Creating a Daily Schedule

Disclaimer - First and formost - I am just a mom trying out ideas on how to best help my child, and sharing what I am learning with others.  What I share should NEVER be taken as any form of medical advice.  Remember that Chase's sensory needs are going to be different from your child's.  What works to calm him down, get him through the day might not be what your child needs. 
 
I called the school today to find out what the Kindergarten schedule would look like for Chase.  Taking what I learned from the principal (she took nearly an hour talking with me, answering questions it was lovely) I have put down a preliminary schedule for us to follow.  Obviously it is still summer time, we have our Wednesday free summer movie series that get us out of the house, and our season passes to the local amusement park, so we shall see how those work with this new schedule.  It might be interesting!!!!

Anyway, here it is:

7am Eat Breakfast, brush teeth, get dressed
8:00am  free time before the bus comes
8:15am School bus arrives
8:55am School begins with calendar time - discuss what they plan on eating and what the day "looks like".  (The teachers will use a picture calendar so the kids see what is planned.  I really like this idea.)
Morning - Reading, Writing block time.
1050-11:20am  Lunch
11:20-Reading, Writing, Free choice
Early Afternoon - Specials
Afternoon - Math
3:30pm Schools dismisses
4pm arrives at home/snack
4:15pm Free time
5:00pm Dinner
6:00pm One on One work with mom reviewing weekly skills,
7:00pm Free time
8:00pm Night time routine - bath, brush teeth, PJ's, read a book, snuggle with mom/dad
8:30pm Bed

It wasn't as hard as I imagined it would be.  A few years ago his preschool teacher sent home some laminated pictures that could be used in creating a daily schedule.  I need to find those and use them.  There is a really great website they recommended called Do2learn.  For an annual fee of $99 you get access to their make-a-schedule full colored picture cards.  I haven't done that yet - I find their black and white ones semi-sufficient.

Here is a what our schedule looks like tomorrow morning.

Pictures downloaded from Do2learn

What Chase will do is after he accomplishes each task he will put the picture in a box.  When we are done with the last item I will put the next part of our daily schedule up and he will continue the process all the way to snuggle time with Momma before bed!

Homework Assignment:

1. Okay, now you have the schedule created.  What next?  Well, I know for us it will be looking at the schedule and seeing when the difficult parts will be.   Make a note by the times that your child struggles with - whether it be getting up in the morning, reading time at school, going to bed at night or all of the above.   By noting when those difficult times might be for Chase I can prepare ahead of time and also create a list of activities to help aide in that.  
2. Keep a journal to capture different moments with your child.   I'm looking forward to this assignment for myself.  Not only will I write the moments that stress Chase out, but those glowing moments that 20 years from now I can look back and hold those memories close to my heart.  I kept a journal when I served my mission and there are so many precious moments that would have been forgotten if I hadn't!  I know, because of the last time I read my journal I thought to myself over and over "I forgot about that!  Yeah, that was a cool moment!  Geez, I sure did learn from that experience!"

In This Series

Creating A Sensory Diet - Intro
Creating a Daily Schedule
We Have a Schedule, Now What?
Finding The Trouble Zones