Magnetic Morning Routine Chart

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You guys, I cannot even believe it – J is starting kindergarten!!! WHAT!??

I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!

How can he already be ready to start school?! Slow down, Father Time. . . As the day approaches, I’ve suddenly discovered I need an overhaul of our morning routine. Heading off to daycare was no biggie, if I was running late or the boys overslept, big whoop. Doesn’t hurt anyone. Now we need to have our ducks in a row, we can’t be late for school. I needed to streamline our morning routine, and figure out the best way to get my slowpoke, stalling-extraordinaire kid out the door on time.

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Now, I did have the foresight to get the school supplies handled early, so his backpack is good to go (Score one for Mom!). Sadly, I’m still well aware of just how long it takes to get him OUT THE DOOR on any given day, let alone one where we need to be somewhere at a specific time (insert fourth chorus of “Put your shoes on already!!” here). C’mon parents, you feel me. I know it.

While gritting out “Let’s go!” through my teeth and tamping down my annoyance, I need to make sure that even rushed, we both still have the fuel we need to survive our busy days. That’s one reason I love food and drinks that you can take on the go. I love these LALA® Yogurt Smoothies that we can drink in the car on the way to school. We can also enjoy it as a snack throughout the day.

The other thing we’ve been struggling with is getting him to do all his morning chores on his own without prompting. That’s when I had the idea to make up a chore chart of sorts for him, something he could use as a visual to make sure he did everything without nagging from Mom and Dad. Thus, the “Morning Routine Chart” was born.

This craft is super simple. Now, I did use my Cricut to make mine, but you could easily make this using stickers, wooden pieces, or even cutting out printed images. If you’re using a cutting machine, you will cut out the individual layers of your images and assemble them together. I like skor tape for this since it is easy to use and comes in different sizes. It is essentially a double sided tape for crafters.

What You Need:

Cookie Sheet

Magnets

Cardstock / Stickers

Skor tape or glue

Command strips

J has only a few things to handle in the morning, so I kept it simple. He needs to eat, dress, brush his teeth, and feed the dog. Since he doesn’t read yet, I wanted to make a chart he could understand.

My boys are both all about cars, so I decided to make the chart more of a “race” to finish his morning chores. I cut out a little road and a car to drive along. Each of his morning chores is a stop along the way.

The images I used came from the following cartridges:

Speeding car from 9 months

Eating child from Fast Food

Brush Your Teeth from Dr. Checkup

Dog and dog bowl from Create a Critter

If you have the monthly subscription, you can access all these images. I just bought them individually.

Once I’d cut and layered my images using skor tape and my sticker maker for the tiny pieces, it was time to put it all together. I used more tape to attached the magnets to the back of my images. I love that this is all reversible – if J outgrows his chore chart, I still have a usable cookie sheet!

You can buy magnets for this; I had a few thin ones we’d gotten from various businesses that I just cut up. All about keeping it frugal, right?

I used command strips to hang the chart. They are awesome, since I can move it anywhere I want and not have holes to clean up or cover.

How cute is that!? Hopefully this will go a long way towards J becoming more independent and get him moving in the morning!

Now he’ll know exactly what he needs to do in the morning, and with easy-to-go LALA® Yogurt Smoothies, I shouldn’t have to fight to get him out the door. Throw a smoothie in with a bag of nuts and have an easy protein snack. Win win!!

LALA® Yogurt Smoothies actually work great for me too; I grab one for an easy snack in the mid-afternoon when I don’t want anything too heavy. My local Walmart has them stocked regularly, so they’re easy to add to my grocery trips.