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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
I hope you all had a great holiday week. As I recap on this year, I have so much to be grateful for. (more on all that later). This year, Hyrum joined our family and he has been such a precious bright spot in our lives. With that being said, adjusting from one kid to two kids has been quite the challenge. With a newborn and a two year old, we’ve had a lot of ups and lots of downs.
My toddler and I have had to find new ways to spend time together, and he’s growing more independent, he’s shown interest in the day-to-day activities. Involving him in small tasks like throwing away baby’s diapers or sweeping the floor has helped him feel “part of the team”. I decided to work on involving him t trying to set and stick to a schedule to help him find a routine that will work for us.
One thing that I have noticed with my toddler is that he craves interaction with others. He wants visitors and playdates. I promised myself that once we get through all the cold & flu (& RSV) seasons, that I would try to get out of the house more and make sure he’s getting the social life he needs.
Another thing I noticed is that Hudson thrives off of knowing what the plan is. To avoid confusion, and also help him visualize our plans, I developed this daily and weekly routine chart. When we set up a playdate, he will be able to see what day it is on and look forward to that date. Maybe this can help limit a few of the meltdowns as well?
We also have a weekly routine chart to help with activities and schedules. This helps him be prepared and “in the know”. For instance, when we will go grocery shopping, what day church is, and when we will go for a drive to the mountains.
Within minutes of setting, it up and taking pictures, he was already pointing out the pictures on the cards. This will be a great tool for me as I help him learn his responsibilities. I set this chart up in his playroom because its right at his height and is the center of our house.
In his playroom we do a lot of activities, but we also do our reading and learning, and family time there too. Until I do a huge family command center, this is the perfect place for my toddler to reach his chart and see his responsibilities for the day.
Hudson loves to be independent, but he also wants to do the chores with me. This chart will empower him to know what he can do to help, and then add a little excitement when he gets to move the card to the “done” side.
It definitely took a lot of time and effort but I absolutely love how it turned out and I am excited to make additional pintables as we ease into potty training and other things. Learning how to design has not been easy, but I have also enjoyed the challenge and expanding my skillset.
Here is the link to my site if you’d like to check them out!
I laminated the sheets and then added Velcro dots so they are easy to remove and replace. I can change out chores and add more as needed as well. He has already shown interest in it as we look at the weekly schedule. Hopefully I can get my home command center all done soon so you can see it all together in one place!
Xoxo,
Kelsie
**Here are the links to the Velcro dots and a laminator. Stay tuned for more, you’ll find me being a laminator queen this year!
[…] Another item you could add (that I personally love) is this cute kid’s routine chart or Toddler Chore chart set with Daily Activities. Because my toddler is sharing his room with baby, we brought ours in the common area of our house so he doesn’t wake up baby. But if you have a toddler this is a great idea! Here’s my blog post on this project here. […]
[…] been able to implement some things that have helped. We talk about our schedules and we try to do routines, and my toddler is doing so much better now. But for 3-4 months we just […]