Hello, hello! Many of you know that I went back to school last year to become a Certified Education Assistant. This September I started working in my new role as a CEA, in my kids school! I absolutely love my job! So you will be seeing more parenting tips and techniques as well as my journey as a parent to special needs kiddos here on the blog. Today I am sharing the morning and afternoon routine charts that I have created for my boys (who both have ADHD).
My little guys struggle with Executive Functioning (EF) which is the ability to get themselves organized (in a nut shell). These flip charts totally help them to stay on task and remember what part of their routine they have completed and what parts still need to be done. They are based on this fabulous chore chart, you can find the tutorial there. I used Boardmaker to create my pictures. Boardmaker is a highly recognized program that uses a set of standard pictures for children to identify with. I recommend downloading the 30-day free trial and playing around with the program to see if it may be useful in helping your little one.
When each task on the chart is complete the boys have the satisfaction of closing each flap to show “done”. We have a chart for our morning routine (shown here) and one for bedtime. I forgot to snap a picture of our bedtime routine open but it has unpack backpack, pick up toys, brush teeth, put on pajamas, read a story and go to bed. I laminated our charts for extra durability and used heavy duty magnets so that it would stick to our dishwasher in the kitchen.
We used these very successfully last year but have yet to implement them this year as we slowly transition back to a school routine. I lessen the expectations in the morning until they are able to do each one independently. So far they can eat breakfast without prompting but that is about it – they would go to school in jammies if I let them *wink*.
Do you have any awesome routines and/or charts that I should try? Please share…
