When you're busy making lesson plans!

      This first post is one of the subjects touched in class, that really stuck out for myself. In class we discussed the nature of learning, and if in fact children are only learning when we have predefined and well thought out curriculum activities/ materials. And while those things are quite important in the teaching and care of our 0-3 year olds, what's not touched on often is the fact that children are learning throughout the whole day. For. The moment those young students walk into our classroom, they are learning, growing and absorbing information and knowledge.
       This fact was very freeing for myself, particularly in the schedules or my centre. I found myself getting flustered often and upset when the schedules were not on time, and I feared the children losing out on the more "valuable" curriculum time.
     One example of this was before and after outside time. In my centre the junior classroom must go down two sets of stairs to the cubby room, get dressed and then back up one set of stairs to our playground. As you can imagine this can take quite a bit of time, especially with 16 little snow pants, coats and 32 pairs of mittens and boots! When the class was talking about the fact that children are learning from all of these every day meaningful experiences, it really made me worry less. All of these young preschoolers are learning so many valuable things during our treks to the cubby room and back, for example: the very important skill of how to put on your outdoor clothes, or even how to walk down stairs with one foot on each step! Many of them them are learning left from right, and cooperation with their peers! Some are even learning the importance of helping others less able then you!
         The freedom of this has made me much less worried about how fast I must get the children outside, and instead I focus on how I can best teach the children during this time! It is not only the trek to the cubbies this has helped me with either, I'm much more aware now of how I act and I'm in less of a rush for those scheduled times I used to think more of things to check off a list. And so while it is important to make lesson plans, the unscheduled moments should have just as much thought and teaching happening, as learning truly is happening, even when you're making lesson plans.