My summer wish? Slower mornings that are still productive enough to get out of the house and have some fun before nap time rolls around at noon. Plus, with Brad home for the summer, a couple of hours to work each morning too… Hah! Too much to ask maybe, but we’re giving it a go and so far this morning routine flip chart has been super helpful!
Here’s the thing – while I usually work on all things blog / writing gig related from about 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. during the school year, I find that during the summer, I’m just more tired and less motivated at night… I don’t know if it’s because we spend a good amount of time hosting guests and travelling during the summers, but when we’re at home and without houseguests, I honestly just want to go for a walk, tidy the house, prep things for the next day, and then chill on the patio or watch a show with B at night. And since he’s off work for almost all of July and August, I figure that a couple of hours each day where Brad’s the go-to parent is a reasonable request, right? Not going to lie – he wasn’t super on board with the plan because a) he loves nothing more than sleeping in and would happily stay in bed until 10 or 11 everyday of the summer and b) because having to get up AND feed the kids breakfast and get them ready for the day is just something he’s not used to doing. But since making our morning routine flip charts, the kids are able to be more focused and independent, which I think has been helpful for everyone.
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Here’s what we used to make the charts:
- our morning routine flip chart printable
- a legal sized file folder
- a pair of scissors
- a ruler
- a glue stick
- pencil crayons
- adhesive magnetic tapeor adhesive magnetic squares
{This brilliant file folder idea came from this chore chart I saw on Pinterest back in the day, so I can’t at all take credit for that aspect of the project.}
Bahahaha – can we just stop for a moment and appreciate the hilariousness that is taking blog photos with a toddler?!? Gotta get in where you can, right?? Oh, Sam!
Alright, back to it. With all of our materials gathered, Sam and I got to work putting together his morning routine flip chart. First job? Colouring in his ‘job pictures’. As he coloured, we talked about each picture and what they meant and I helped him out here and there when he asked me to. (Don’t mind the pencil grasp… We’ll be working on that soon… He’s not shown a ton of interest in pencil / paper activities just yet, so I want to be very gentle with my guidance so as to keep his interest up when it does arise.)
Done! {You’ll notice that there’s an extra empty box on the printable… This can be used if you want to swap one of the jobs out for something that better suits your little one’s morning routine – just drawing a little picture, write in the name of the job along the bottom, and you’re good to go!}
Next up, I cut the job cards out just outside the dotted lines. While I did that, Sam worked on cutting up some of the scraps using his spring scissors. {Because cutting scraps into the teeniest paper shards is still scissor practice after all, right? HAH!!}
Next, I opened up the file folder and set the job cards out in the order I thought made most sense for how our mornings go, but obviously these can be put in any order that works best for your fam! Because the file folders I bought had some text on the inside, I opted to use them inside out, so you’ll notice that I’ve placed them on what is actually the back of the file folder here. Once I had them placed and spaced how I wanted, I glued the job cards down using a glue stick.
At this point Miss G joined us to make a morning routine flip chart of her own… She doesn’t ‘need’ one like Sam does and is very used to getting ready for school in the mornings either on her own or using her morning routine jaror morning routine chart, but I find that a) having a visual does help her stay focused and on track and b) switching up the visuals every now and then helps to keep things fresh and interesting.
With all of the job cards glued down, I used a ruler to draw straight lines down from in between the job cards to mark where I’d need to cut to create flaps.
Then I trimmed the bottom of the file folder off {making sure to leave enough space to add a magnet above each job} and cut along the lines I had previously drawn to make the flaps.
Next up, I measured out one inch chunks of magnetic tape, ensuring I had 14 magnets total.
Then I adhered one magnetic strip above each job.
In order to get the placement bang on, I stuck a second magnetic strip {magnetic side down, sticker side up} on each of the adhered magnetic strips, then removed the sticker backing one at a time, and closed the flaps, pressing the magnets down firmly to ensure a good stick. (Does that make sense?)
Then I added “Sam’s morning routine” to the top of the chart…
And trimmed off the excess file folder at the top.
This is what it looked like once done and hung on the side of our island in the kitchen and I’m happy to report that it’s been a total hit. His morning routine flip chart has totally let him take charge of getting ready for the day and even though he does need help with a few of the tasks, he’s able to be the one driving the process, which I think is really empowering.
He just checks in with his chart to see what’s up next…
Goes and does it…
And then returns to close the flap!
Ready to make your own morning routine flip chart?
Find the printable here: Morning Routine Flip Chart Printable
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