Guide · Learning at home
Plan-Do-Review at home in two minutes
The HighScope routine that builds executive function, scaled to a family kitchen: a one-sentence plan in the morning, the doing, a two-minute review at bedtime.
Short answer: say the plan aloud in the morning in one sentence, let the child do it, and ask one question at bedtime: what did you do, what did you notice. Adults do the same on Sunday for the week. That is the whole routine, and it is one of the best-evidenced ways to build self-regulation before five.
Why this matters#
Plan-Do-Review is the core routine of the HighScope approach. Children who went through the HighScope Perry Preschool programme were still measurably different at age 40 (Schweinhart and colleagues, 2005), and the routine is one of the few things in early education with that kind of long-run evidence. The mechanism is executive function: forming an intention, holding it, carrying it out, and reflecting. A review of what improves executive function in children found that practice in real activities beats training on abstract tasks (Diamond and Lee, 2011). A plan you say aloud and check at bedtime is practice in a real activity.
The morning: one sentence#
Before the first block, say what will happen and what the child will do. "After breakfast we read the fish book, then we go to the park, then you can pour at the shelf." From about three, ask the child to choose one thing: "Which tray will you do first?" From about three and a half, a picture board with three columns, plan, do, review, lets her point to what she will do and later to what she did.
The doing#
Nothing changes here except the adult's stance. Narrate, describe, wait. Resist the urge to redirect toward the plan; the plan is a frame, not a contract. A child who planned pouring and spent the morning on ants has done something worth reviewing.
Bedtime: two minutes#
Ask two questions and then stop.
- What did you do today? Offer a highlight if she cannot start: "You poured the water into the jug and it went everywhere."
- What did you notice? Or, for a younger child: "What was hard?" or "What was funny?"
Add one line of your own observation. Say tomorrow's plan in one sentence. Done. If she wants to draw, let her; the drawing is part of the record.
Sunday: the adults review the week#
The same routine at a longer cadence. Look at what actually happened. Name two or three observations, decide one change, and plan next week's invitations. Twenty minutes is the ceiling. A review that produces no change is a report; a review that produces one change is planning.
What to skip#
- Do not turn the review into a quiz or a lesson.
- Do not praise the child for planning. Describe what happened.
- Do not review every block. One highlight a day is enough.
- Do not do the weekly review without the other adults' logs in front of you. Memory is not data.
How Yearkeep does this#
Yearkeep runs Plan-Do-Review at three cadences. Today shows tomorrow's one-line plan to say aloud. The daily review at bedtime offers three highlights from the day's logs to tap, one line to type, and an optional drawing, and it takes about two minutes. The weekly review on Sunday is a stepper: dashboard, observations written from the logs, one decision, next week's invitations, a coaching point for the adult who runs the day, and a summary sent to every adult. A picture board for the child, used with a parent, is included for children from about three and a half.
FAQ
At what age can a child plan?
From about three, with pictures. Before that, the adults plan aloud in front of the child, which is still worth doing because the child hears intention and sequence.
Do we need a planning board?
No. A sentence in the morning and a question at bedtime is the whole routine. A picture board helps from three and a half, when the child can point to what she will do.
What if the child does not want to review?
Keep it to one question and one highlight. Two minutes is the ceiling. Reviewing is the adult's habit first; the child joins in when it is short and predictable.