The Stay at Home Mom’s Guide to Preschool Lesson Planning
I’m a stay at home mom, but I used to be an early childhood educator. Let me show you some tips and tricks for creating a simple, easy to use and follow lesson plan.
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
-Nelson Mandela
We are going to discuss:
- What a lesson plan is
- The purpose of a lesson plan
- The importance of a lesson plan
- How to improve a lesson plan
What is a lesson plan?
A lesson plan is a detailed step by step guide that outlines what the student (your child) will accomplish during an activity and how.
What is it’s purpose?
The purpose of a lesson plan is to keep you (Mom) organized and accountable, and them (your child) engaged.
An engaged child is a happy child! Think about it. There are very few children who can entertain themselves in a meaningful way. When a child is left to their own devices, and are not engaged in a productive activity, the likelihood of them getting into trouble is high. Who wants that?
While a lesson plan can ward off negative behaviors, the goal is to assess what your child needs to learn and how you will get them to learn it.
- Your Qualifications
You may be saying to yourself: “I’m not a teacher.” Is that really true? You are your child’s first teacher (and you can be their best teacher). In a way you are also your child’s personal assistant. You know their likes/dislikes, schedule, attention span, interests, need, and wants.
- Where to Start
Not everyone comes from a teaching background. So… how do you know what you child needs to know?
A good place to start is knowing your child’s developmental milestones. (You can easily go online and search.) They are typically organized by age (either month or year) and can also be categorized by content area (social-emotional, language, cognitive development, and physical development). It is important to recognize that these developmental milestone checklists are not set in stone, they are a guideline. They can however alert you to things that you may want to look into (not always a delay, giftedness as well!).
Begin by looking at your child’s chronological age (ex. 2 years, or 28 months) and look to see if your child is meeting these milestones. If so look ahead slightly for the next skills and plan activities to develop these. If your child is not meeting these skills, don’t be too quick to worry. Look back a little bit to get them caught up.
* If your child was born prematurely, the milestones will need to be adjusted by a couple of months, please consult your pediatrician for specifics.
In the event that you are concerned, speak to your pediatrician, and ask when would they advise intervention. Take comfort that some milestones {mastery/achievement} are, give or take a few months.
As an involved parent you may not feel that your observations are taken seriously, if that is the case, get a second opinion (ex. another doctor in the practice,) or ask for a referral to a specialist in the area of concern.
Keep in mind that evaluations provided by a specialist may be a higher copay or maybe an out of pocket expense because it may not be covered by insurance in some instances. They can take time if you need to travel, and in some cases it takes multiple appointments with more than one provider to gain a complete diagnosis.
You will want to have very detailed notes that cover a substantial time period in order to validate your concerns. Be sure to include dates, times of day, direct quotes from your child, when you first observed the behavior or suspected delay, and how long its been going on. These details will help your practitioner to have a whole picture as they will only have a limited time to spend with your child. It is also quite likely that your child may not display any signs on the day of the evaluation. Your records can help the doctor to see if there are any patterns or timelines to establish a recommendation appropriate for your child.
At the same time, please don’t make the mistake of waiting too long if you suspect that your child needs help. It can complicate your child’s self-esteem, happiness, ability to learn, and cause unnecessary frustration for everyone involved. For more information on milestones, check out The Ultimate Developmental Checklist for Mom’s.
How will you get your child to learn new skills?
Plan meaningful and fun activities!
My best advice for encouraging a child to learn a new skill is to connect the activity with something that your child is already interested in.
For example I have a child who is obsessed with trains and dinosaurs. When I mention either of those words, he is all in! We may not always be able to include his favorite things, but this method works almost instantly (Don’t forget to give the activity a catchy title- “Jurassic Jumping Jacks” anyone?)
Why is a plan so important?
Let’s think about it this way. What happens to us as adults when we don’t have a plan? We are confused, frustrated, and we waste time. Anything enjoyable that we could have done falls to the wayside because we were indecisive at the beginning.
If I woke up this morning with no plan, it would be scary! I would feel so lost and out of control, and wonder why is it 1:45 already and I’ve accomplished nothing. If your plan is to do nothing then that totally works, but I’m guessing your here because that’s not your plan.
So what do we do? We have a phone, tablet, smart watch, cork board, planner etc to keep ourselves from getting lost in the sauce so to speak. We know what we are doing, where we are going, what time and with whom. Why? So we know what to expect!
You see where I’m going with this. Our “babies” need a plan. They thrive on structure and routine. It’s so much easier to get their cooperation if they know what to expect.
You may be saying “I’m not ready to devote my whole day to teaching and doing activities. The truth of the matter is, any moment that you are with your kids you are teaching them. They are learning all day long.
What you will learn will teach you to plan one activity, a day or even a years worth activities specifically for your unique child.
