Each Fundamental receives total focus for one month, allowing your Tots to immerse themselves in each Fundamental for that entire month. So the four Fundamentals are covered in four months, and each one repeats three times a year.

Repetition is a key to Tot mastery. Working with a single letter, number, colour or shape in many different ways during the day builds familiarity and confidence. As Tots gain knowledge through constructive work, their young minds gain a higher sense of readiness for preschool education.

After your Tots have studied the four Fundamentals for a year, they can combine everything they've learned. So at storytime with a three-year-old, you'll regularly be hearing such comments as "well, look at that, Mummy! There are three green frogs that start with 'F', that live in a square house!" I've seen a Tot amazed to realize that the page in front of him has four N's, a yellow circle and a number 10 -- all in one place.

The Teaching Tots program is a one to two year preschool curriculum that readies Tots for school, and for life.

The Teaching Tots program is intended for toddlers (ages 2 to 3) as a two-year program, and for preschoolers (ages 3 to 4) as a one-year program. When a two-year-old starts the program, after a year he will have some command of each of the Fundamentals. But if that Tot who is now three years old, who has been involved with the Curriculum for an entire year, stops learning his Fundamentals for the next year, he'll forget most of what he's learned.

A Tot's first year with the Curriculum will concentrate on recognition. When you see your Tots knowing their shapes, numbers etc., that's a milestone.

In the second year, just about every conversation you'll have with your Tots during the weekdays will involve a Fundamental. When you notice your Tots mentioning their Fundamentals in almost every sentence. you'll realize they have reached their next milestone.

Once you've run the Rolled-out Curriculum program for a year, you won't have to buy it again - just reuse the twelve issues from the previous year.