How I plan our learning monthly lessons

A number of friends have asked me "How did you come up with that idea?".  Many of my ideas come from my "teacher brain" that God so graciously gave me, but I'm not afraid to turn to the good ole internet or my old teacher resources!  It's all about the way you organize your thoughts and follow through with them.

Here's a template that I created and lamenated.  It hangs on the fridge because it's a "visual reminder", for me and my husband, about what we are teaching Jackson and Nixon throughout the month.

I base my lessons by "theme" and what Jackson WANTS to learn about.  (I'll be posting those pictures and lesson plans very soon)  We start by going to the library and looking for those "thematic" books.  This  is great because it gives us a focus when we go on our book hunts at the library!  We can keep those books for 3 weeks, so that's how long we learn about that specific animal/truck/job/etc...

I also incorporate a letter/sound for that specific theme.  For example, we learned about bears, so the letter/sound was "Bb".

As for Science/Math, our focus is based off of observations made during our playtime or learning time.  I noticed that Jackson couldn't draw a circle, so that's what we started working on.  I didn't MAKE him sit down and draw 100 circles each day...that's not my style.  We did it with paint in the bath tub, used shaving cream in the shower, used the trashcan lid out on the driveway with chalk.  And last night...he drew a balloon in his journal!  I was sooooo proud of him!

Jackson's Balloon - Can you see the circle and the string?

More balloons!

If you notice on my lesson plan template, we "cook" every Friday!  I did this with my first graders and they loved it, so why not do it with my toddler and infant, right?  How to I find recipes?  I have a lot from teaching, but also found that if I GOOGLE anything, it's amazing what is out there!

Happy Planning and Playing!  I hope this helps!