If your child is a social butterfly, spending some playtime alone will help her learn to be content by herself. Individual play is important for children. Your child might also like to pick her own hair accessories. Next, your child can brush her own teeth and hair (with supervision). It won’t be perfect, of course, but this is the best age to start making habits. While your child is in the bedroom, have her practice making her bed. Take stock of your child’s room and how easy it is for her to access her clothes. Get DressedĬhances are, when your child turns 5 you’ll want herto be able to dress herself each day before school. You may also consider buying a pint of milk during your next grocery trip keep the container and re-fill it from the gallon. You can put cereal in a candy-sized dispenser like this one. This makes it easier for little ones to pour without spilling. You can teach your child to be responsible for their own breakfast by keeping milk and cereal in smaller containers. (You can help your child remember this routine by posting our free printable in her bedroom!)Ĥ is a great age for kids to practice responsibility. However, certain things happen in almost every 4-year-old’s daily routine. What Goes Into the Ideal Daily Routine for 4-Year-Olds?Įach parent will have different ideas on what’s ideal for their toddler. Plus! Use this free printable daily routine for 4-year-olds, which includes free routine cards your child can put on the fridge or on their bedroom door. Balance can be found in consistency, so here are our top tips for a consistent morning routine for your toddler. (On the other hand, every parent has those days when they don’t have energy for anything other than Netflix and Mac-N-Cheese). You want your kids to be successful and smart, but you don’t want them to be so jam-packed with schoolwork that they have no time to be a child. Other parents want their kids to play outside as often as possible.Ĭhances are, you’re somewhere in between the two. Some parents are intent on filling their child’s day with school prep and reading practice. I hope that this post is helpful and inspires you to create your own DIY visual daily planner for your kids.What a daily routine for 4-year-olds consists of can vary greatly. For their chore charts, we use this chore chart printable from The Incremental Mama. I even used a little dry erase marker to add in some times so he would have an idea of when different tasks started, that way he’s not asking “is it time for lunch?” 100 times a day. Here’s how our schedules looked, with my 4 year old’s schedule being the first one you see. While ours are hanging on the refrigerator, a clipboard is also a great idea, especially one with storage to store the extra task cards that aren’t being used that day. I recommend using adhesive dots, or even “velcro” dots to attach your tasks. Once you have your schedule all laminated, you are ready to add your cards to your schedule and make your routine. It took me a while to cut out the cards but I just think that the durability you get from laminating it is so worth it. To create your laminated schedule, you’ll need a printer with ink, printer paper, and a laminator and laminating pouches. Plus, there are also blank cards to create your own options. I feel like everything is included here- from basic self-care tasks for kids to sports practices, pet care, and more.
Then, I went through these activity cards carefully making sure there were plenty of options and duplicates of the ones needed, like brushing teeth, snack time, etc… The download comes with two schedule options- a single page that has morning, afternoon, and night, or separate schedule pages for morning/afternoon/night. This is perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, and even my school age son loves it.
I used glue dots to put ours together, but I’d highly recommend velcro, so that each day you can adjust the schedule as needed. To make this daily planner for your kids, just sign up for my email list to download the free printable, then you can print out the schedule pages, and the cards, laminate, and have your own daily schedule that will withstand some rough kiddos. How to make a visual daily planner for kids. Also, if you are looking for a more traditional planner for older kids, be sure to check out my review on the Erin Condren Kids planner. It has pictures to accompany the tasks, so this works even for kids who aren’t reading age, yet. This visual daily planner for kids is such a great idea, and you can put it on the side of the refrigerator, or on a clipboard, so that your child can reference it whenever they need. I did this before, to an extent, but now that my youngest is almost 5, it is working so well to have them a schedule to look at. One thing that has saved my sanity more so than ever during this COVID “quarantine” with my kids being at home has been getting them into a routine and on a schedule.