Thursday, January 14, 2010

Schedules...

Esmé's Mommy here...

I've mentioned before that I'm schedule-challenged, I think. But I keep reading how important routine is for kids, and I hate that I'm passing on my schedule challenges to her.

(But honestly, folks, I think it's genetic?! Please tell me that's so! Some (lovely) mornings I drag her out of bed at 9 a.m. Other mornings, like this one, she's waking me up at 5 a.m. And it's not like she went to bed early last night. Naps are just as sporadic - sometimes they work, other times we lie around for an hour before I give up.)


Well, with the new year comes a new schedule. I do love making schedules! It's the following that's a challenge.

This time around, I decided to leave MY stuff totally off it. I made a weekly schedule for Esmé, and I'm trying make that a priority and just work my stuff around that schedule. It's sort of going, but there's a whole lot of MY stuff that's not getting done, unfortunately.

Today, I was sort of fed up with Esmé not following her OWN schedule, so I decided to put it down in pictures for her. We talked through the whole thing, and she totally agrees with everything on it. Here it is... (If anyone wants the Word file, I'm happy to share...)Oh shoot - no! That's the one she gave me as her counteroffer! Here's what we both finally signed off on.
Oh yeah - school? It's just fun with intentional learning opportunities, so don't stress over how much it appears on the schedule. And we're not into hard labor, either - it's just on the schedule so Esmé can see that Mommy needs to do it and can help if she wants.

By the way, I looked lots of places online for something like this, or at least clipart in one spot for making a schedule, with no success. I'm not entirely happy with what we came up with, but it's a start. I'd love to have clipart that matched. And I debated whether to run the sequence up and down or left to right - I decided left to right since that's the way we're doing sequencing cards, but it just doesn't feel right to me.

So, if anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please let me know!

We shall see how this goes. I suspect I'll remain schedule-challenged... I'm optimistic, but not naive... (And this is just for her two at-home days - we'll wing the others for now.)

9 comments:

Mama Pickles said...

I'm working on the same thing right now for my 3 year old son. We are doing the pictures left to right. I used to be a special ed teacher and we made them that way with the younger kids to promote reading readiness. I like your schedule page, but it would be too overwhelming for my son. He has developmental delays and maybe autism. I only give him 4 or 5 pictures at a time and we remove the picture or cross it off when that activity is finished.

ShEiLa said...

I love it!

I think Miss Esme has a wonderful Mother.

I like that you put the chores on a big part of family is the team effort in not just play... but work too.

ToOdLeS.

Holly said...

I'm just marveling that Esme makes her bed, washes dishes and clothes, and sweeps. I can barely get my child to put away his shoes.

CristyLynn said...

This is so cool! I'm really impressed. I think I need to make one of these for me! I'm having a hard time getting into any kind of schedule since being in America--not that I was doing that great with scheduling in America, either.
Thanks for sharing!

BaronessBlack said...

At my daughter's pre-school they have laminated cards just like this with velcro on the back, and a long vertical strip of velcro stuck to the wall.
After reading the register the teacher goes through the day's activities and sticks them in order running down the wall. It seems to work well, because it allows for a change in schedule which all the children know about from the beginning of the day.

Sues2u2 said...

That is really cute. I always meant to do something like that for my kids. Not anymore though. Just grateful when they make the bus on time! Maybe I'm the one who needs the schedule!

Pamela said...

hey... don't make me feel so guilty -- ha h.

actually I think you can have a routine with out having a schedule. please say its so :)

Crystal said...

I LOVE your schedules! They are so cute. The first one looks a lot like what we do around here, much to my dismay. Maybe I'll switch it up. You inspired me!

Holly said...

PS I found something like this you might be interested in:

http://store.scrapgirls.com/product/13078/Chore-chart-Craft

I think I'm gonna do it fur reals this time! ;)