Rise and Shine Routine Chart

Last year when the Back to School season rolled around, my sister-in-love, Christen, shared a prayer request with me about her daughter, Rebekah.

Christen said that she was having a difficult time getting Rebekah motivated in the mornings.

She would tell Rebekah to get dressed and have breakfast, then find her playing with her dolls in her room.

She would tell Rebekah to brush her teeth, then find her doing a puzzle.

Rebekah’s artistic spirit lends itself to being easily distracted – and mornings were becoming a mess of tardy slips and frustrations.

Something had to be done!

So I made Rebekah her very own Rise and Shine Routine Chart.*Sorry for the icky pictures!  I took them last September and didn’t really know all that much about photography – I still don’t really know that much, I just know not to use the flash now!*

It was really easy!

I asked Christen if I could come over one day and take some pictures of Rebekah doing the things that she needed to do in order to get ready for her day.

Like…Brushing her hair…Putting her shoes on…Putting her backpack and lunch box by the door…

etc.

What was neat was that even just the act of me taking the pictures helped Rebekah have a better understanding of her morning responsibilities.

Plus, every little girl likes to be the star of a photo shoot – right?!

Then I printed the photos and glued them onto a big piece of poster board – in the order in which each task needed to be accomplished.The chart had two sides – one for how she should look on school days, and one for how she should look for church on Sundays.

I added some Bible verses, stickers and fun comments to encourage her precious heart each day. 🙂

I laminated the chart so that Rebekah could use a dry erase marker to check off each task upon completion.

She really liked that part!Christen said that the Rise and Shine Routine Chart completely changed their Happy Home’s mood in the mornings.

Instead of the frantic, harried pace, Christen was able to just redirect Rebekah to the chart whenever she noticed any off task behavior.

What a positive way to help your Happy Buddies ease back into the school routine!

And if your Happy Buddies are visual learners (or too young to read) this would be a very helpful idea.There she is – Rising and Shining!

I’m so proud of you, Rebekah!

Happy Rise and Shine Routine Chart-ing! 🙂