How to use the routine chart
Press Change the steps. Remove what does not fit your family, add what does from the cards underneath, and use the arrows to put them in your order. Press Done. Now it is your child's chart: each card says its name when tapped — in your child's language — and gets a tick. The ticks clear themselves every morning. Press Print for a clean A4 version with empty boxes for the fridge or the bathroom door.
Keep it short
Five to seven steps is right for a three- to five-year-old; a two-year-old needs three or four. A chart with twelve steps is a chart nobody follows. If a step always happens without trouble, take it off — the chart is for the parts of the day that wobble.
Why a picture routine works
Small children cannot hold a sequence of instructions in their head, and they cannot tell the time, so from their point of view the day is a string of adults suddenly announcing things. A picture chart makes the day visible. The child can see what is coming, which removes most of the surprise, and surprise is what most morning and bedtime fights are really about. It also changes who is giving the orders: "what does the chart say is next?" is far easier to hear than "I told you to put your shoes on".
Who it helps most
Every child does better with a predictable rhythm, but visual schedules were first developed for children who find change especially hard — including many autistic children and children with attention or language difficulties — and they are standard practice in preschools and early-intervention programmes for that reason. If mornings or bedtimes are your hardest hour, this is the cheapest thing worth trying.
Making it stick
- Build it together. Let your child choose between two orders where it does not matter. A chart they helped make is a chart they will defend.
- Same order every day, weekends included, for the first two weeks.
- Let the chart be the boss. Point at it instead of repeating yourself.
- No rewards needed. The tick is the reward. Sticker charts for ordinary routines tend to work for a week and then become a negotiation.
- Add a song. The brushing song, tidy-up song and goodnight song fit three of the cards exactly.
The bedtime half
The evening list matters most. The same steps in the same order — bath, pyjamas, teeth, story, hug, lights — is the single most reliable fix for bedtime battles, because the routine itself starts to make a child sleepy. There is more on the bedtime battles page.
Sample routines by age
Two to three years (morning): wake up, toilet or nappy, get dressed, breakfast. (Evening): bath, pyjamas, story, sleep. Four steps each, and you do most of the doing; the chart is there so your child can point at what comes next.
Three to five years (morning): wake up, toilet, brush teeth, get dressed, breakfast, shoes. (Evening): tidy toys, dinner, bath, pyjamas, brush teeth, story, sleep. This is the age where a chart helps most, because children want to do things themselves but cannot yet remember the order.
Five to six years (school days): add "pack your bag" the night before rather than in the morning, and "homework" straight after the afternoon snack while there is still energy for it. At this age let your child run the chart alone and check it once at the end, rather than supervising each step.
How much sleep the evening routine is protecting
One- to two-year-olds need about 11 to 14 hours in 24 including naps; three- to five-year-olds about 10 to 13; six-year-olds 9 to 12. Work backwards from the time your child has to wake up, and start the evening chart forty minutes before lights-out. A child who is hard to wake in the morning almost always needs an earlier bedtime, not a later alarm.
When the chart stops working
Usually after three or four weeks the novelty fades. That is the moment to change one thing — a new order, a new step your child chooses, a freshly printed copy they colour in — not to abandon it. If one step is always the sticking point, split it in two ("socks", then "shoes") or move it earlier, before tiredness sets in.
Private by design
Your chart is stored only in this browser on this device. There is no account, nothing is uploaded, and clearing your browser data removes it. More for parents: the weekly plan, feelings first aid and milestones by age.
Now do it for real
When the screen goes off, do something with your hands. Try 🌳 Handprint tree — an easy craft for ages 2-5, with every step read aloud in your language. You will need paper, brown and green colour; nothing that needs a trip to a shop.
There are 56 more on the things to do at home page, and free printable worksheets if you would rather have something on paper. Ten minutes on a screen and twenty minutes off it is a good shape for a day at this age.
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