Having a schedule and setting routines for young children is essential in helping their development. But routine does a lot more than structure a child’s day. In fact, it helps reduce their anxiety and stress when they’re able to know what’s going to happen throughout the day, and also helps you and your staff plan ahead.
Whether your facility still relies on the traditional bulletin board or preschool management software, we’ve put together a few actionable tips that will help you structure your days.
Before you start anything, make sure you have a plan in place. This includes gathering any resources you may need for crafts, lessons, playtime, and more. You will also need to consider what staff you will need, the number of children registered, what meals you plan to serve, any allergies, special needs, or requests.
Checking all of these details across various files and papers isn’t easy. And when it comes to important planning and safety tasks, missing a small detail could be dangerous. You can easily put this plan together using preschool management software. These all-in-one platforms track staff and students, handle scheduling and tasks for your staff, provide detailed information about your children, and more.
When you first start making your schedule, it might look something like this:
However, there’s no transition time planned. You haven’t allotted the time that it takes for the kids to get their outdoor clothes on, or to clean up after craft time. When you don’t schedule time for your transitions, you end up losing time that you made for other activities.
For instance, if it takes the kids 5 minutes to get ready to go outside, then they only have 25 minutes of outdoor time, not 30 minutes. As the day goes on, these minor changes will cause you to fall behind schedule or run out on time needed for certain activities. It can be challenging to visualize what an entire day looks like. That’s why preschool management software is so important today. You can easily plan and schedule your day for preschool, while also taking into consideration transition times. This will make it easier for you to keep track of your day and keep your kids happy.
When doing transitions, instead of just telling your children, “It’s time to put out jackets on,” try using audio and visual cues. For example, when storytime is wrapping up and it’s time for them to wash their hands for snack time, you can put up a handwashing picture on the board.
Or, if it’s naptime, you can dim the lights 5 minutes before and turn on white noise, which will signal that it’s time to settle down. This helps add routine to their day, giving them the consistency needed to remember how to behave when exposed to certain cues.
Preschool management software makes it easy to track all of the tasks and cues your preschool relies on. This is a great way to ensure they are used, and it’s a great way to onboard new staff.
When planning out your preschooler’s day, you need to keep in mind how much your staff can handle as well. Pay attention to what ratio of staff to students is best for everyone. One staff member for preschool-aged children should not be handling more than 6-10 children at once based on ministry requirements.
To help manage your staff scheduling, preschool management software can show you your staff-to-student ratios in real-time.
Sometimes life happens, and you may need to make adjustments to your day. Maybe a sudden temperature drop turned your playground into a dangerous, icy surface. That may mean canceling outdoor time for your kids, which is perfectly fine since those times can be changed.
However, activities like nap time, lunch, and others can’t always be switched up. Ensure that you block out these times and that your staff knows they can’t be moved, or it could leave you with grumpy kids, frustrated staff, and angry parents.
When planning out your days for your preschool, it’s good to switch it up. If you have all sit-down activities in the morning, your children will get restless. And if you do the opposite, they’ll be tired by lunchtime and start becoming irritated.
To prevent this from happening, use a preschool management software to better schedule your day and rotate tasks. For instance, after snack time, book outdoor time, and follow it up with reading time. Adding variety is important to their overall happiness, as it provides balance to their day.
It’s no secret that planning your days requires a lot of work. With so many moving pieces at play, staying organized is a real challenge. That’s why many childcare facilities are turning to preschool management software to simplify and improve visibility for essential back and front-office tasks.
Are you interested in learning more about how all-in-one preschool management software can cut costs, boost safety, and improve productivity? Book your demo today and spend less time on operations and planning tasks and more time taking care of your children.
