Morning & Evening Routine Checklist for Kids

I'm not a mom (and have no plans of being one just yet, hahaha) but we do have a baby in the house, my lovely niece who stays with us during weekdays.

I am not a morning person and all I do when I wake up is drag myself to the bathroom, dress up, and walk out the door. My mom wakes up earlier than I do so she's the one who has time to look after Sophie in the morning. But there are instances when Sophie would come in my office and tell me that she forgot her snack, or some materials she'll use for school that day, or her school ID. There was a week when she'd forget something almost every day and I felt like I was failing as an aunt. Hehe.

I kept teaching and reminding Sophie to stick to her routine and huwag tumunganga especially when preparing in the morning. I thought I was trying to teach her to be responsible, but I realized that there was a better method to teach and help her with that.

I created this morning and evening routine checklist and I'm surprised how effective it was for her. She feels good when she's able to tick every thing off her list, which makes her want to accomplish it every day.

Anyone can do this using a bunch of software available but I used Microsoft Publisher.

This works a bit like Microsoft Word but I like that I can put different lines in different text boxes, and can move them without messing up with the format of the other elements in the page. (Was I able to explain that well? Haha) For example, with Word, when you delete an image or text, the rest of your text moves up as well. And that won't work for someone like me who's specific about layout, spacing, and format.

You can be as creative as you like. I'm not typically like this (pink and clip-art heavy) and you can see it in the morning list which I made & printed first. I then realized that this list is not for me and it's for a 6 year old so I added lots of pictures (thank you, Google Images) for the night list.

You can also be as specific, and may even add household chores to this list. I customized Sophie's list to her daily needs and input stuff she usually forgets.

I printed it out using board paper since I want it to be more durable for the 6 year old. I cut the sides a bit, so when I glue it to colored paper, it will act as a frame to the white paper.

I used yellow paper for the morning routine, and blue paper for the night routine because, duh. Haha. I then covered it with plastic so Sophie can use whiteboard marker and just erase them for the next day.

Here's a DIY tip: Do you have packs of bond or specialty paper like this which comes in a seal-able / adhesive enclosure, but the brand/label is not printed on the plastic? Once you use up the paper, you can use this plastic instead of covering it with fresh/new plastic cover or laminating them. Simply insert your template here and you have an instant "dry erase" effect. This is in fact what I did with Sophie's checklist :)

It's really been super effective so far. Sometimes she even draws another tick box and adds an item that she needs to be reminded of the next morning. What a cutiepie! And of course, the checklist girl in me feels so happy that she's also slowly learning the art importance of making and using a checklist.