Thursday

Growing with At-Home Learning

opinion 1
Hi, I'm a NYC nanny seeking recommendations of any preschool at-home learning program I can implement with my charge. She goes to a few hours of school per week, but her parents feel she's capable of much more growth... as do I. I'm not looking for classes or schools, just materials I can order or download and then implement on her/my own schedule. Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

16 comments:

MissDee said...

Let me take a look through my stuff and see what I have for you. I will send some links to MPP and she can forward them to you.

Mr. Nemo said...

You should check out Teacher Vision

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ms Ginny said...

I applaud you for wanting to make sure your charge is learning allshe can, but I beg you not to make this new venture too rigid.

As a former preschool teacher (retired now to care for my grandkids and travel, I've seen many bright children become resistant to learning as a result of educational activities being pushed on them by an over zealous parent or caregiver.

Let her lead. What are her interests? Build on those. Whatever you do ensure she is still having fun and has time to relaz and be a child and her day doesn't become an a giant schedule.

Justbee said...

Not sure what you're looking for or how old your charge is. Where I live, when people say preschool that can cover 18 months to 5 years.
Anyway, I used to work daycare so I can identify with curriculum plans that are lacking, but have also seen the burnout that pp mentioned.
As a daycare teacher and nanny I likehttp://www.letteroftheweek.com/preschool_age_3.html

The Encyclopedia series there are books for infants, toddlers & preschoolers. I've also found some of the Gymboree play books helpful.
I don't follow much of aschedule for my charges who are 2, 4, and 6. it's a ton of open ended activies.
For example we take trips to the farm, oo children's museum, and library every week, we go on nature walks. Every where we go and everything we do there's lots of talking involved. Something as simple as making and eating lunch can become a math lesson. Walking to and fro the bus was all about rhyming words and animal homes. Clean up becomes a lesson in sorting. Just last week the 4 year old wanted to know how colors mix so we got out clear plastic cups, food coloring, water, and drops and went to town!
Good luck and have fun! Sounds like your girl is lucky to have a nanny that cares.

Anne said...

OP, do you mind sharing a bit more?
I would like to know how old this little girl is, and what is lacking in her education?
What type of school is she attending now?

What do you think she could/should know?
What do her parents think?


What are her parents ideas on inhome activities?

AmagicalfairyprincessTuesdaythroughFriday said...

Try Everything Preschool. It has different themes so you can gear it towards her interests or topics you'd like her to learn. It suggest activities for each day of the week that go along with the theme . You'll get ideas for music, books, science projects, math, art projects,games etc

MissMannah said...

I would have to agree with Ginny in this circumstance. It depends on the age of your charge and how much preschool she is attending. The last thing you want is for her to burnout before she even reaches kindergarten. Children have a natural thirst for learning and you can make learning experiences happen sporadically just by observing what she is interested in and building on that.

I looked at all the links the PPs put up and some looked good but some of them I would not recommend. In my opinion, "everything preschool" and "teacher vision" did not look like good curriculums because they are the "one size fits all" sort of thing. That isn't how learning should be, not in a preschool and especially not in a nanny-charge relationship. Her learning experiences need to be a lot more catered to her interests and learning style rather than "this is what we are going to learn this week because the curriculum says so." Obviously, I am not a big fan of packaged curriculums, I find them a waste of money. They are good to get ideas from and to build from.

Sorry I ended up writing a whole novel there. Basically I'm saying just trust your charge and let her lead.

MissMannah said...

My apologies...instead of saying I disliked Everything Preschool, I meant to say Letter of the Week. EP looked ok.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
NannyKatherine said...

Try www.headsprout.com

lexeael13 said...

i have tutored and still am with prek kids I find using Bob books and other pre readers helpful as well as handwriting without tears for letter writing to be great. I find lots of ideas on blogs by teachers you can even find some fine motor skill activities, crafts, science things etc that you might be able to do. Good luck!

MissMannah said...

I couldn't agree more, Jedd. Rote learning simply isn't real learning, it is memorization. I don't know about you, but I don't want to turn my charges into little monkeys...ok I can guess how you feel about that as well.

I think your assessment of daycare teachers is pretty sad, especially coming from your standpoint of a former director. But it is very accurate and that is even worse. In my state, they are trying to make the standards better so that lead teachers have to have at least the CDA but we haven't quite gotten there yet. In a perfect world, there wouldn't be a need for these prescribed curricula because all teachers would be adept at writing their own.

StrawberryShortKakes said...

I do not know much in the area of Preschool material but I do know a lot about child development in general. I agree that straight memorization is probably not the best way to go and your charge will get bored easily. I think the best thing to do is teach her HOW to learn, how to be creative, and how to be interested in things. Of course she will have her preferences to what she likes but you can always make up your own fun activities that are also educational.

It seems like you are leaning toward a more strict curriculum since you asked for programs, but I also urge you to encourage her own curiosity for learning. If you read her a book about dinosaurs, go to a museum that has a dinosaur display so you can see them in real life. If you are learning about food groups, take her shopping and make up a little activity like find one food from each food group. Of course I am guessing you want to focus on things that aren't as exciting, like math, but there can always be fun ways to teach it, besides having her sit and do a worksheet. Since she is attending school, I think it would be a great idea to go out into the real world or do activities that she cannot do at school. I think she will learn more about the world that way and also think of learning as fun!

melissa said...

Try mothergoosetime.com. I've used it with several families, and I love it. It's an actual preschool curriculum that you order, and they send all the supplies to you. The children I've used it with have always loved it too.

Phoenix said...

My mom taught me most of my basics before I went into preschool. Now her methods weren't exactly nice and now would probably be considered child abuse but I learned best when everything was put into a game type deal. Flash-cards are really good. Also magnets for the fridge are fun for little ones. I would teach my little cousin to read and write with the letter magnets. Also art is stimulating and I noticed with my step-son that he responded better to things when he was able to be creative. Like each day would be an adventure of a letter. We would point out things that all started with that letter then at the end of the day we would draw all those things we saw, inside a giant letter. When we got him back from his mom he only spoke spanish so this was geared a little more towards learning English as well but you get the point.