It was a little bit of a panicked morning compared to usual. We drove down the road on the way to school and my pre-preppie exclaimed, "I forgot my bag!". Indicator on, ready to pull over, I exclaimed, "I didn't get it either!" Then, a calm six-year-old boy's voice said, "It's OK...I've put what she needs in the boot!" Like I always say, my kids are not perfect but I my six-year-old is one of those kids who is thoughtful and organised FAR beyond his years.
If you've got school-aged children, you'll know that mornings can be a real rush, but something that has absolutely revolutionised our household in the morning is our beloved 'tick list'.
As I mentioned, I have one child who adores knowing 'the plan' and following it through. My second child is a free spirit, a constant dancer. She has the imagination of a champion and needs to be reminded that there even is a plan!
Enter (insert cool Top Gun or Star Wars music here): the Tick Chart. Through the combined efforts of Pinterest, our love of order and my exceptionally limited tech skills, I have created a chart of morning tasks my children both tick off every morning. The benefits are many but include:
- Promoting responsibility. Everything the children need is on that list. They can achieve all they need to with minimal help.
- Teaching satisfaction of a job well done. They do love jumping in the car with a grin and a "well done" from me!
- The tick list 'ticks' many boxes. My daughter needs to be able to do things for herself. The tick list lets her be independent. My son doesn't like too much conversation if he feels it is unnecessary. The tick list lets him quietly get on with all the tasks he needs to.
- It promotes reward for effort. My son LOVES to read and he has learned that getting compulsory tasks done efficiently gives him spare time when the work is done to read! It relieves LOTS of pressure on the adults in the house every morning! “What do I do now?” is met with “What’s left on your tick list?” rather than me trying desperately to think what they have done and have yet to do, while I’m getting ready myself!
To make life easy for you, I’ve included downloadable tick lists for you to simply print off and get started on.
> Download the list in words
> Download the list in pictures
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