I’m glad you found The Trip Clip® blog! I’ll post here about new activities and clipart, fun ways to use The Trip Clip products, and topics I’m passionate about like finding learning opportunities in everyday life and supporting working moms. I love to hear from others, so leave a comment any time!
Get Kids Moving: Fitness BINGO & Fitness Tracking
Get kids moving with these fitness challenge printables!
Use the bingo board to introduce kids to ways to move that might be new to them, and encourage them to keep an open mind and find out what they like. Research shows that finding a physical activity that you truly enjoy will make a huge difference in keeping with it throughout your life. Ideas for how to challenge kids with Fitness BINGO:
- Aim for 5 in a row in one week
- Try for a black out in a month
- See how many a kid can do in one month, then beat it the next month
- Make it a family affair and do these activities together
The Fitness Challenge lets kids keep track of their activities for a month to see how many times they do each of these things. Tracking activity is shown to be helpful in encouraging it! You can also have them track their activity one week, then set a goal for how the will match it or increase it the next week.
If you need to make any changes, you can edit these activities to make them just right for your kids on The Trip Clip website.
Posted in For Teachers, Health & Wellness
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10 Chore Charts You Can Make With The Trip Clip
The Trip Clip has lots of different ways to make chore charts that can grow and change with your kids. Here are 10 different types of chore charts that you can make with The Trip Clip.
1. Daily Chore Chart For an Individual Kid
The most straightforward chore chart is a simple list with checkboxes. This can be printed daily, laminated to use with a dry erase marker, or used as an interactive list on a phone or iPad. The Trip Clip lets you pick the chores you want to add to the list – you can add your own pictures and text, too.
Daily lists work especially well for younger kids, and may even include personal care tasks that aren’t exactly chores, but things each child will need to eventually learn to do independently – like brush their teeth every day!
2. Daily Chores With Moving Pieces
The Trip Clip also lets you turn a daily chore list into a reusable hook & loop or a magnetic chore chart with movable parts. If you purchase the supplies, you can create your own individual magnets and hook & loop clips by choosing from a big selection of pictures and writing your own text. You can also buy a pre-selected set of pictures you can print at home on Teacher Pay Teachers.
These are great for kids who need to visually see their completed tasks move from one side to the other.
For my kids the magnet chart on the fridge was the most successful, but we also had some luck with just printing a paper copy and taping it to the wall – they just looked at the list without bothering to mark things off (making it reusable), so it served as more of a reminder than as a way to track progress.
3. Weekly Chore Chart For an Individual Kid
You can also make a weekly chore chart that allows for different chores on different days of the week. Just like with the daily lists, the weekly list can also be laminated or used on a mobile phone.
I found this to be the most useful as my kids got older (late grade school and into middle school) and their after school schedule was busier. This let them visually see which days they had soccer or a lesson so they could plan homework time on the days that weren’t as full of other commitments. They also had more weekend chores at that age and this format let them track that too.
We also started to prefer to use the list on their phones as they got older. They always had their phones with them so they could check it from anywhere. It also worked great when changes came up mid-day while they were at school, or while I was at work. I could update their list from my computer and the changes would automatically show up on their phone so their list could always be up to date.
4. Chores For the Whole Family: Same Chores All Week
As your kids get older, you may want a chore chart that includes the whole family to help your kids understand that everyone in the house shares the work of keeping the household running. It can also be helpful to have the kids try different chores, and mine always liked having their responsibilities rotate a bit so if there was a chore they hated they weren’t stuck with it forever.
This first chart is one I created for my family when they were in middle and high school. It uses the daily list format shown with checkboxes on the left. I printed it in full page mode, on regular paper, and hung it on the fridge with magnets. Then I used the Print Your Own Magnets feature to make small magnets with each family member’s names on it. Each week (usually Sunday nights) we all took turns putting our name on the daily chores we wanted to be responsible for that week.
