Back to School with a Simple Schedule

If you’ve been reading Many Hats Mommy for a while, you know I’m not the best planner in the world. For me, organization is a hard-acquired skill, say like training a man to put his clothes in the hamper. It’s just plain challenging for me. Then God decided to give me a son who thrives on routine and finds comfort in a written schedule. What’s that they say about God and a sense of humor?

As you may also know, my plan was to utilize this wonderful schedule to make our lives easier. I did. Then life happened. I can’t even remember what it was, but our poor schedule has fallen into disarray, and it’s time to try again. We’ve been doing some school over the whole summer, but not enough, and so my goal is to start back up with the schedule next week, the first full week of September. There, now you can ask me about it. *shudder*

What I’d like to do is show you our schedule, because I think it will help lots of parents out there who have visual kids or who have kids like Dr. J who need the visual support of a schedule. It’s nothing fancy, and it’s quite cheap. Very flexible–you can make it say whatever you want! You can even move it around to help your child learn to adjust to change and when times are different than we want. [warning: will cause great discomfort, but is a skill they need to learn]

Easy to Make!

I purchased word strips at the dollar store in their teacher section. Then I bought a roll of magnet tape at a craft store (yes, I the non-crafty mom entered a huge craft store!). You also need a permanent marker, and a magnetic surface. I used our eating area closet door. You could use a cork board or just your wall instead if you don’t want to magnetize it.

What’s next? Determine your schedule! For us, it now goes from breakfast to bed because Dr. J likes it so much he wanted to keep adding to it. That means it covers school and other things, and also covers much of the door. Yours might say things like get dressed, eat breakfast, wash face, brush teeth, find backpack, wait for bus, etc. Ours has things like job time, story time, math time, play time, exercise time, spelling time, rest time, etc. I purposely did not put actual times because many spectrum moms who’ve gone before warned that if I did that, my Aspie would freak out if I’m a minute late. And I’m often not ready at his exact moment!

Our schedule is much longer now...

This schedule is to Dr. J like Meatball’s beloved, well-worn white blankie! It gives him security, comfort, and a feeling of safety. I’m guessing this simple schedule will do the same for many of your children. I welcome any suggestions you have!