OMG HOW DO I GET THESE KIDS OUT THE DOOR?!?!
When G was about 2, we started going to the gym almost daily. Some days it was a STRUGGLE to get her ready and out the door on time. Same with bath/bed time stuff. We always did the same thing so why was it so hard?!
I made visual schedules for her. I didn’t do the best job but they worked.
Ideally, they go horizontally or vertically. Not around the page like mine did. You can use clipart from the web, pictures of your house, words, your own drawings, etc. Whatever works to get the idea across to the kid of the task they need to do.
We taped them at her eye level and in a central location.
We talked about them a lot in the early days. So before bath time we would walk over, point to the pictures and talk about what needed to happen. She got it really quickly. I was super impressed. It took out a lot of the fighting because she knew what to expect and could easily be redirected with a “let’s check the schedule” reminder.
Here are my first attempts. I need to remake these for our new house/routines but honestly, I don’t know if she needs them anymore. She knows the routines now and generally listens (after a few reminders) when we tell her what she needs to do.
Another added bonus. I really think this helped her be independent. She knew what was next and could go do it herself.
