6 reasons why lesson planning is imporant in a home daycare.
Wondering why lesson planning is important in a home daycare? Don’t the children just play all day? Why would you need to write out lesson plans? What is the purpose of lesson planning in a childcare setting? In this blog post, I’m sharing 6 reasons why lesson planning is important in a home daycare or childcare classroom.
- Lesson planning adds structure and routine to your day.
- Lesson planning helps you see the big picture.
- Lesson planning shows you are intentional with activities.
- Lesson planning ensures you are prepared.
- Lesson planning allows you to tie learning standards to activities.
- Lesson planning shows your clients you are professional.
Lesson planning adds structure and routine to your day.
So why are lesson plans important? As a childcare provider for over 15 years, I could not operate the organized way I do without a lesson plan. Let me share with you why!
Your daycare lesson plan is a tool to help you organize your day. It gives your day structure and routine. Without structure and routine your classroom or home will ultimately fall into chaos.
Following a lesson plan each day, will structure your day and allow your little students to know what to expect and how they should behave. This will help them feel more comfortable and secure in your classroom or home and look forward to different opportunities that you provide throughout the day.
Lesson planning helps you see the big picture.
Taking the time to sit down and lesson plan allows you to address the needs of each child in your care. In a multi-age classroom, which is what you find in most home daycares you will find students ranging from infants all the way to school age.
This is a large age range of children in one classroom. Lesson planning allows you to see a big picture of where each student is developmentally and then break down activities to meet the needs of each learner in your classroom.
Let me give you an example using click and link beads. These are found in most daycares. Let’s say in your home daycare you care for 2 preschoolers, 3 toddlers, and 1 infant. What activity can you do using click and link beads that will meet the needs of each child in your care?
Preschooler Students will create ABAB patterns using click and link beads.
Toddler Students will work on pulling apart and snapping click and link beads together to form a line or circle.
Infant Students will independently work on pulling apart a clicked set of two link beads.
Planning out a lesson plan for daycare ensures each student in your class is engaged and learning.
Lesson planning shows you are intentional with activities.
I’m sure if you’ve been a childcare provider longer than five minutes you’ve heard “children should be able to play all day.” I hear this all the time and I’m sure you do too! Now let me be clear, I completely agree with this statement, but I think sometimes this is thrown out to validate lazy providers and parents!
Children should play all day, that is how they learn, but what I don’t think some people understand is that intentional play is the key. Children who play with the same toys every day in a playroom that never changes will only create an environment of chaos. In these classrooms, you will find bored children, dumped toys, and lots of tears!
Lesson planning allows you to set up your classroom for enriched play and learning. Children learn best when learning environments, aka play areas are intentionally set up with activities that promote curiosity and learning.
The picture below is a snow cone learning center that I created for my classroom using items from the Dollar Tree. Writing lesson plans for preschool and daycare doesn’t have to be complicated. They just help you to be more intentional with activities.
Lesson planning ensures you are prepared.
Let me be honest, if I don’t prep a lesson, it doesn’t happen. I have too many little ones in my care to run around grabbing supplies that I need. Lesson planning ensures that I am prepared for planned activities.
Gathering all the materials you need or setting up learning areas in your classroom will allow you to successfully get through planned activities.
I like to prep materials and set up learning areas on Sunday afternoons. It takes me about 2 hours after church each week. During this time, I turn on music, open my lesson plans and gather items. I can copy, laminate, set up toys, count out manipulatives, and more pretty quickly.
This allows me not to worry about prepping during the week, my week runs smoothly and I always have what I need.
Set up a system that works for you. I know many providers who take 30 minutes after the end of every day to prep for the next day. Sundays work well for me, there is no right or wrong time here. It’s all about just being prepared and ready before the kids enter your home or classroom.
I like to place all the materials I will need for each lesson into bins that I purchase at the Dollar Tree. I can stack these into a closet and grab the ones I need each day.
Lesson planning allows you to tie learning standards to activities.
If you are a licensed childcare provider or daycare teacher in a commercial classroom, you probably have a set of learning standards you have to monitor and teach. Early learning standards promote understanding and provide educational expectations for children’s development and learning.
Tieing learning standards into your lesson planning for childcare helps to clearly describe what you are wanting the children to learn and what outcomes you are aiming for.
Here are the websites I use when writing learning standards in my program.
Tennessee Early Learning Standards
Illinois Early Learning and Developmental Standards
Lesson planning shows your clients you are professional.
As a mother myself, I know how hard it is to leave my children in someone else’s care. Lesson planning will help your clients feel more confident in your ability to take care of their most prized possession.
Writing lesson plans for early childhood education shows your clients that you know what you are doing, that you are a professional, and that you are going to do your best to meet the developmental needs of the children in your care.
Why are lesson plans important?
I hope this blog post answers the question “why are lesson plans important?” These 6 reasons are why I write lesson plans in my home daycare. If you are sitting there thinking this sounds great, but I don’t have the time! Don’t worry I got you!
Check out my childcare lesson plans in my Teachers Pay Teachers store! I have over 100 weekly lesson plans all ready to go! You and your little students will love them.
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Writing Effective Lesson Plans For Early Childhood Classrooms