Practice SUPER Morning and Bedtime Routines

Talk with your child about their morning and evening tasks. What are they responsible for? Some morning ideas might be to put on clothes, eat breakfast, brush teeth, and put on shoes. Evening ideas could be enjoying bath time, brushing teeth, putting on pj’s, and coming together with a parent for stories and songs. Help your child make a list of their morning and evening responsibilities by drawing them together.

Begin with your child’s morning routine, and start to make a checklist that helps them visualize when things need to be accomplished. If they can visualize their responsibilities, it helps to give them a sense of autonomy and a point of reference for finishing tasks. Create a simple chart with boxes to check in one column and blank spaces to fill in your child’s morning tasks in the other column. You can color or decorate it any way you like.

In the task column, begin drawing simple pictures that represent each of your child’s morning tasks. For instance, a picture of a shirt can represent the task of getting dressed for the day. To keep your child engaged, perhaps an adult can draw an outline of a picture and let the child color it in.

To make your task chart reusable, simply slip it into a protective plastic sleeve and provide a dry erase pen for your child to use when checking off boxes.

Talk with your child about accomplishing their morning tasks, and how with each task they complete they can add a check or “x” next to it. This allows your child to stay on task and be ready for the day, without overwhelming or rushing them through activities.

Now create a system for your bedtime routine! One great example that can help children at bedtime is superheroes. Even though superheroes are strong, smart, and resilient, they still need rest! Your little superhero also needs to power down at the end of the day. Using the tasks you laid out previously, talk with your child about how as we accomplish each task, we’re powering down one of our super powers to get rest for the next day.

Help your child with each part of their bedtime routine. After each part is done, help them to “power down” that super power. For instance, as your child is finishing up a bath, give them a reminder like, “Your water powers are powering down for the day! Let’s finish up and use our tooth brushing powers so they can recharge, too.”

At the end of the day, ask your child how it feels to be more in charge of their morning tasks and evening tasks. Be sure to encourage them, and celebrate the wins that they may have had as they try out their new routines.