I'm a stay-at-home mom who decided against daycare. Not because there's anything wrong with it — just because I wanted to be the one teaching my son during these early years.

The problem? I had zero idea what to actually do with him all day. So I started researching child development and building simple lesson plans around what toddlers ages 1-3 actually need.

Here are 5 things you can do this week with zero prep:

1. Color scavenger hunt — Pick one color. Walk around the house pointing to everything that's that color. Say the color name every time. Repetition is how they learn.

2. Stacking anything — Tupperware, books, pillows. Stacking builds spatial awareness and fine motor skills. Let them knock it down too — that's cause and effect.

3. Sing while you do chores — Narrate what you're doing in a sing-song voice. "We're washing the dishes, scrub scrub scrub." This builds vocabulary faster than flashcards.

4. Water pouring — Two cups and some water in the bathtub or on a towel outside. Let them pour back and forth. This is early math (volume, full/empty) and it buys you 20 minutes of peace.

5. Texture walk — Touch 5 different surfaces together: carpet, tile, wood, grass, a blanket. Name each texture. Sensory input is the foundation of learning at this age.

If you want a full structured program that gives you a week-by-week plan covering literacy, motor skills, sensory play, and problem solving — that's exactly what I built at Toddler Home School Co. It's $9/month and everything uses stuff you already have at home.