Please help! I am starting a daycare and I need some pointers on how a regular day looks for kids ages 2-3. I taught pre- K and 1st grade but never toddlers.

I want to understand how the day breaks down with toddlers.
I know you start off with breakfast, but what's next? Circle time? Go over the calendar? Songs? Read a book? When reading a book does that relate to a lesson or are you just reading for fun?

All suggestions are very much appreciated! As much as you can explain or break down the day it will be beneficial. Thanks in advance to all!!!

Reply

I have a preschool that I run out of my home. Last year, I had young ones-all 2's and 3's. Granted, my program runs only 3-hours, so it will look different from yours if you're all day, but maybe this will help a little. I basically ran it with a similar flow as my older preschoolers, but things didn't take as long and I tried to make everything more active.

8:30-8:45 Arrival, morning meeting (greet eachother, sing a song, talk about our day [theme], maybe do a little activity or game).

8:45-9:15 Small group (usually sitting at tables, painting, playdough, drawing, silly putty, baking, whatever...)

9:15-9:45 Outside free play

9:45-10:15 Snack

10:15-11:00 Free play in playroom

11:00-11:30 Circle time/ story time (we did circle time [songs, fingerplays, movement activities] for 15 minutes upstairs in our playroom, then came downstairs to my livingroom for story time/pick-up)

Not sure if this helps, since it's only a part-day program. If I had a full-day program in addition to the preschool, I would do longer outside time, and a lot more free play. The 'structure' that's in my program is the max that I would want the kiddos this age to have.

Also, I found especially with this age, that while repetition is important, my 'structured' times also need to have a lot of variety. Like, circle time will start with a sit-down song, do a flannel board story, then get up and do a movement activity or two, then a quick little game or another song. Same with my morning meeting. Sometimes we do a song about our theme, sometimes a story, sometimes we'd do a chart or a game. I think variety and keeping it fun and moving helped a lot.

I don't do calendar everyday. We only explore the calendar when it makes sense to do so (like, when we did a weather study last March). If we did calendar everyday they and I would be bored. Some preschools do it with success, it's not something I do.

Reply

This is my schedule right now...it always changes depending on the kids needs or what works for the group a tthe moment.

7:00 - 9:00 when the kids arrive, they go right into learning areas, or projects they were working on the day before. (sometimes they leave their buildings in the block area, or unfinished art projects, etc) We eat breakfast during this time...usually around 8:00. I don't list it as its own time, because breakfast is incorporated as one of the "centers". They usually prepare their own breakfast, to the best of their abillity.

9:00 we do potty/diaper breaks, and get dressed for outdoor play. It takes awhile to get them all dressed for the colder weather, but its great practice for them, and I think its worth the effort.

9:30-10:30 outdoor play

10:30/45 or so....we have our circle time

11:00 diaper/potty breaks, and then we prepare lunch...the kids usually help with that too.

11:30/45 or so...we eat lunch

12:30-2:00 nap

2:00 diapers/potty

2:30 snack

3:00 we have to go to the bus stop to get the school agers.

3:30 the school agers have snack and do homework..the little kids free play

4:00 diapers and potty again and then we go outside, or have and activity planned that incorporates all the kids...art, cooking, or a science project, etc

5:15 or so we start cleaning up...most kiddos are picked up by 5:30...one family stays until 6...they free play until pickup

ETA: I have 2- 10 month olds, 2- 2yr olds, and 2- 3 year olds.....and then 1 or two SA

Reply

Ok, that helps a bit. Thank you. Another question I have is, how do you decide what to teach them during circle time or project tie. There isn't a set curriculum for daycare's. Do you as an educator just decided what should be taught or what they should know? Do you make your curriculum?

Reply

You can either purchase a preset curriculum, or make your own. There are MANY free resources on the web to use if you are going to make your own.

There are a few premade curriculums out there. I'm not sure of all of them, but I know there's mother goose time, funshine express, and carols affordable curriculum.

Now, this is my own personal opinion, but I would never purchase a premade curriculum. First, I wouldn't spend money on something I could do for free.

Also, I like to use a more emergent/project based approach. Premade curriculums tell you when and how to teach a certain subject. I like to allow the childrens interests determine what we are learning about. So sometimes, its all about butterflies in the winter, and snowmen in the summer, but its what they're in to at the moment.

Reply

This is what I do/am working on--although my version is a hybrid, I guess you could say. A few weeks ago, everyone was very interested in space, so we started a space unit. We took a break last week to talk about Thanksgiving, now we're back to space. However, we're going to do space this week and then switch to something else for awhile (not sure what yet...). I will be talking about Christmas in a secular way soon, as we will be spending a lot of time over the next four weeks (oh god, that sounds so short...) working on Christmas projects for parents.

So, I blend the emergent curriculum with stuff *I* want them to learn about. It's working pretty well so far.

Reply

This thread has been a great help to me! I realized now that I have pretty much the same schedule you all do, but you all sounded so much more organized!!! I feel better now!

Reply