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My Simple Wild

a motherhood & simple living blog

May 14, 2018 / homeschool, kids

Visual Schedule for Children- Morning and Bedtime Routines

Visual Schedule for Children

Do your children struggle with getting up and ready for preschool in the mornings? Is bedtime a fight every single night? We have all heard that setting a routine can help our children, but how can you teach that routine to young kids?? Toddlers and even preschoolers sometimes need that visual aid to take the surprise out of what will happen next. Kids love being able to check things off their list and if you stick with it, you will find mornings and evenings will go MUCH smoother.I have made a visual schedule for children for both morning and bedtime routines that you can print off for FREE. Laminate them or put them in a sheet protector so that you can use a dry erase marker and use them over and over again.

This post contains affiliate links. To read my full disclosure click here. 

For Children with Sensory Needs:

If you have followed along with My Mountain Wild for awhile, you will know my son Liam was in OT and speech therapy for over 2 years. We had gone through several therapists, routines, and weekly schedules. Sometimes I just wanted to quit. When Liam was not showing signs of improvement for so long, I was exhausted. We had three different therapists a week, on different days, at one point! But now, because of therapy, Liam is a happier and healthier little boy. Our entire family works better together and understands each other.

SPD or Sensory Processing Disorder is a vague term for the issues that my son had. He was very easily overstimulated and under stimulated and would burst out into a screaming rage, sometimes trying to harm me or himself. He could never sit still, not even to go to the bathroom. He was aggressive and wild and we had no idea what to do with our little toddler that was shaking every time we went into Target because of the bright lights.

One of the things that his therapist had done for us was make a visual schedule for Liam. We had one for morning, night, nap time, diaper changing time, dinner time, going to the grocery store… it at first was extremely overwhelming and it was hard for me to remember to be using these schedules all the time. But if you start with just one or two, it’s much easier.

Things to keep in mind:

  • Even if your child does not have any sensory issues, toddlers are just difficult. Even if you think they are too young to understand, explain each step of the routine and why you are doing it.
  • Make checking off those boxes a big deal! If you make the routine seem exciting, they are more likely to do it.
  • Be consistent! If you skip the checklist even once the first couple of weeks, it can be so easy to just forget about it later on. Plus, consistency gives children a sense of comfort.
  • Eventually your child will be pointing to or asking for the schedule and want to check off those boxes without you asking them to do so.
  • Keep those markers up high so the kids can’t reach them. I made the mistake of leaving mine within Liam’s reach when he was younger… his dresser got a lovely makeover.
  • Your child will start to gain confidence, independence and gives them a sense of accomplishment each time they finish checking off their list.
Visual Schedule for Children
Here we put our son’s visual morning schedule right next to his bookshelf in his bedroom using a display pocket. The dry erase marker sits right on the shelf so he can easily check off his list himself

I hope that you enjoy these printables and I look forward to creating more soon!

I WANT MY FREE PRINTABLES

Have you used a visual schedule with your child before? How did they like it?

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Comments

  1. Sahar says

    May 15, 2018 at 12:40 am

    Love the idea of using visual checklists! I’m planning on making one for grocery shopping, so that my LO has her own list of items to buy. Not the same category as morning and bedtime routines, but I’m kind of excited about it 😂

    Reply
    • Natalie Aubele says

      May 16, 2018 at 7:37 pm

      That sounds like a great idea!!

      Reply
  2. Kristal says

    May 15, 2018 at 10:05 am

    Love your charts! Great read.

    Reply
    • Natalie Aubele says

      May 16, 2018 at 7:37 pm

      Thank you!

      Reply
  3. Monica Brigham says

    May 15, 2018 at 1:38 pm

    What a great visual schedule for children! I will have to save this post for later when my little gets older. 🙂

    Reply
    • Natalie Aubele says

      May 16, 2018 at 7:37 pm

      Thank you so much !

      Reply
  4. sarah camille says

    June 1, 2018 at 11:47 pm

    This is such a great checklist for little ones. It seems great for that 4-7ish age range when kids sometimes want to do things on their own but don’t always know how or when to do things. 🙂

    Reply
    • Natalie Aubele says

      June 3, 2018 at 6:26 pm

      Thank you! And yes, totally! My son is Mr. Independent but gets easily distracted haha

      Reply
  5. Mariel Mcleskey says

    June 22, 2018 at 4:08 am

    Hello.This post was extremely interesting, particularly because I was browsing for thoughts on this matter last Monday.

    Reply
  6. The Red Tea Detox says

    December 26, 2018 at 6:21 am

    Pretty! This was a really wonderful article.
    Thank you for supplying these details.

    Reply
  7. Octopus says

    January 5, 2019 at 6:44 pm

    My spouse and I absolutely love your blog and find the majority of your post’s to be just what I’m looking for.
    Would you offer guest writers to write content in your case?
    I wouldn’t mind creating a post or elaborating on some of the
    subjects you write concerning here. Again, awesome blog!

