How to Create Routines & Schedules for Children - Early Childhood

Here we are today, we're talking about routines and schedules, all things that can benefit your child. So basically routines really, really, really help young children, especially children, three to seven years of age, helps them to feel secure safe. And also it helps them to understand what is expected of them and what's about to come next. What's next? Because let's be honest, children do not really, young children do not really have a concept of time. They don't live their lives by the minute, by the hour. They're not checking their watch every five minutes. They're not, right? So this is where a child's routine comes in. When children get used to their routines, they're able to do so many things independently. They're able to go through the day with little assistance from adults. Of course they always need assistance, but they're able to figure out what's next and what's expected of them and to move on independently. So let's look at some simple schedules that I use and some that I've made quickly just to show you, but these are things you can do at home. You don't have to go out and buy material. If you choose to go out and buy material that is up to you, but you don't have to, you can use materials that you actually have at home. And I'm going to show you how I use materials that I had at home. Now I know there are some really professional DIYers out there. I am not one. Okay. I don't consider myself an expert DIYer. I'm not a professional. I just want my schedule to get the job done. So yes, I want it to look cute, but it's really there to get the job done. So I'm going to show you one that I, something that I actually use with my students. So check this out. All you need is some card stock, like hard paper stock, or you can use construction paper. The only thing with construction paper is that it's a little flimsy. So the hard stock is a better choice. It's a better choice. And something I did not do with these samples that I'm going to show you is I did not laminate them. I did not use any contact paper. And that is something that I usually do laminating. Oh my goodness. We'll save you time and you will be able to use these schedules over and over and over again. So I use hard stock and this is one I created. That's like kind of horizontal. And it's very, very simple reading, art, math. They're just samples of things that maybe you can have going on. If you're a teacher, you might have this going on. If you're homeschooling, you might have things like this going on during the day. So you can print out these visuals like the art, the math, the reading, you can print those out, stick them on. And I created a little arrow myself. I cut, I drew it up, cut it out. And I just stuck that right on there and kids could take the arrow off and move it over to whatever is next. So whatever you're currently doing with them, that's what the arrow should be pointing to. And then when you're ready to move on, allow the child to move the arrow to whatever is next. Now, that's the way one way you can do it. Horizontal. Now check it out. You can turn the same hard stock over and you can create a vertical schedule. You can create a vertical schedule. And I kind of did the same thing where I cut out an arrow, one that I made, stuck it on here. So whatever your child is currently doing, whatever activity you stick it on there or whatever your students are currently doing, story time, science resets, and the arrow just moves as they complete different activities. Now, some teachers also like to either fold over the activity so that the child knows it's done or take it off and flip it over so that the child knows the activity is done. But these are simple ways that you can implement a schedule into your everyday routine. Now, this is just hard stock. This is a vertical way. And I showed you first the horizontal way you can do it. And if you want your schedule to be actually smaller, well then you print the picture smaller, cut them out smaller, and you can carry it around with you can make a schedule for on the go even better. Now, here's another way that you can do it. I use the same hard stock cause I bought a large piece, the same hard stock. Now this one actually can sit on a table and this is for probably children that are a little bit older, a little bit older because I use chalk tape. I use the chalk tape and create it chalk schedule so kids can erase it and they can write in what's next. Or if the day changes, you can write in the schedule for the day. They can help you write in the schedule for the day. And this time I didn't use an arrow. I just use those little, um, you know those page savers, like the little post-it page savers. I just took those and I use that as our arrow. So whatever the child is working on, stick that page saver on there. Okay. We finished that. What's next, Susie? Oh, project is next. We're going to work on our science project. So then you stick the page saver on the science project and so on and so forth. Snack. Um, and then what I have math there. Ooh, sorry about that. And then math. And the great thing about the chalk schedule is that of course you can erase it and you can write in every day. You can change it, especially, this is especially good for older children because if they're reading, they're writing, you want them to get involved and they can do the reading and they can do the writing. So really, really awesome idea for that. Okay. So more principles that I use, some more principles that I use. These are just simple, simple pictures with the text there. Read, library, um, art. Uh, I'm actually being backwards so I can't even read that friends. Like if they're going to play with friends, snack time, games, and writing. Really cool. Thank you guys for those hearts. I appreciate it. And this one can actually sit on the table. So if you use the hard stops and fold it, I'm hoping you can see that's folded. This one can actually sit on the table. So if you are homeschooling, let's just say you can put this on the kitchen table, the dining room table, wherever you guys do your work, you can stand this right up on the table and the child can move around the page holders, the little sticky post-its or the arrow, or you can even use paperclips because paperclips, you can just clip right here and clip and clip and clip for whichever activity you're currently doing. But I love these post-its. They work really easy. You just stick it right on there. Oops, wrong way. Just stick it right on there and that just indicates what we're currently working on. Okay. So those are four ways that I use it. And I'm