5. Chores For the Whole Family: Different Chores On Different Days
After trying the chart above, we realized we wanted a little more variety over the course of the week. The chart below worked well for chores that need to be done every day of the week, but no one was stuck with the same chore every day of the week. We found this especially helpful for bigger chores like cooking dinner or walking the dog that were hard to do 7 days in a row.
I used the weekly-vertical format in full page mode to make this chart. This format puts the chores down the left side of the page, and the days of the week across the top. Again I used the “Print Your Own Magnets” feature to make magnets for each family member, and at the beginning of the week we took turns claiming the chores for that week. I just had one chore per person on this chart, but it’s easy to make it more chores than that by simply adding more chores to the left of the page. This format fits The Trip Clip’s small magnets well, so each of us picked a picture we liked as our ‘avatar’ just for fun, and we used those magnets to claim our chores.
6. Chores For the Whole Family: Less Frequent Chores
The next chore chart was how we handled tasks that needed to be done weekly instead of daily. We found it worked well to separate out these chores into a different chart from the list of daily chores. I made this using the weekly-horizontal layout and printed it in full page mode. I added each family member’s name to the left side of the page, and we took turns picking from the set of chores at the bottom. You can use the pre-printed chores pack for this, or print your own.
7. Chores BINGO
This isn’t a chart, but it’s a great way to get your kids to do some chores and keep it fun. Unlike daily assigned chores, chores bingo mixes it up a little, so kids try (and learn) different jobs. It works surprisingly well for spreading the work load and keeping it interesting.
There are many different ways that you can use the Chores Bingo board. An important way to start, though, is by making sure that you keep the chores age appropriate – this list from The Trip Clip is a great place to look for ideas (print it here):
Once you’ve made your Bingo board, there are a number of ways you can use it to keep your kids engaged and get those chores done!
- 5 in a line – ask them to pick 5 chores in a row or column to do over the course of a week. If they’re like my kids, they will do everything they can to optimize this and avoid doing the chores they hate, but you’ll still get some work out of them. The next week you can create a different BINGO board.
- Roll for it – have your kids roll two dice every day to determine which of the 25 chores they will do that day. The first dice tells you the row #, the second one tells you the column #. If either of the dice is a 6, treat it as a wild card – the child can choose! And two 3’s means they’re off the hook :).
- Family BINGO – challenge the whole family (parents included) to complete the board in a week. Every morning you take turns picking your chore for the day, and cross it off once it’s been chosen. By the end of the week, even the chores no one wants to do will get done. The kids especially like this one because they like it when the grownups have to do chores too.
- Pay for chores – it never hurts to bribe your kids a little, right? Offer them some money (a quarter? a dollar?) for each chore on the board they complete, and a bonus for finishing the whole board. Money is surprisingly motivating!
More Ideas From Customers
If you still need some more ideas about what kind of Chore Chart to make, here are some of the things other customers have done:
8. Hook & Loop Pet Care Chart
Heather made a hook & loop chart for taking care of the pets. With 3 teenagers in the house, she found it was hard to keep track of what animal care had and hadn’t been done yet. This way the chart helped keep the pet care communication visible for everyone to know the status!
9. Combined Daily & Weekly Chore Chart
Meghann made a chore chart that combined both daily and weekly chores into one. I love the creative way she used the binder clips to mark what chores had been completed and still keep the list reusable, with an extra binder clip on the right to mark the current day of the week! Very inventive.
10. Magnetic Whiteboard Chore Chart
Cindi used The Trip Clip Magnets on a magnetic whiteboard. This method is super flexible – she used extra space at the bottom to hold magnets she wouldn’t need every day. She also allowed her kids to do some personalizing/decorating of their whiteboards (not shown here).
The Trip Clip is very versatile, and will let you make many different kinds of charts to meet your family’s needs. If you make your own, send me a picture and I’ll include it here to share your good ideas with other parents!
Week 28 Free Printable: Screen Time – It’s Not All Bad!
