DIY Preschool/Kid Visual Schedule...AKA "Chore Chart"

Does anyone else out there have a 3 year-old that has to be told over and over again the things he needs to do to get ready for the day and then get ready for bed at night? For us, it has become quite a struggle lately. My son is a great and sweet kid but LOVES to see how many times mommy can say "brush your teeth" before her face turns blue! LOL!

So, since my "real" job in in pediatric therapy, I know that my kid is a "visual" kid. He does better by seeing than hearing. After our struggle this weekend, I decided to make a "visual schedule" for him. Some people may equate this with a "chore chart", but I think brushing teeth, going potty and getting dressed shouldn't be categorized as "chores"! :)

I wanted to share this with you because after looking at all of the pretty things on Pinterest that I could make for him, I decided that this was the most practical...AND the easiest! I am not into froo-froo here!



Here's all you have to do to make one at home in 10 minutes!

First, take pictures of all of the tasks you want your child to do for each "routine" you want to make. I chose "night" and "day" routines and kept it to just the three tasks each. I don't care what order he does them, I just care that he does them. You may want to start out simple and add tasks as you go along - make sure they get the hang of it first.

Here are our photos:

Both - use the potty

Both - brush teeth

Night- put on jammies

Day - get dressed

I eventually will add the bath activity of getting his towel and washcloth and bringing them to the bathtub.



 After you take the photos, you can just print them out on some cheap copy paper and laminate or print them on photo paper if you have it. Cut them out (I use 4x6 prints) and you can place them in the pockets we are going to make!  The idea will be that your child can get a photo out of the "day" or "night" pocket and look at the photo so that he/she knows what is expected.

*When we took the photos, I made sure my son knew what they  meant.*

Now, the pockets I am going to make are not fancy, you can get creative if you just NEED to spend more time on this than I did.

For each of the three pockets, I cut a 12x12 piece of cardstock/scrapbook paper down the middle. I did take an extra 30 seconds to choose colors/patterns that correlated with the routine.

Then, I cut out some scraps to label the front to help them know which routine was which. You can see I chose the sun for "Day", a moon for "Night" and a smiley face for "Done".

When putting them together, I folded the paper in half long-ways so that the fold was the bottom of the pocket.  Then I glued each side with a glue stick, just the width of the stick. The open part of the pocket was at the top now.  OK, well, my photo loaded sideways, but the opening is the top of the pocket! :)

 

Then, glue on your little extra scrap labels to the front of the pocket with the opening on top.

So, after I did this, I thought, "I am making these for a boy. A rough and tumble boy. I need to reinforce them." So, I grabbed the tape and put some at the top of each side...just in case!

Voila! Now all I needed to do is find a way to hang them up. Hmm... Well, I have some sticky magnets for business cards that I got on Amazon a long time ago, let's use them!

All I had to do was peel and stick them on the back. You can get creative and use tape! :) Or, pin them to a cork board, tack them to a wall, whatever you think is easy and will last!

So, that's it! I placed mine on the fridge for easy reach. When it is night time, he can grab a photo from the "night" pocket and do it. When he is done, he moves the photo to the "done" pocket and grabs the next "night" photo until all 3 tasks are done. Yay!

Yes, this will take a bit of getting used to, but I hope that if we are consistent, it will work and my face will stop turning blue!

Anyone have any other tricks or tips for getting kiddos to complete daily tasks? I'd love to hear them!

While you are here, check out my list of Kid Crafts! They are a bunch of fun!

Don't forget to Pin this and Share it on Facebook!

Thanks and God bless! :)