Your Child Takes Ownership: A Fun Daily Routine Chart For Kids At Home

We can use a daily routine chart for kids at home which includes self-care, chores, and activities. And it’s fun! If you’re homeschooling your child, you can use a routine chart for the entire day. If your child goes to school, you could use a routine chart at home for before school in the morning and after school at night.

Montessori Classroom Daily Routine Chart for Kids

Similarly, in the Montessori Early Childhood classroom, it is common for the teacher to use a daily chart for jobs. The children choose jobs and take turns with the jobs each day or week. It is a way for the children to practice taking responsibility and ownership and caring for the environment.

Additionally, in some classrooms, the five and six-year-olds (Kindergarten year) each have their own work plan which is like a to-do list. They specifically choose what they want to work on for that day and put it on their work plans. It helps them to take ownership of their work and to stay motivated and focused independently.

At Home Daily Routine Chart for Kids

I created a Daily Routine Chart for my daughter when she turned two-and-a-half to help her with her day and to help her take ownership and responsibility. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I introduced it to her, but she loves it. She looks forward to using it throughout the day.

You can download the Daily Routine Chart for Kids printable I created, below.

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*Note: to download the routine chart, sign up for the Resources Library at the bottom of this page!

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The Daily Routine Chart I created is great for kids between the ages of two and six, depending on how you use them.

For toddlers, a daily rhythm or routine is helpful in order to have a calm and peaceful day. Having a visual routine chart is a great way for a toddler to make sense of her day and visually see what happens next.

I found that for a two-and-a-half-year-old, the fewer choices and the simpler the better. Also, it’s best to just look at a few steps at a time, like four at a time. As she gets older, I know that her daily routine chart will look a little bit different. Right now, she needs me to help her use it.

Our Experiment with Daily Routine Chart for Kids

1. When my daughter wakes up in the morning, we look at her routine chart. We talk about the picture cards and the different things we do in the morning.
2. I take out about four picture cards for what we do in the morning and I talk about what we do first, what comes next or after, and what we do before that.
3. We place the cards in order together on the chart. As we get ready in the morning, I show her the chart. It’s a great conversation starter and great for language development.
4. We continue this throughout the morning, adding new activities to the chart she chooses, such as art and playing outside. If we see that the floor is dirty and needs to be swept, we’ll change around the cards to add the sweep the floor card.
5. We carry the chart and the cards around the house with us to update it as we go along for the rest of the day. This seems to work well for my daughter at her age.

Daily Routine Chart for Kids Options

There are different ways you can use the cards and chart:

1. Use Velcro stickers on the backs of the cards and on the squares on the chart. This is how we use them.
2. Use sticky tack to stick the cards on the chart.
3. Use small clothespins to attach the cards to a horizontal hanging clothesline string.
4. Add magnet stickers to the back of the cards and use your own magnet board or refrigerator.
5. Use cards on a bulletin board with pushpins.
6. Hole punch the top left corner of the cards and place the cards on a ring like a flipbook.
7. Use Self Care, Chores, and Activities labels as a sorting activity with the cards or use them as labels for containers for the cards.

I printed everything out on card stock (67 lb Bristol) and cut and laminated everything.

Laminating is optional but I recommend laminating if you expect to use the cards for a long time; it will prevent the card from getting ripped or getting damaged from water or paint, etc.

Your child may not use all the cards, depending on your child’s age and interests. Your child may have favorite cards and want to talk about them, too!

For example, my daughter at two-and-a-half loves the “cuddles” card and the “play outside” cards the best and she is so excited to choose them and place them on the chart.

Daily Routine Chart for Kids: Personalized Routine Cards

Another idea is to use your own photographs of your child doing the activities, chores, and self-care. You could print out the photos and make cards out of them to make your own personalized daily routine chart for kids.

Sometimes if your child sees pictures of herself doing activities, it becomes more meaningful to her.

I will try this with my daughter in the future and update how it went on this blog post.

Concluding Thoughts

As my daughter gets older and is comfortable using her daily routine chart, I will try different ways we used the chart and post updates here.

Download your Daily Routine Chart, above. Let me know how you use it!

Are there specific cards not included in the download that you would like? Please let me know and I can make them!

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