It’s August, which means school is starting soon…and so are the crazy, chaotic mornings. Help minimize the frustration by using these Morning Routine Cards!
The purpose of these cards is to encourage a bit of independence in the process of getting ready for the day. And if you use a magnetic knife bar like we did, they are SUPER easy to rearrange and change (if needed).
Big Brother will be going to preschool 3 mornings each week at a local church-based preschool. School starts at 8:30am. I am the antithesis of a morning person, so establishing a morning routine is key for us this year. I decided I would start a few weeks early because I figured it would take a while to get the hang of this new Morning Routine Card system.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. The night after we hung these Routine Cards in his room, he woke me up by saying, “Mommy, I already did all of my cards!” Sure enough…toothpaste on the chin, shirt on (backwards), and bed made! I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least!!!
And best of all, I want to share these Morning Routine Cards with each of you! Download and print your choice of 4 colors by clicking on the links below!
To make the cards:
1. Print your cards. I decided to mount them (and round the corners) onto some red scrapbook paper to add a little bit of contrast.
2. Laminate the cards. This step definitely isn’t required but it will help them hold up longer. I have used this laminator for the last couple of years and I love it! I buy the generic pouches at Sam’s (a box of 200 for $20) and have had great success!
3. Add your magnets on the back. I pieced the remaining adhesive magnet roll I had left (that was sent to me for free from CraftProjectIdeas.com). Ideally, you would magnetize the entire back…but I just used what I had on hand!
To hold the cards, I purchased this 18-inch Magnetic Knife Holder from Amazon. I wanted something that could easily be adjusted and something that we could add on to later down the road (once Big Brother can do his own hair, for example). :) This has worked perfectly for us and is sturdy enough to survive my rough boys!!
And here it is on the wall, underneath my favorite picture of all time…
Yep, his shirt is on backwards. But he dressed himself without me even having to ask, so I’m not complaining!
In addition to these Morning Routine Cards, I also bought a hanging closet organizer. They have some that already have the weekday names on them, but I opted for the cheaper route and then attached my own with some packing tape. :) I also wanted to make sure we had a Sunday slot as well since we want our boys to look nice for church on Sundays.
On the days that Big Brother goes to Preschool and Church, he will have clothes ready and waiting for him in his closet. On the days that we are at home, he gets to choose whatever he wants to wear. After much thought, this was the best way I could come up with to ensure he isn’t dressed like a pauper when he goes to school and church but also still gets to show some independence by choosing his clothing on the “off” days.
*After taking these pictures, I moved the weekday signs to the bottom of each shelf instead of the top. It was much less confusing this way.
It’s been almost a week since we’ve implemented our new Morning Routine Cards and closet organizer system and it has been AMAZING!!!
My Potential Future Project…Making some Morning Routine Cards for MYSELF. First on the routine chart would be “Get your rear end out of bed before the kids.” Do you think they have clipart for that??? ;)
*The links in this post are my affiliate links. Please read my full disclosure.
This is outstanding! I can’t wait to print them up. How old is Big Brother?
my dude is 3 and I’m wondering if he is capable of doing this.
He is 4 1/2. You could always try it…if he is able to get dressed himself, I wouldn’t see why it wouldn’t work!
These are great! My son is 3.5 and he’s been getting dressed and going to the bathroom by himself since he was 3 but it’s a struggle. I will print these up and start! Thanks for the great idea!
Ha h! I need a clip art for the whole ‘get your rear end out of bed before the kids’ too! These late night Olympics are killing me! : )
Absolutely brilliant!! Thank you so much for sharing this fabulous idea. I cannot wait to use this with my daughter. Thank you so much for sharing this with everyone!!! It will help me tremendously as I am not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination and with a new baby coming any time now, this will help my daughter with some independent activities!!