going to show you how this stands up. I'm going to try to turn this a little bit so you can see my printer over there. So anyway, this stands right on the table. Okay. Put it right on the table. Perfect for when you're at home, working with your children, whether you're homeschooling or whether you're doing things on the weekends. But this is a great way to use your schedules. Now your schedules can be for whatever you want them to be for. You can start off slow. This works for all ages. And of course, you customize it according to your child, your students, you customize it. So if the children are older high school, right, you want to customize it. It's probably just going to use words, you know, text. You're not going to really use the visual. You can still use the visual. Some kids like visuals too, no matter how old they are, but it's up to you. You customize it and allow it to work for you. And then these schedules, if you're talking about students in a classroom, depending on how your classroom is run, I'm not sure how it's run, but you can also do individual schedules. So just think about cutting this down and making it a little smaller for each child. Okay. For each student, you can make them small. They do not have to be as big as I have them. That's just a sample to show you how it works and how you can use that. Now schedules can be used for, like I said, daily activities. It can be used for family activities or it can be used for bedtime routines. It could be used for morning routines. It can be used for mealtime routines. There are so many ways that you can use simple schedules that will help children to really grasp and understand their routine, what is expected of them. And this is really, really great for our younger children to get them to understand time and get them to understand the concept of time and what they're supposed to be doing and what's next and what happened before. You know, it's really, really, really great for the younger children. Definitely. But I put together some links on the blog for you guys that will direct you to free principles because all of these pictures I printed out, although I'm sure I can create these myself, why would I just not use the free principles that are offered online? Okay. Because there are a ton. So all of these pictures that you see, I used, I got from a link, free principles. It's not called free principles. I'm going to tell you the links, but, and these are a different one from a different link. Okay. And you can also color these in too. I left them black and white, but feel free to color them in. And of course this I created on my own. This I created by using chalk tape. Do you know that the role of chalk tape, I'm going to show it to you really quick. And this is what I mean like using things at home. So I had this roll of chalk tape that I've had for a long while now and it has a sticky back. This one is actually made from scotch scotch tape. So you can use this roll of scotch tape, sticky back, cut what you need and you just peel it off, stick it on wherever you want. Now using things that you already have at home. Let me show you what I did to create these chalk schedule. Okay. I use old thank you cards that I had. I had these old thank you cards that I only use a few of them. I needed to give a couple of people thank you cards for something, but I had to buy the whole box and I didn't know what else I was going to use these thank you cards for. So I took my chalk roll, cut it, stuck it on in the middle, and then I just cut around to the size that I wanted and voila, perfect. Now I have my chalk schedule and I wanted to add a little color in there. So that's why I use the thank you card using things that you already have at home. I'm telling you, you have, you have treasures in your house. I'm sure you do. You have treasures. Just search through your boxes, search through your drawers, see what you have lying around. Maybe you have old construction paper and create your own schedule. You don't even have to print anything out if you don't want to. All right. But I did create a blog post where I'd be sharing six different links to free principles for schedules, specifically for daily schedules for children. And you can print these out, cut them up. You can shrink them, make them small, make them big. Depends on what you want, how you want your schedule to look. Have fun with it and get your child involved. Let them help you create the schedule. Tell them exactly what you're doing, why you're doing it and that, Hey, we're going to start using these tomorrow or we're going to start using this schedule on Monday and let's create it. Now let's print out the pictures. Let's cut them out together. If your child's working on cutting skills, perfect opportunity to cut, to practice cutting by motor skills and gluing or taping. Now, one thing that I did use really quick, I use tape on these, but normally this was just for samples. Normally I use Velcro. Velcro is my best friend. It's like a teacher's best friend Velcro and the double sided Velcro. So the sticky Velcro, you can buy the little circle Velcros. There's one side is like, they're all sticky. You can just stick them on and that helps for you to remove these easier when you have your schedule. So you might want to remove the colors. Maybe you want to change it. Yes. Love Velcro. I absolutely love Velcro. Or maybe you want to change the schedule around because sometimes your schedule does change and you have to be flexible because your schedules do change often from day to day, weekend, weekend, whatever. And so you want to change it around and these are things you can bring with you when you travel as a family. Bring your schedule with you. Make a smaller version of it and travel with these. What's wrong with that? You're on family vacation, but there's a lot going on on family vacations. Bring those schedules along. Create a special family vacation schedule. This helps children to be in control, to understand what's next, what's happening and you want them to be able to have that independence. You want them to tell you what's going to come next, what's happening next, what they already completed. Have fun with this. Get the kids involved and use these schedules. I'm telling you, it will change your life. It will change your child's life. And I want you to come back and tell me exactly how you did it, what you loved about it, what you thought you, you know, you wanted to work on, what you changed, what you liked, whatever. Just tell me how your experiences with using schedules and implementing them in your home or in your classroom. I want to know. I definitely want to know.