Screen time can be a constant source of stress for many families. Setting rules and limits is important (more on that here), but making sure your kids are digitally literate is becoming more important as the world around us becomes more dependent on technology.
Instead of fighting about screen time, think about how you can embrace it to help your kids learn the skills that they will undoubtedly need for future employment in our increasingly connected world. Start focusing on the KIND of screen time they’re getting, and see if you can strike a balance across all 4 categories below.
Your kids can hit all 4 categories by:
- making a movie
- researching a favorite topic online
- emailing a travelogue to grandma during a family vacation
- going outside for a walk with Pokemon GO
Then the next week they can:
- take pictures on a walk (find something in each color of the rainbow) and learn to edit them online to make a rainbow picture book
- try code.org
- have a video call with a cousin across the country
- watch a YouTube show about beavers
There are tons of good learning opportunities available in all of these widely diverse screen time activities. If you have ideas or creative ways you’ve ticked boxes in each of these categories, please share below in the comments to help give other parents ideas!
1. Create Digital Art
There are plenty of artists who still paint with paper and brush, take pictures with film cameras, or write music using a guitar or a piano. But as our world becomes more digital, more and more artists are enhancing their art digitally, or even creating it digitally.
In the business world, presentations, videos, marketing materials etc are largely created digitally.
At school, my kids are using their computers to create materials for presentations and reports online more and more often.
So instead of saying no to screen time, try asking your kids to use a screen to be creative, or to enhance their creativity. Just remember, art is never wrong! Let your child explore a wide range of digital creativity options.
Click here for lots of great recommendations for digital creativity apps >>
2. Digital Learning
Kids can definitely get too much screen time, especially time spent vegging out or playing endless games. But screens can also connect your kids to a wealth of information that just wasn’t available when we were kids. Learn how to harness those screens and teach your kids how much more there is out there than games!
Click here for some great recommendations for how to use screens to enhance your child’s education >>
3. Connecting Digitally
Although kids can sometimes seem to disappear into their screens, we shouldn’t forget the wonderful way computers have helped us stay connected. I love how much easier it is to stay connected to my family, compared to when my only choices were long distance phone calls or snail mail (which we just called “mail” back then). Embrace the screens by using them to keep your kids connected to their friends and family.
I also firmly believe that our kids’ generation will be working remotely (rather than in person) far more often than our generation has. The skills they gain by learning to communicate and collaborate via voice chat, video chat, and texts are going to serve them well in their work lives down the road.
Click here for some great recommendations for embracing these communication tools >>
4. Enjoy
Even screen time that appears to be ‘just for fun’ can have solid educational value.
- Watching TV can include educational programming
- Playing video games can range widely. They can promote creativity (Minecraft), puzzle solving (Portal), cooperation, strategy, and communication.
- Mobile games range widely just like other video games. Think about a game like Pokemon GO that incorporates physical movement!
- Music videos are a great way to explore music and musical tastes. If this is what your kid loves, encourage them to read more about the history of a favorite musician, or create music of their own.
- YouTube (and even TikTok) can be a scary place, but also an incredibly educational place as well depending on how you use it. Spend some time looking at YouTube with your kids, learn what they like, and work together to find channels and material that they like that is also educational. You may even find new interests to give you ideas about books they might like, or other educational websites or activities that they might enjoy.
Posted in 52 Weeks of Free Printables, For Teachers, Screen Time
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PDF: Bedtime Routine With Pictures – Magnetic or Hook & Loop
This printable PDF (available on Teachers Pay Teachers) includes all the printable items you need to make a magnetic or hook & loop bedtime routine with pictures.
You can get the PDF here, or buy it all pre-made (magnetic or hook & loop) from The Trip Clip website.
