Remember Anything

Some say that we learn by doing. This seems especially true for young children. To teach youngsters we can’t merely hand them a book with printed information and expect them to absorb the knowledge. Instead we must design activity-based lessons. The idea sounds simple at first, but when we think about its practical application it sounds more daunting. But early childhood lesson plans don’t have to be some intricate complex design that only the most educated among us can create. We were all children once. We just need a few basic things to get us started. Let’s examine a few items we need to have in place before we begin to share knowledge with youngsters.

The Plan
To get started on early childhood lesson plans we don’t have to have the entire curriculum mapped out. First, all we have to do is make some basic decisions about what we want to teach. Do we want to teach the child to read, or do we just want to supplement the reading skills our child is learning in school? Do we want to teach our child math, or do we want to find ways to make the math the child knows more fun? Once we have these basic questions answered we can get more and more specific and even set goals. We can be as creative as we like. In fact, we must stay creative. When formulating early childhood lesson plans we have to stay flexible. During the learning process a child’s needs might change. We have to be ready and able to change the plan to meet those needs.

The Materials
The materials need to fit the job at hand. If you were planning to build a tool shed, you’d make a list of materials, and a hammer, nails, and wood would be among the inventory. It’s the same way when preparing for early childhood lesson plans. To kids, concepts make more sense when connected to an activity. If an activity meant to reinforce a basic math lesson calls for grouping square blocks in one pile and triangles in another, you know that you need to add an assortment of building blocks to your list. So when reading about or thinking about educational activities, make lists of things like safety scissors, glue, construction paper, and the like.

The Themes
The themes we like generally aren’t the same as the ones we liked as kids. And more likely than not we’ve forgotten the ones we were passionate about when we were our children’s age. Even if we spend the time and are able to remember that we wanted to be an astronaut except when we wanted to be a cowboy, what if we have a daughter who prefers flowers and rainbows? Then, of course, we use the theme of flowers and rainbows, get the materials, and incorporate them into our early childhood lesson plans. It’s not hard to figure out what themes will work best. All we have to know is what our kids like.
We don’t have to have double PhDs and decades of classroom experience to develop early childhood lesson plans. All we need is desire and a little imagination.

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