Image Courtesy of Children's Choice Learning Centers
A large part of running a daycare or child care center involves educating young children and preparing them for kindergarten. Curriculum (a course of study) structures lesson plans while giving children a head start and a solid foundation for future learning. Daily lesson plans provide a sense of order and a means of supporting critical learning goals and objectives. But where do you get your lesson plans, and if you plan to write curriculum yourself, how do you go about it?
We looked to Donna McClintock, chief operating officer of Children’s Choice Learning Centers, a national leader in quality education-based child care with 47 locations across the nation. We asked McClintock for more information about the basics of selecting and creating developmentally-appropriate curriculum for young children in daycare. Here is part 2 of the interview.
OwnADaycare: What should daycare providers consider when selecting curriculum for toddlers?
Donna McClintock: A child’s first few years are an extraordinary time that set the stage for the years that follow, so curriculum for infants and toddlers should absolutely be included. Providers should consider the following when selecting curriculum for toddlers: Curriculum must be planned, purposeful and intentional. Every detail of a toddlers’ day must be purposeful, even though it may appear that she is just playing and receiving normal custodial care.
There are five key things to remember when planning a toddler program:
1. The custodial care toddlers require each day MUST become part of their educational experience and when the adults caring for them understand this, toddlers flourish. Look for a curriculum that incorporates custodial care routines into the learning experience. This is a training issue as well for the caregivers.
a. Diaper changing time should be filled with conversation. A toddler should be respectfully informed that it is time to change his diaper (as opposed to someone coming up from behind him and just picking him up to take him to the changing table).
b. Smiles, and conversations about something hanging above the diaper changing table allows that custodial moment to become a learning moment.
c. Washing of the child’s hands and the adult’s hands afterwards (if described to the child in words) allows the child to hear about germs and why we wash the germs down the drain. It keeps us from getting sick.
d. If a toddler becomes impatient (and they will), explaining why they cannot get up yet, by giving descriptions of the routine. This empowers the child to understand and learn while receiving custodial care.
2. Flexibility:
The best plans often need to be adjusted. Toddlers are between being an infant and becoming a young child. They are learning so rapidly that they have days that they cannot keep up. Learn to look for signs of frustrations and make adjustments as needed. Do not lock yourself into a schedule or objectives that are too rigid. The curriculum needs to be flexible enough to allow caregivers to move activities around to meet the needs of the children and should offer many suggestions on how to accomplish certain goals.
3. Relationships are critical
a. Toddlers will only thrive in a warm, loving, and caring environment. Any curriculum should remind and stress the importance of affection, smiles, hugs, kindness, and the demonstration of such in the toddler room. Toddlers must feel safe and loved to thrive. The tone of voice used, the non-verbal cues given, the respect shown, are all building or tearing down the toddlers foundation for self-esteem.
4. Routines are critical to the success of the classroom. While flexibility is important if a particular activity isn’t working, children love predictability and a classroom must have very good routines in order for a child to feel safe. Children want to be able to predict with certainty what is going to happen next, it makes them feel safe. Choose a curriculum that allows great planning with enough activities to keep the classroom busy and exciting all day long.
5. Assessment: There is no way to plan a developmentally appropriate curriculum for a toddler room if one does not know the toddlers in the room. This cannot be achieved without a good assessment tool. A good assessment tool lists the developmental milestones that children achieve on a continuum and most will achieve these during the toddler years. A good assessment tool also allows for antidotal notes and lesson planning should always be done from individual assessment of each toddler. Also, toddler lesson plans typically can only address the needs of 3-4 at a time, so small group toddler lesson plans are usually needed. It is very difficult to find 8 toddlers that are at the exact same place, with the same needs.
OwnADaycare: What are some of the instructional approaches that might be used in curriculum?
Donna McClintock: Young children learn best through engaging, hands-on experiences in a predictable environment. Educators should use instructional approaches that encourage children to explore their world through their senses to discover how things work, express their ideas, and learn how to solve problems on their own.
The Children’s Choice Learning Centers approach to early education strengthens critical thinking, builds language and literacy skills, and promotes a healthy self-esteem so every child faces the world with confidence. It includes a focus on education topics in science, technology, engineering, and math and a focus on character development. Children’s Choice Classics® our proprietary, literacy-based curriculum offers age-appropriate activities drawn from both classic and contemporary children’s literature. Our classroom educators enhance Children’s ChoiceClassics® with their own expertise and creativity to design solid learning experiences for each child.
OwnADaycare: If a daycare owner wants to start creating his or her own curriculum how might he or she get started? Do you have any tips or resources for this?
Donna McClintock: If one was interested in creating his or her own curriculum, I would begin by identifying the goal or reason for doing so. When Children’s Choice Leadership team sat at the table 9 years ago, we had over 150 years of classroom experience and we started with: “What would we have loved to have had when we were in the classroom, what would cut down on our personal planning time, and what would be exciting, stay alive and current for our team reflecting the latest research, best practice, and current events”. That is how we started. We then identified the foundation, (literacy) and then the components. I also would recommend that you have outside validation of your curriculum and be open to suggestions and input.
Ensure that every component is based on research and fact, make sure that you have someone driving the curriculum that is knowledgeable and passionate regarding the quality of the product. It is a huge responsibility and not one to be taken on lightly.
OwnADaycare: How does parent involvement play a role in the type of curriculum one might create or implement?
Donna McClintock: We consider Children’s Choice Learning Centers as a partner to parents in their child’s development, and believe that parents should always be consulted when developing a curriculum. The curriculum should have pieces that seek to bridge the gap between home and school daily/weekly and should also include family community events throughout the year. Be sure to include a variety of parent materials to accompany the curriculum to make sure they can stay involved in their child’s early education experience.
OwnADaycare: Do you have any Product suggestions?
Donna McClintock: There are many resources out there today to assist in your design and set up of a center. The good news is that more companies are offering great, high-quality design services when you buy your equipment from them. Companies such as Kaplan Early Learning Company will not only provide everything you need to set up a developmentally appropriate classroom, but will set it up for you, provide training and also has great coaches that will assist you in the complete process. There are other companies out there that do this as well. Kaplan Early Learning Company uses NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) as a bench mark and that is the gold standard in this industry.
OwnADaycare: Do you have any additional tips?
Donna McClintock: If you opening a center remember that this business is about building strong relationships. Relationships between child/teacher, teacher/parent, management/parent, child/child/ and teachers/management. If you get this part right, so many other things can be fixed. If you do NOT get this part right, the other will not make up for what is lacking in this area.
Also keep in mind that just “loving the children” doesn’t make up for lack of knowledge and lack of planning. Loving and caring for the children is the foundation, but it is that, a foundation. The teachers must be trained, kept informed and held accountable.
I am often quoted as saying, “Children’s Choice is a great company if what happens each day between the child and the educator is loving, nurturing, fun, developmentally appropriate, and educational. It is that simple. What happens in our classrooms determines our greatness.” Many childcare companies think that they can build a beautiful building, put amazing equipment inside, or build a wonderful playground or waterpark outside and that they will have a great company. It just does not work that way long term. If you want to build a great company, invest in great people, train them well, and then take good care of them and give them the best environment you can afford. If you have great classrooms, you will have a great company.
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