This packet includes:
- 20 printable picture clips (big and small so you can choose which to use)
- A 7×10 To Do / Done board with placement markers (lined up for small picture clips)
- A 7×10 To Do / Done board without placement markers (for a cleaner look)
Directions For Making a Magnetic Chart
- Print out the pages you want to use
- Trim the edges of the To Do / Done board to 7.5 x 10
- Affix the picture clips (big or small) onto adhesive magnet paper
- Cut apart your 20 magnets
- Use magnets to hang the To Do / Done board on any magnetic surface – a cookie sheet will work
- Arrange the magnets on the To Do / Done board
You can also get all of these pieces pre-made from The Trip Clip
Directions For Making a Hook & Loop Chart
- Print out the pages you want to use
- Laminate the pages
- Trim the edges of the To Do / Done board to 7.5 x 10
- Cut apart your 20 picture clips
- Put scratchy hook & loop pieces on the left and right sides of the To Do / Done board
- Put soft hook & loop pieces on the back of each picture clip
- Arrange the the picture clips on the To Do / Done board
You can also get all of these pieces pre-made from The Trip Clip
The 20 Pictures Include:
- Eat dinner
- Pick up toys
- Take a bath
- Shower
- Put out clothes
- Get backpack
- Put on pajamas
- Clothes in hamper
- Get water
- Bedtime snack
- Take medicine
- Brush teeth
- Use the bathroom
- Pick out story
- Read a book
- Say prayers
- Get in bed
- Goodnight kisses
- Turn off light
- Go to sleep
Posted in Life Skills
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Make Any BINGO Board
BINGO is a fun game, and an incredible learning tool. From travel bingo, to chores bingo, to spelling bingo, you can make any kind of bingo board you need with The Trip Clip.
There are many different ways you can play bingo. Whether you’re aiming for 5 in a row, blacking out the whole board, working with others, or competing for the win, you can adapt this game to play it however you want. Check out all my ideas for ways to play.
1000+ Images on Many Themes
One of the great things about The Trip Clip’s Bingo Activity is the huge collection of images you can choose from. Here are example of the kinds of BINGO boards you can make:
Travel: Airport Bingo, Airplane Bingo, Road Trip Bingo, Car Bingo, Errands Bingo, Road Sign Bingo, Restaurant Bingo
Life Skills: Chores Bingo, Grocery Shopping Bingo, Walk To School Bingo, Fitness Bingo
Sports: Basketball Bingo, Baseball Bingo, Football Bingo, Soccer Bingo
Educational: Reading Bingo, Alphabet Bingo, Spelling List Bingo, Bingo boards in any language
You can see and try free samples of each of these on The Trip Clip website.
There is a collection of images around each of these themes, as well as the ability to use images from all of these collection to make any custom bingo board you want. There are also a bunch of features available to let you truly customize your boards any way you want. You can:
- Generate random boards on a specific theme
- Change the picture on any individual square
- Write your own text underneath any picture, in any language!
- Shuffle the 25 squares once you’ve chosen the ones you want (great for making multiple versions of the same board for each kid in the car, or in a classroom)
- Upload your own pictures to create a truly unique bingo board
- Create as many Bingo boards as you want and save them in your account to use them again
Print It Or Use it on a Phone or iPad
Any Bingo board you create can be printed or used on a mobile device. The printed bingo boards print on a half sheet of paper, perfect for a small, kid-sized clipboard. You can also use them interactively on a phone, iPad, or any mobile device. Just log into your account at TheTripClip.com from your phone, navigate to the Bingo activity, choose a Bingo board from your account, or make a new one right from your phone!
The Trip Clip’s Bingo Activity is a rich source of fun and learning for kids, and it has a ton of potential for creative parents and teachers. If you make an interesting Bingo board, send it to me at molly@thetripclip.com and I will feature it in my social media!
Learning While Watching Sports: Baseball
There’s no question that kids who play sports learn a ton of incredibly important things, from physical fitness to being part of a team to resilience and much more. But that’s not all kids can learn from sports! There are tons of learning opportunities for spectators too. These printable activities from The Trip Clip are for kids who love sports so much they want to talk about sports and watch sports in addition to playing them.
