Whether you are just starting out building a new daycare, and wondering how to attract parents to your center, or you have an established business looking for a bit of a refresh, a fantastic curriculum can be a key driver of success for you. The daycare curriculum that you choose allows you to create an environment of care and learning that reflects your core values and beliefs about learning, and sets your students up for success in the lead up to their transition to school. So how do you choose the best daycare curriculum for your center?
What is a daycare curriculum?
An early learning or daycare curriculum can and will look different between different centers. But at its most simple, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) states that “curriculum consists of the plans for the learning experiences through which children acquire knowledge, skills, abilities and understanding”.They aren’t just for older children, either! From toddler curriculums to preschool curriculums, children of all ages can benefit from a thoughtful and well-planned curriculum.
How often should you change your curriculum?
There’s no set rules or guidelines around how often you should change your daycare curriculum, or how far in advance you should plan it. Some families will appreciate the oversight that they could get from having a whole year curriculum planned in advance, and planning multiple months or a full year at once will allow you to plan activities, toy rotations and room set-up.
On the other hand, you may find that planning only a month or so in advance allows you to do more child-led learning, where you can observe the topics or activities that the children are interested in, and form your curriculum around those activities.
5 things to consider when choosing a curriculum
1. The setting
Every daycare is unique, with specific benefits to offer its students, and your curriculum should reflect this! For example, maybe you run an in-home daycare, and your parents love a relaxed environment that more closely reflects their home. In that case, you may choose a home daycare curriculum that closely reflects the style of play that children would engage in at home, like this pretend-play curriculum for infants and toddlers.
2. The age of your students
Children grow and develop rapidly over the first few years of life, and a curriculum for children of preschool age will have different learning goals and topics than one designed for younger babies or toddlers. As children in your daycare grow and learn, you can regularly assess whether the curriculum is suiting their needs, or whether they seem to have become bored or distracted. Regular assessments will allow you to create a truly unique learning experience for children of all ages in your center.
3. Your states Early Learning Standards and Guidelines
Each state has a set of Early Learning Guidelines (ELGs) that describe a set of standards, guidelines and expectations for what would be considered developmentally appropriate learning and activities, and what sort of milestones and development you should be aiming towards for children at various ages. The guidelines aim to be developmentally, culturally and linguistically appropriate, and you can have a look at all 50 state’s guidelines here.
4. Opportunities for observation and interaction
In order to ensure that you are following your state's ELG’s, you will need to observe your students' activities, learning and interactions, and record your observations to track progress towards mastering skills for each age group. In California, for example, the state has developed a framework called the Desired Results system, which provides educators with a set of learning results to aim towards for children in an early years setting.
If you are structuring your curriculum to foster child-led learning opportunities, then there will be plenty of areas where children can play and learn independently. But it’s also important to work in opportunities for educators to observe and interact with the children in order to track progress and help guide them in activities.
5. Flexibility
In order to respond to your students interests and changing needs, your curriculum should be flexible. But that doesn’t mean you can’ plan ahead! Even if you are using a full year curriculum, if the individual months are separately themed like this whole year infant and toddler curriculum, then you have the freedom to move themes around and create a child-led curriculum, while still planning for the year as a whole.
Where can you find or create a curriculum?
Here at Standout Daycare our coaches and community work with Standout members every day to create and build their daycare businesses. With a huge range of resources available in the shop including curriculums for all ages and stages, and a supportive community that can help you to build your own custom curriculum, Standout members have the tools and resources they need to create a Standout curriculum for their center!
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