Educational Resources - Child Development Lesson Plans

Teachers and education professionals are not the only people who look for early childhood education resources. Parents and guardians of young children may need lesson plans and childhood education materials either because they've chosen to home school their kids, or simply because they want to back-up the education their children are receiving at preschool or elementary school with some learning in the home too.

Resources For Parents

There's no reason why parents at home can't use lesson resources similar to the types of early childhood education resources for teachers, providing they have the necessary equipment. In this internet age, often all you need is a computer and a printer. There are tons of early childhood education lesson plans, classroom activities for preschool and elementary level, worksheets and games, as well as math and literacy support available online. You'll find sites where the resources are developed by qualified teachers and shared with anyone who wants to use them (some sites may require payment). You can choose the lesson plan or activity you want to use, download it, print it off - and you're ready to go. In many cases, activities and worksheets come with teaching instructions, explaining how to implement the learning activity effectively for your child.

The Best Resources

The best education resources to use are ones that clearly explain the learning goal of the activity and take a methodical step-by-step approach to achieving that goal. Don't be shy about getting out the coloring pens and having a go yourself! It's always a good idea to try out any learning activity yourself before giving it to your child - this can help avoid tears and frustration if an activity is poorly constructed and simply doesn't "work."

Early Childhood Education Software

Childhood education websites are by no means just for parents to use. There are colorful and fun interactive sites online for kids, helping them not only with the subjects they learn in school, but improving their IT skills too. Always check out a site thoroughly yourself before sitting your child down to use the computer. Young children's internet use should be supervised. You can also buy education software programs and download them to your computer. You child's teacher may be able to recommend some. Alternatively, you'll find reviews of education software on sites like amazon.com.

Early Childhood Development Books

The types of childhood development books you'll find in a local bookstore are primarily aimed at parents (a university bookstore or library probably has more academic or scientific books aimed at students of child development). Early childhood development books for Moms and Dads cover a wide range of subjects, including education. Try to buy a book that has been written by qualified professional with verifiable credentials (these days, you can bet that if someone has written a book, it'll only take a quick internet search to find out a bit more about them). It may be a good idea to ask other parents with kids of the same age for recommendations, and to check out a few online book reviews before you buy.

Resources For Teachers And Education Professionals

Teachers, student teachers and other childhood development professionals (such as educational and child psychologists) share a lot of resources online. These include child development lesson plans, materials for promoting child development in language teaching and many other forms of tips and advice for getting the best in terms of educational achievement, social and psychological development, out of kids in the preschool to elementary school bracket. Some of the sites offering these types of resources require a subscription fee, others allow teachers and education professionals to upload their own resources or ideas and share them for free.

Students of psychology, or of other aspects of child education, may benefit from using online materials on some of the many child-development related subjects they study as part of their training - for example, resources on human resource management in education, or human growth and development lesson plans.