Parents who have sports-loving kids can use these activities when watching sports at home, when going to a game, and at siblings’ sporting events. Teachers can use them as free time activities in the classroom, or assign them as extra credit packets. Kids won’t even know they’re learning with these engaging sports themed activities.
You can print a packet with all 6 activities on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Baseball Bingo
Baseball bingo is a fun addition to watching a baseball game on TV or in person, and it can even keep siblings entertained during practices. The combination of pictures and words promotes simple reading skills. The Trip Clip’s bingo activity lets you generate an unlimited number of baseball bingo boards at random, or edit the bingo boards so you can create boards very specific to your child’s interests. You can change the pictures and write your own text – for a true baseball lover, use the BINGO board to help them watch for balls, strikes, foul balls, bunts, and anything else you can think of related to the game that they will want to spot.
You can print out multiple copies of a single board and work together to try to complete the whole thing, or make different boards for each member of the family so you can compete to see who can get a bingo first. Click here to see more ideas for using these bingo boards.
Baseball Counting Game
Baseball Count On It is a wonderful way to teach some simple math graphing skills, and it’s surprisingly engaging! You can pick from 100s of images to put on your list. Then watch for those things while watching a baseball game, and each time you see one, fill in one of the boxes. Just like with Bingo, if you have a baseball lover in your family, use The Trip Clip website to edit this chart so your kids can track runs, balls, fouls, strikes, etc. You can even make entries for each team so this will turn into a simple score charting tool. The result will be a bar graph that they can use to easily see which items were most common.
For some added learning, have your kids make predictions ahead of time about what they will see the most and the least often. Then have them collect their data and circle back afterward the game to see if the data supports their predictions. It’s a great and super simple introduction to the scientific method!
Baseball Word Search
Word searches allow kids to engage with letters, words, and spelling in a way that will let them have fun and not realize they’re learning. Whether they’re getting more comfortable with seeing letter combinations and solidifying the spelling of some common words, or engaging in an activity that will help hone their problem solving skills, games and puzzles are an excellent way to help kids have fun while they’re learning.
The Trip Clip lets you create an unlimited number of word search puzzles, and you can make easy 5×5 puzzles for little kids, or much harder 20×20 puzzles for older kids. You can also enter your own words. That lets you add words you want your kids to learn, or ones that will make it more fun. I made a custom word search puzzle for a team party that included the names of each member of the team and the coach!
Baseball Coloring Pictures
Coloring might seem like something that is just for fun, but in reality it helps with dexterity and hand-eye coordination that’s needed for handwriting. It also lets kids be creative and explore colors, textures, styles, and much more. Never underestimate the value of art in a child’s education! Using The Trip Clip, you can make a whole coloring book that contains just baseball images, or sports images.
Baseball Secret Messages
Secret Message Puzzles (or cryptogram puzzles) teach about letter and word combinations useful for reading and spelling, and are also an introduction to computer programming and code breaking. The Trip Clip lets you set the difficulty level so you can start kids out as beginners while they learn how these puzzles work. Then you can ramp up the difficulty as they learn tricks like watching for common letters, and common small words like a, and, and the.
You can also use The Trip Clip website to create custom secret message puzzles. You can enter your own text for kids to unscramble, and make it about any topic they care about. I recommend looking up rare baseball facts and making puzzles for each fact. Then watch the kids solve the puzzles and learn new things about their favorite sport!
Baseball Alphabet Game
The Alphabet Game can be used absolutely anywhere for a little entertainment and learning wherever you go. When you’re watching a baseball game, you can make it all about baseball! The idea is for kids to find something on the field or in the stands (like I Spy) that begins with each letter in the list. This is great for recognizing first letter sounds for younger kids (they’ll need help with the writing), and it’s great spelling and writing practice for older kids.
The Trip Clip website will generate an unlimited number of Alphabet Game boards so you can print a new one for each game and see what your kids can find.
