The Trip Clip Blog

The School Schedule Activity can be useful in many scenarios.  Here are two FREE lists you can try for yourself.

The first is great for both home school families and for kids with special needs. A visual checklist is a great way to help keep everyone on track.

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The second list can help special needs kids remember what they need to do when they arrive at school each day. These kind of detailed picture checklists are a great way to help kids stay independent but still do all the things that are expected of them.

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Try it on your mobile phone for free

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I find it hard this time of year when I’m still trying to enjoy fun summer activities with the kids, but I can feel the need to get ready for the return to school starting to lurk in the back of my head.  Often, writing down the list helps it feel more manageable. Once I see it I can make plans to get each thing done without the nagging feeling hanging over me that I have forgotten something important.  Here’s my list of things to do in the next few weeks.  What’s on your list?

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Try it on your mobile phone for free

Edit it

A bedtime routine with pictures is a fun and effective way to help your kids settle into bed. Kids respond well to routine, and the consistency that comes with writing down the routine and helping your kids know what to expect each night will help to calm them down and make bedtime smooth.

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Try it on your mobile phone for free

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A solid morning routine can make a world of difference when you’re trying to get the kids out the door for school every morning. This picture list is simple, nice to look at, and works well for kids of all ages. I used one with my kids until they were around 10 or 11 and could remember all of this on their own.

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Try it on your mobile phone for free

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Here are the best things about having a printed morning routine hanging on the wall

1. It removes the nagging. Everyone knows what the expectations are so I don’t have to nag, I just ask how they’re doing on their list.
2. I don’t have to keep it in my head! Before kids I never knew how mentally taxing it would be to keep so many different things in my head for so many people all at once. With the list on the wall, I don’t have to keep any of it in my head – with one glance we can all see what’s done and what needs doing.
3. It puts the responsibility for getting ready for school firmly on my kids’ shoulders, not on mine. I still help them, and monitor their progress, but we all know it’s THEIR list, not mine. I’m not the one who needs to accomplish these tasks, and having their name at the top helps make that clear to everyone.  It removes me as an opponent and lets me be a support.
4. We are all less likely to forget something when it’s all written down!

There are many ways you can use the Trip Clip Morning Routine:

Print it and hang it on the fridge	Print it and use it with a kid-sized clipboard	Laminate it and re-use it every day with a dry erase marker

Turn it into a magnetic checklist	Use it on a mobile device

If the items on the list are not quite right for your family, you can easily edit this list using The Trip Clip website.  You can add more items, remove items, and even change the pictures or the text.

This summer we are trying a new chore system at our house for our kids who are 11 and 15.  We like to use the summers to introduce our kids to new chores. During the school year it can feel like too much to take on something new, but if they get into the routine over the summer they are often able to absorb the new chore into their school routine in the fall.

We started by making a list of shared daily household chores. There are other chores (like showering, or changing the sheets on their beds) that everyone needs to do daily or weekly, but we left those off of this list and focused on the ones that impact that whole family.

I used the Chore Chart activity from The Trip Clip to print out the list of chores and hang it on the fridge.

Once we had the list, we aimed to make it so that there are approximately 8 each day (2 per person). Some days there are a few more than 8, and my husband and I will pick up the extra chores those days. We’re hopeful that the extra jobs on some days will provide a little variety, and also teach them some additional jobs. And some days the kids will have to sign up for the wildcard “Parent’s Choice” in order to have 8 chores those days.

Next, I created magnets with our names on them using the Print Your Own Magnets feature of The Trip Clip. There are 2 name magnets for each member of the family.  The idea is that everyone in the family, including me and my husband, will pitch in to help get these household chores done. We find that modeling the fact that these chores are shared by everyone, and benefit everyone, is an important part of the kids understanding that it’s not just work we’re forcing them to do, but work that is inherently part of running a household. And it’s also not just work that only parents have to do!

Our plan is to each pick 2 chores every morning and put our name by them. Right now, we’re going to  let the kids pick first, and my husband and I will take what’s left. If they fight over chores, though, or maybe if they always pick the same chores, we may add some rules about not doing the same chore 2 days in a row.  We plan to see how it goes and then make adjustments as needed.

We introduced the system to them this weekend, and so far the response has been pretty positive. They like the idea of getting some choice, and also that my husband and I are doing it with them.

Check back here in a few weeks and I will post an update on how this is working for us!