Parenting Thursday: Routine Charts

We are transitioning into Autumn and falling into order.  Poor Cyrus is so excited for school to start, but a little confused of the where and when.  The boys' summer schedule has been a little here and there.  They are at their Aunt Robins most of the time, Nana took Cy a day a week for a while, my mom had Cy for Tuesday story time and a half a week the end of July add that into a few days I took off.  We have also started to talk to Cy about his new schedule that will start when he goes to school. 

No wonder every morning for the past week he has gotten up and ask “Mommy where am I going today?”.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he started asking “Mommy who am I, where am I going and what is going on?!”.

  First, to start understanding how many days are left before school starts I made Cy’s School Countdown Calendar.  I cut out and added a few weeks that are left in August once the calendar was printed.  
There’s a star on  September 7th, the first day of school, and we’ve started to check off the days leading up to it.  Now he can’t keep telling me he’s going to school tomorrow, he can look at his calendar and know how many days are left.

  Next we are working on the routine of bedtime, which Cy likes to stretch into one more show, one more book and a fight with pajamas.  

Bed time chart shows him at 8:00 (still working on telling time, so I went with a visual he can compare to our clock) he gets a TV show, this is also his last chance for a cup of juice and a light snack.  Then TV is OFF and we read a couple books, get pajamas on and brush our teeth.  Then it’s lights out.

      We are going to try a similar chart for his wake up routine.  Morning chart starts with waking up, getting dressed and making up the bed.  I’ve found this is better to do once he is first up otherwise he gets into too many other things to focus on his morning responsibilities.  

Next is breakfast, this is a big one because I’ve been so lax with this for so long.  I never worried if he didn’t eat he could always eat at the babysitters, even his short stay at daycare they ate breakfast in the morning there.  If breakfast is accomplished he usually gets a bit of play time before we need to get out the door.  That’s followed by clean up, brushing his teeth and getting on a pair of shoes (well till it gets cold enough to include putting on a coat too).

Visual charts that Cy can keep record on seem to work good with him.  Be Good Chart worked wonders a few months ago.  He definitely is my child and needs visual reminders and something to keep him on track so he doesn’t wander into starting too many things when he’s suppose to be doing something else!  

We are all looking forward to autumn and a little bit more structure in our daily routine.  I’d like to say things will slow down a bit but I just started filling in a blank calendar with all the odds n’ ends and things we already have to do for the month.  I guess I can say that’s not happening, but hopefully being organized will help us save on time. 

A little adds up here and there. I'll take what I can get.  Besides I think the universe and I are getting back on track, things will be okay.