Making a Picture Schedule

Materials You Need: Paper and markers or pens and pencils; One or more picture books (If you do not have, you can make a simple one by pasting magazine pictures onto pages and putting together, or drawing simple pictures); Magazine pictures if you have some; Tape to hang up the schedule.

What You Can Do Together: At this age, children are aware that events often happen in a sequence (first, second, last) and at certain times.  As they begin school, schedules become important to them.  Many children enjoy and are helped by having a simple picture schedule.  With your child, you can make one that shows your typical routine at home.

Take a large piece of paper and some markers.  You can number the steps in the day’s routine. Then think with your child: “Every day, what is the first thing you do? Oh, Get Up!” and then help your child to draw something such as her or his bed.  You can print the words or help your child do some of that. If there are specific times and your child is interested, you can write those also. Go through the rest of the day, keeping it simple, but with meals, school, playing outdoors, etcetera.  Your child might say that weekends are different and might enjoy making a different schedule for those days.

When the schedule is finished, put it up where your child and you can look at it. 

What Your Child is Learning: You are building your child’s thinking abilities, as you organize the events of a typical day into an order or sequence (this also helps children’s math ability). Many children also feel more emotionally secure when they know exactly what to expect, especially if many things about life have been unpredictable at this time.