What a great idea for the closet organizer! I like how you can move the “Your Choice” signs around each week, depending on your planned activities. Thanks for the great printables!
boy, are we on the same page or what?! i’ve been updating my son’s 2Do chart for starting Kindergarten and your clipart graphics are so much better than what i had. don’t suppose you have any for “Backpack & shoes waiting by the door” and “Lay clothes out the nite before” and “Lunch packed”?! LOL! Seriously, where did you get your clipart? thx so much – this is great!
Love all your ideas! Such a wonderful resourse for a family of 5 kids!
I love the morning routine idea! I need to try this. Already have that exact laminator and a magnetic strip to put them on. :)
Thank you, I shared this with http://www.myautismteam.com – a lot of the parents on there have non verbal children and it’s tough for us to find these cards and understand how to use them. Thank you for making it so simple and helping them out as well as parents of neurotypical children.
Thanks for linking to that site. My son was recently diagnosed with PDDNOS and I have been looking for some support.
My Bf & I have been looking for a way to get our daughter to her routines on her her own. This is PERFECT. Thank you.
Love your cards! Just printed them. My son is already excited and wants to start midday. Ha!
What program do you use to create these printables? I have a 7 and 10 yr and I would love to create task cards for them. I think it would help them to see their accomplishments daily/weekly. I would love to have subject cards that they can post daily to see how much work they are (and sometimes aren’t) getting done. Thanks.
Ummm…this is sort of embarrassing to admit but I use a combination of Microsoft Word (for the Clipart) and ipiccy.com (or picmonkey.com) to layer and add text. I then put them back into Word and save them as a PDF. :)
I’m sure there are much more sophisticated, savvy, easier ways to do it…but this is what worked for me! :)
I love how you put using the bathroom on there. My daughter needs this one! :)
When you sent this to me, I printed them off that morning, laminated them, and hung them up. I didn’t have a magnetic bar so I let the girls paint two paint stirring sticks each the color of their choice. Then I hot glued the two sticks together and used velcro circles to stick the cards on it. To hang it, I used yarn. My 5 year old loves doing her morning routine, walking over to the cards to check she is doing it in order. My almost 3 year old does it also with some help from mommy. We are so much more organized because of it in the morning. Great start to Kindergarden beginning this week! Thank you!
I love your organization ideas and printables! Thanks so much for sharing your printables! I featured your printable as the Free Printable of the Day at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/LivingMontessoriNow
Love that picture of your boys on the tailgate! Too cute!
I made laminated “Good Morning” and “Good Night” charts for my younger boys using similar images from http://www.do2learn.com. We homeschool so our morning routine doesn’t really ever change. I keep them posted on their bedroom door.
This is better than OUTSTANDING!! I am going to download these to help parents who I work with for morning ease!!! I usually create a set or two of these but the are far “cuter!” Thanks for sharing and you are pinned!!
Ha! I hear you on the cards for myself. I actually posted something similar today about our morning routine, and will be pinning your great cards to my Back-to-school board. Thanks for this! (Love the closet organizer, btw.)
I think that’s also MY fave pic of all time! SO precious!
Great! We uswe a hanging shoe organizer in the closet (two side by side for both girls). Thery are big enough for a set of clothes and have 10 pockets. On Sundays they are responsible for filling them up for the week with clothes. That way they have choices even at the end of the week, and we only deal with clothing once a week.
These are great! My daughter loves using these. However, she’s almost 6 and can handle more jobs. Do you happen to have blank templates and I can add in pictures or words so everything matches?
Thank you!!
I don’t have any blank ones…but that might be something to consider making. I’ll let you know if I get this done. :)
YOU ARE AWESOME FOR SHARING THIS. I CANNOT WAIT TO PUT IT TOGETHER AND WORK WITH MY CHILDREN. THANK YOU FOR SHARING.
I have a quick question for you. Do the cards start on the magnetic strip or do they end there once the child completes the task? Is there a place you keep them in his room until he completes each card? I wasn’t sure after reading your post but maybe I missed it somewhere. These are SO great!!
These are great -thank you for sharing. Do you have any for potty routine, once they are in the bathroom for a younger one still learning?
Pants down, potty, pants up, flush, wash hands…?
Thanks!
Sue