Time is On Your Side – A carefully designed, but flexible schedule for each community of learners is extremely helpful for each child’s learning processes, for teacher organization, for parent information, and for administrator and licensing monitor supervision.    

• For the children in every age group, a repetitive routine carried out in a calm manner, creates smoother brain wave patterns and encourages the building of skills in all learning areas – Body, Mind, and Spirit.  An organized schedule helps the children feel more at ease and decreases the chances for inappropriate behaviors to occur.                                                                                                                                                                                                    
• For teachers, creating and consistently using a well-planned schedule simply makes the day run more smoothly, and since it reduces inappropriate behaviors caused by boredom, frustration, fatigue, or overstimulation, having a good schedule is a win-win situation.                                                                                                                                             
• For parents, a posted schedule gives them an idea of what experiences their children are involved in at a given time during the day and allows them to relax about the separation from their children and stay informed so they can participate in the learning process.                                                                                                                                           
• For administrators and licensing monitors, a posted schedule allows them to check for compliance with regulations and standards.  

Bend and Stretch – When you are working with young children in an atmosphere of wonder, action, and very short attention spans, it is often hard to follow a schedule with perfection – and there is no need to panic over it.  It is best to have a good overall schedule (for the reasons stated above) but it is not always possible to adhere to one. 

Some Hints from Experience:

• When learning is happening, try to let it keep happening. 
• When attention spans are increasing during an interesting and relevant experience, keep stretching! 
• Don’t fill your day with so many “appointments” that you stop the learning process to rush the children to the next experience. 
• A good staff communicates and works together on program-wide schedules that meet the needs of the majority of the community. 
• Swap playground or enrichment times with other classes if your children are really involved in an activity. 
• If you must stop learning to go to an appointment that cannot be missed, then let the children leave their materials where they are so they can continue the work when they come back. 
• Skip planned activities if unplanned learning is happening. 
• Use mistakes in scheduling as useful information for planning differently next time.

Next Blog: Scheduling 2 – Considerations to Keep in Mind