    Reply
  8. kayribbons says

    March 16, 2019 at 10:02 pm

    Greetings from California! I’m bored at work so I decided to check out
    your site on my iphone during lunch break.
    I love the info you present here and can’t wait to take
    a look when I get home. I’m amazed at how
    quick your blog loaded on my cell phone .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G ..
    Anyhow, very good site!

    Reply
  9. Amelie says

    June 14, 2020 at 12:45 pm

    Routine Charts is really work.
    I have three children under the age of 5. The eldest child I raised with printable charts. But you need a lot of them. Now I use the Manini app for three children. These are the same printable morning routine cards and evening routine cards but in the phone. They are not lost and are always at hand, even on a walk. In the app, you can mark the completion of tasks and children like it very much. They actually ask for tasks themselves to make a mark the task. I felt much better. And I’m not nervous and it’s easy for children to become independent.

    Reply
  10. Kristofer says

    September 15, 2020 at 5:40 pm

    3 stars
    Hello, just wanted to mention, I liked this blog post. It was practical.
    Keep on posting!

    Reply

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Welcome! I’m Natalie. I am a rocky mountain mama who just recently relocated to the blue ridge mountains! Here I share all things motherhood, homemaking, homeschooling, and slow living. I hope you follow along as we share this next chapter of our lives. I am so glad you are here! Grab a cup of coffee and stay awhile

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This has been the fastest year of my life. Time se This has been the fastest year of my life. Time seems to be flying by at an astonishing speed. Anyone else ? 
I keep thinking we just moved here and realized it’s been almost a year in VA ! How on earth is that even possible? 
At the same time, it feels like it has been years since we’ve been in Montana and a lifetime since Denver. I feel like Theo was just born but also I feel like baby Ben has been here with us for ages. Time is weird. I remember as a child, I would roll my eyes to adults talking about how fast I was growing and how time was flying. To me, time moved at a snails pace and I just couldn’t wait for the next big thing. To be double digits old, to be a teenager, to be out of high school… even when I became a mama with my first, I was always looking forward to his next milestone. It will be easier once he sits up, when he starts to crawl, when he talks, when I can send him to school. As a young first time, mom, with no real support system or family around, I think I was in survival mode for a long time. I wish I could go back and savor each and every moment, and not always be looking ahead. Now in this season of my life, it can be hard for me to look ahead at all. I can’t even imagine Ben and Theo older. Or my almost 11 year old as a high schooler. 
I miss the days when the time between breakfast and dinner seemed like an eternity. When I was a child bored sitting outside in my backyard creating and imagining magical worlds and completely unaware what time it was. 
Anyone relate?
We spent Thanksgiving down in NC with my family an We spent Thanksgiving down in NC with my family and had such a good time. We did a lot in just a few days, but Liam’s favorite part was catching lizards with his cousin. Look at that grin ! 
My favorite part was going through our old family slides and getting in a quick kayak trip with my sisters. It was fun to be all together for meals and seeing the kids hang out. Liam has never grown up around any cousins because we’ve always lived in a different state. It made me sad for what he may be missing out on. When I was a child, my dad’s side of the family got together for Christmas and the house was full with kids running around. I have some really great memories in that house. We do try to see my immediate family for Christmas at least every other year, and this year we combined Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was a chaotic but special time. I was really missing my sisters and wish they lived down here. But I’m actually closer to Illinois than I have ever been. And I’m only 5 hours from my folks now. It’s been 12 years this December since we left home to move out West. (Feels longer) 
Holidays are usually the hardest for me, and I get so homesick. Now I have a weird feeling of missing my sisters in Illinois but also crazy homesick for Montana. These past few weeks my heart has ached for home there. I never missed Colorado like I miss Montana. My entire family misses it there and sometimes I wish we never had to leave. If only it wasn’t a 36 hour drive from my parents in NC ! 😩 And I do cherish all this time I’ve been able to spend with my parents here. 
Do you live away from your home state ? Do the holidays make you homesick too?
Four months old ! Benny, you are so loved 💕 Be Four months old ! Benny, you are so loved 💕

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It’s been years since I’ve done an intro post It’s been years since I’ve done an intro post , so here it goes! 
I’m Natalie (or Nat) - mama of 3 boys, wife to Nate. If you’ve been around since the beginning, many years ago I was newmommasurvival where I blogged about my life in Denver. Then in 2018 we moved to NW Montana and my handle was changed to My Mountain Wild. We very unexpectedly had to leave MT and moved to NC last year, to live near my parents who retired there. Then I switched my handle because I thought we would be staying on the coast. This past January we ended up buying a house here in the blue ridge mountains of Virginia. (I was missing the mtns!) I’ve thought about going back to My Mountain Wild because my Etsy shop is still that name.. what a pain to switch it all back over again ! I should have just waited. Oh well ! 🤦🏻‍♀️
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