getting ready for the day

The morning rush can be a crazy time of day and telling a child to hurry and get ready, may just get you that familiar blank stare.  The process of getting ready seems fairly normal to an adult but can be a bit harder for the little ones.  Kids complete larger tasks easier if they are split into smaller assignments.  To help them (and you) out in the morning, create of list of morning tasks that they can look at and check off some how.  It may just take the whole process from wild to wonderful.
Here are a few tips:

• Use pictures for younger children.
• Start with just a few tasks and work up to more.  Don't make the final list too long.
• Give them some easy things like eat breakfast and get dressed (the easiness of these may depend on the child).  It helps them to stay motivated to finish the other things.
• Let them learn responsibility to complete the list and then show you when they are done. 
• If you want to include a reward for finishing but here are two things to keep in mind:  Adults finsh their morning tasks in order to do the rest of the exciting things for the day.  Adults may get benefits but they don't usually get paid money for getting ready in the morning.

The list making idea also works well when you say "go clean you bedroom" or "it is your job to clean the bathroom today".

The charts above are protected by a copyright and not to be copied for commercial use.