Kid-Sized Clipboard
All of these activities are designed to fit on a half sheet of paper to fit into a Trip Clip Clipboard. Along with the attached pen, the clipboard is a great way to use your printed activity pages while you’re at a baseball game.
Posted in For Teachers
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PDF: Chore Chart With Pictures – Magnetic or Hook & Loop
This printable PDF (available on Teachers Pay Teachers) includes all the printable items you need to make a magnetic or hook & loop after school chart with pictures.
You can get the PDF here, or buy it all pre-made (magnetic or hook & loop) from The Trip Clip website.
This packet includes:
- 20 printable picture clips (big and small so you can choose which to use)
- A 7×10 To Do / Done board with placement markers (lined up for small picture clips)
- A 7×10 To Do / Done board without placement markers (for a cleaner look)
Directions For Making a Magnetic Chart
- Print out the pages you want to use
- Trim the edges of the To Do / Done board to 7.5 x 10
- Affix the picture clips (big or small) onto adhesive magnet paper
- Cut apart your 20 magnets
- Use magnets to hang the To Do / Done board on any magnetic surface – a cookie sheet will work
- Arrange the magnets on the To Do / Done board
You can also get all of these pieces pre-made from The Trip Clip
Directions For Making a Hook & Loop Chart
- Print out the pages you want to use
- Laminate the pages
- Trim the edges of the To Do / Done board to 7.5 x 10
- Cut apart your 20 picture clips
- Put scratchy hook & loop pieces on the left and right sides of the To Do / Done board
- Put soft hook & loop pieces on the back of each picture clip
- Arrange the the picture clips on the To Do / Done board
You can also get all of these pieces pre-made from The Trip Clip
The 20 pictures include:
- Clean your room
- Help with laundry
- Put away laundry
- Make your bed
- Feed the dog
- Set the table
- Clear the table
- Empty dishwasher
- Take out trash
- Feed the cat
- Clean the bathroom
- Dishes in sink
- Dad’s choice
- Mom’s choice
- Sweep the floor
- Vacuum
- Pick up toys
- Dust furniture
- Help cook dinner
- Clothes in hamper
Posted in Life Skills
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New Feature: Upload Your Own Pictures
I’m very excited to announce a new feature: You can now upload your own images to use in your picture checklists and bingo boards! Many customers have asked for this so I’m glad I finally got it done. This feature will allow you to add you own pictures if you can’t find what you need in the set of clipart, or if you want to super personalize the list for your child. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!
How To Add Your Own Picture
To add your own picture, go to the list or bingo board you want to edit. If you’re on a computer, look for Step 2: SELECT in the top middle of the page. If you’re editing your list from a phone, go to the list, use the drop down menu in the upper right corner to select ‘Edit list’, and then tap the button to “Add Items”.
Above the clipart, select the checkbox labeled “Upload a picture”. You’ll be prompted to choose a picture from you computer, or if you’re on your phone, you can choose a picture from your photo library or take a new photo.
Once you’ve selected a picture, the picture will be uploaded to The Trip Clip website. Your pictures are completely private and are not visible to anyone else. You’ll be prompted to enter a label for your picture. This label will appear next to your picture when you add it to a list (it can be easily edited later), and it will also be the keywords that you can search on later to find it again. Any pictures you add will be available for you to add to any list you create with The Trip Clip.
Tips For Optimizing Pictures
Because The Trip Clip lists show a small picture, the best images will be
- simple
- zoomed in on a single object
- square
- around 1000×1000 pixels
- have a file size less than 8MB
Taking a Photo
Being able to take your own photos for a list makes the lists way more useful for many people. Maybe you want to show the box of a specific brand of cereal they need to locate on the shelf, or you want to include a picture of the babysitter or grandma on their after school checklist so they have a strong visual reminder of who they should be looking for when school lets out that day. One customer wanted to be able to add a picture of their child’s occupational and speech therapists to the list so their child knew for sure who they would be visiting that day. Using your own photo lets you make your list very personalized. Below I included a picture I took of my son’s daily homework folder, his actual water bottle, and a picture of his grandma so he’d know for sure who was picking him up from school that day.
