The core of the Taylored 5-Minute Learning method is to help a toddler repeatedly practice small parts of a skill in about 5 minutes a day, moving onto the next step only when they're ready, until the whole skill is mastered.
The ideal Taylored 5-Minute Learning activity:
Is done regularly (eg. every day, or every Monday/Wednesday/Friday for example)
Has the child repeat the skill (preferably 3 times if possible)
Takes about 5 minutes
Dedicating just 5-10 minutes a day to repeat a skill can be really effective at letting a child learn that skill without cutting into their play time!
This 5-minute-a-day idea was inspired by the Children Learning Reading program that taught my son how to read using only 5 minutes, 3 times a day of my time. 7 months later, my 3.5 year old was reading by all himself. After finishing that program, I didn't want to stop his 5-minute learning time, so I looked for other learning activities to take it's place, and this 5-minute-a-day method has worked really well for us.
The activities I've written about on this website are only a fraction of what you could choose to do. These are the activities that work for our family, but different children of different families have different needs at different stages. I've focused more on academic-like skills to give them a head start when they get to school, but this method can easily be applied to a variety of other skills such as having a toddler put a jacket on by themselves, tying a shoelace, or learning your home address in case of emergencies. And once a skill is learned, it's up to you if you want to take a break from 5-minute activities, or replace that time with learning another skill.
How to use the Taylored 5-Minute Learning method for a skill of your choice:
1) Create a learning activity for the first small part of that skill.
New skills are rarely learned all at once. Break the skill up into small, sequential parts if you can. Otherwise, just think about how to teach the first part of the skill. It's OK if you don't yet know what the next skill you'll be teaching will be, just figure out the first one first, and once you get an idea of your child's abilities (what is easy for them or what they're struggling with), you may have a better idea of what the next small step will be.
2) Focus on completing an aspect of the skill rather than spending exactly 5-10 minutes on it.
Instead of being done when a 5 minute timer goes off, have the activity end when the child completes a part of the skill (preferably 2-3 times) so they can get a couple of repetitions done in about 5 minutes. You want to come up with goals that are achievable by your child in about 5 minutes, but the 5-minute timeframe is not set in stone. Most children, especially toddlers, have a very short attention span, that sometimes even 5 minutes can seem like too long for them, so just touch on that skill for a couple of minutes that day. On the other hand, if the child is really enjoying the activity, 5 minutes can be too short, and you can go longer than 5 minutes if you'd like. Use the 5 minutes as a guide rather than a timer. The feeling of having mastered something is what you want your child to experience which each activity so they look forward to it the next day. As the skills get more complex, you might not be able to repeat the skill 3 times in 5-10 minutes, so do your best to do the activity regularly to get a good amount of repetitions in.
3) Progress onto the next small part of the skill once they've mastered the previous part.
Once the first step becomes easy for them, or when they can consistently do it (whether that takes just a day or a few weeks), move onto the next small step, or make the activity just a little bit harder. This ensures that the learning activities and mini lessons are tailored to their current developmental level, and they can learn at their own pace. Continue to make the activities progressively harder as each step is mastered until they have mastered the whole skill.
As you can see, the Taylored 5-Minute Learning method is very simple, and can be applied to a wide variety of different skills. These are the general steps I followed every time I wanted to create a new learning activity for my toddlers. Hopefully these steps can help you create your own learning activities too!
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