couple of 10 minute breaks during the day for tabletop activities. Most centers have 2 year olds in a toddler room, so please keep that in mind. True preschools will not take a child until he/she turns 3.

Next year consider having him attend two morning sessions. He'll be developmentally ready and he would have a blast!

BTW- secondary content teaching skills are entirely different than early childhood (especially with your own child)! Good luck!

Your son learns sooo much just from having you home full time with him and taking care of the household and daughter. Trips to the grocery store are learning experiences, helping clean the house,cooking and taking care of daughter are all learning experiences too. Have fun with your boy...paint...draw with chalk...go for walks and explore the outdoors....help him to get dressed on his own. Plan play dates at the park with little friends and have a friend or two over for a playdate. All of these will help with learning to share with those outside of the family unit.

Kids don't need formal preschool to succeed in school. As long as you are behind supporting him and his studies and provide a nurturing home he will have the confidence to do well in life.

I did at home preschool co- ops with friends for all 3 of my kiddos. We used a specific curriculum and rotated homes 2X a week. It provided social settings away from home on a smaller scale and they had a lot of fun with art projects,"show and tell" and other activities. It cost each mom about $100 for the entire school year and you only teach every couple of months depending on how many kids are involved. I think it would be a great fit for you as a previous teacher!!

Good luck and best wishes at finding what works best for YOU and your kids!!
Don't feel the formal preschool pressure... it really is unecessary in the large scheme of things. Most of my formal preschool going friends openly admitted they did/do it because they liked the regular "free time" and didn't want to spend the time having to teach Abc's and 123's to their kids. Not saying that is bad...just showing another side for the huge increase in preschool attendance.

Check out www.letteroftheweek.com I loved this website when doing preschool with my two younghest! It is awesome!!!