Morning routine chart: free printable visual schedule

How to use a morning routine chart

1. Walk through it together first. On a calm morning, go step by step and point to each picture as you do it.
2. Put it where the morning happens. At the child’s eye level, by the bedroom door or the bathroom, not in a drawer.
3. Point instead of repeating yourself. “What’s next?” and a point to the chart can take the place of the tenth reminder.
4. Tick it off, or move the card. Use a dry-erase marker on a laminated checklist, or move each card from To do to Done.
5. End on something good. When the last step is the backpack, the bus or a hug, the routine has a clear finish.

Checklist or cards?

The checklist on page 1 is ready to stick on the wall, with eight common steps in a common order. The cards and schedule on pages 2 and 3 let you build the morning your family really has: leave out the bus on a car day, add glasses or lunch, or put breakfast first. A child who likes to move things may enjoy the cards more than ticking boxes.

Steps on the checklist

• wake up
• bathroom
• get dressed
• breakfast
• brush teeth
• brush hair
• shoes on
• backpack

The cards add wash face, wash hands, make bed, glasses, coat, lunch, hug, car, bus and school, plus two blank cards.

Making it work

• Keep it short at first. Four steps that happen beat eight that don’t; add more as the routine settles.
• Getting dressed is a big step. If that’s where the morning stalls, break it down with the getting dressed visual schedule.
• Print the schedule page twice if two children share the morning, so each has their own.
• Laminate the pages, so ticks wipe off and the cards survive wet hands.

Starting from scratch? Read how to make a visual schedule.