Lets talk a simple sample daily schedule. It may look like this:
- Wake up
- Bathroom
- Breakfast
- Get dressed
- Outing or errands
- Lunch
- Nap
- Snack
- Activity
- Dinner
- Bath
- Story
- Bed
That may be what some parents schedule looks like. As long as it is a predictable routine and you strive to be consistent (life happens) it can work. You can build educational activities into your existing plan. It can be as little as one activity a day for a week practicing one skill until your child masters it. Do not overwhelm yourself!
What are the components of a lesson plan?
- Developmental Skills Necessary– What does your child already know how to do?
- Skills or Developmental areas that can be stimulated– What will this activity teach them or introduce them to?
- Materials Needed– What supplies will you need?
- Location and Set up– Where are you doing the activity?
- Preparation– What needs to be ready before you engage with your child?
- Introduction– How will you get your child interested in what you are trying to present?
- Procedure– How would you for instance explain what the activity is supposed to look like to an outsider looking in? What type of questions are you asking your child? What are the talking points?
- Conclusion– How are you wrapping up this fun and amazing activity? Think of this step as your time to recap. Thank your child for participating etc.
- Transition– What happens next? (Ex. Is it time for lunch?) Guide them to the next step. (Ex. Washing hands.)
- Environmental Additions– What can you add to enrich the home learning environment to support the new concepts? (Think charts, music, books etc.)
- Anticipated Problems– What might go wrong? What are your solutions? How can you be proactive?
- Possible extensions– What are some related activities that I can plan?
Stay with me friends. This is a lot of information to take in but, you will notice that you will start doing this automatically and not go through all of this. You will be able to see an activity and quickly discern if it is right for your child, if you need to modify it, and what they can learn from it.
What are some of the developmental skills?
Pre-Reading
- Visual discrimination
The ability to see the differences between objects, letters.
Ex. Able to visually distinguish a ball from a block
Able to visually distinguish the word “ball” from the word “bell”
- Tracking
Visually following an object as it is moved back and forth (left to right/right to left) in front of a baby’s face.
Ex. Baby watching a rattle which is held 6” in front of his/her eyes and moved back and forth
- Ocular Focusing
The ability to focus on objects at various distances (near-space, mid-space and far-space).
Ex. The eyes following a rolling ball.
Pre-Math
- Classification
The process of logically grouping objects or ideas into categories or classes based on similar characteristics.
Ex. Grouping all red objects together.
- Matching
A form of classification involving putting objects together, often on a one-to-one basis (one-to-one correspondence)
Ex. One mitten with its mate. One sock with one shoe.
- Seriation/Ordering
A logical organization of objects into ordered relationships.
Ex. Arranging apples from smallest to largest.
Read the complete list of 29 Developmental Skills to Help You Plan here.
How to Improve Your Lesson Plans
Your lesson plans are always going to be a work in progress! Some will be better than others. There will be plans that will be a complete success while others are a total flop.
1. Review
What went well? When you isolate that, repeat it. Did your child really enjoy being read to? Include more books and literacy aspects to your plans. Have you noticed that things started to go awry past the 20 minute mark? Try shortening the activity, or try a different time of day. Maybe our child isn’t retaining the lesson as well as we had hoped. There is nothing wrong with doing the activity again.
2. Try to attach new concepts to a theme
You can do a theme for as long as you want. A day, a week, a year. For instance if you did a theme about autumn, take into consideration your child’s milestones and run with it. Some examples could be: tasting pureed pumpkin or pumpkin pie, compare and contrast apple cider and apple juice, go on a nature walk, a visit to a pumpkin patch, painting with fall colors, a leaf matching game. You get the idea!
3. Don’t underestimate the power of preparation
In other words- Don’t make your kids wait! This may sound counter-intuitive because we want our children to learn patience, but pre-schoolers just don’t have it. Save yourself a whole lot of trouble and have everything ready. Let’s say you tell your little one “We are going to make pudding” (They assume right now!). Sure its not much set up but you unbox the dry pudding mix and it is open, you have a measuring cup with milK, your toddler is asking to drink it. Meanwhile, the phone rings and while you are looking for the spoon and mixing bowl, guess who started decorating your floor with chocolate pudding mix and milk. The moral of this story is have your materials ready!
4.Have a goal before selecting an activity
Don’t just do an activity because it’s fun, seasonal, or cute. There is a time and place for that. However if you have ever said to yourself “I do great activities with my child, but I’m not seeing the results I want!”, keep in mind that it may not have been right for your child for a few reasons. They may not have fit your child’s milestones, it may have been too easy or challenging. Maybe it just wasn’t interesting. Ask yourself: “What do I want my child to learn?”, “Will this capture my child?”, “Do I want to do this activity?”. The last question is paramount. Your children even if they are very young can pick up on your commitment level. If you’re not into it, no matter how great of an idea it is, your child most likely won’t be invested either.
Before you go
- A lesson plan is a step-by-step guide for what your child will learn during an activity and how.
- The purpose is to keep you organized and accountable, and your child engaged.
- Lesson plans are important so you have a clear direction that will get results.
- You can improve by reviewing, having a theme, good preparation, and having a goal.
- Let me know if you think making a plan is doable, or if you have any questions at: momcanplan@gmail.com