In the video below, I show how you can take a photo of a specific item at the grocery store and add it to your list to help your kids find the exact item you need:
Finding Your Own Clipart
Another option you have is to find your own clipart images online. As a business, The Trip Clip can only include clipart images that I have secured or paid for the rights to use them commercially. As an individual, you can use a much broader set of clipart as long as you don’t intend to sell it or use it commercially. This means that you can find images online that are available for personal use and put them in your personal lists as long as you don’t sell them or sell your list.
Kids With Special Needs
Some kids with special needs are extremely literal, so the ability to see their exact toothbrush (as opposed to one that is the wrong shape or the wrong color) may be just what they need. I had one customer who asked me if I could include a red table top to match their table at home so that their child would understand what they meant when they said ‘clean the table’. The generic picture of a table confused her child. Now this customer can take a picture of their family table and use it in their lists to better help their special needs child!
Posted in New Features, Special Needs
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Everything You Wanted To Know (and More!) About The Trip Clip Picture Checklists
The Trip Clip’s picture checklists are super versatile and crazy useful, and really, they’re just picture checklists. For most people, that may be all you need to know. If you want a shorter overview of what they are, and a link to buy them, you can find all of that here.
This blog post, on the other hand, is for anyone who has more questions or wants more information before making a purchase decision. Although they are essentially just picture checklists, they are also full of features you might not beware of, so here are all of the tiny details that may answer any lingering questions you have, or teach you something new about what The Trip Clip has to offer!
There are 13 Different Lists + a To Do / Done Board
Here are all of the different kinds of lists you can make with The Trip Clip. Each of the lists below (except the custom list) give you a curated list of images to pick from. This is helpful because you can visually scan through a set of images that make sense for the specific kind of list you’re trying to make. In parentheses I tell you approximately how many images there are right now for each type of list. Note that I add more pretty regularly (read more about this below).
- Morning Routine (350 pictures)
- School Schedule (300 pictures)
- After School Checklist (350 pictures)
- Chore Chart (180 pictures)
- Bedtime Routine (115 pictures)
- Grocery List (315 pictures)
- Cleaning Checklists (150 pictures)
- Packing List (240 pictures)
- Lunch Box Packing Checklist (215 pictures)
- Personal Care Lists (125 pictures)
- Social Skills Checklists (70 pictures)
- School Supplies List (27 pictures)
- Custom List (1500 pictures)
- To Do / Done Board
If you buy any one of these lists, you will automatically get access to customize and print your own To Do / Done Board. More on this below.
Changing the Picture At the Top
For some of these lists, there is a single picture at the top of the list that always shows up (e.g. the Grocery List always shows a grocery bag at the top).
A few of the lists let you choose what picture you want at the top. Here are the lists that let you choose the picture at the top:
- Cleaning Checklists
- Packing List
- Personal Care
- Social Skills
- Custom List
To change the picture at the top for these lists, click on the picture above the preview of the list (i.e. click the toilet) and a window will open that lets you see your other options.
There are over 1500 images to choose from
For every one of the lists above there is a search box at the top of the page that lets you search the images for the current activity to try to find the one you’re looking for. The search scans the text label for each image, so if you can’t find what you’re looking for, try altering your search to see if you can match something in the set of pictures. For instance, if you want to add ‘go to the pool’ to your list, you can search for pool or swim to see if either of those words pops up something you want. You can also search for bathing suit, goggles, towel, sunglasses, or anything else that might be related to the activity that would work in your list!
Custom List
The custom list is a special list because it lets you add any clipart from across the entire website onto your list. This includes clipart from other activities like the BINGO boards that you might not find on any individual list, and it lets you put items from different lists in one list – in case you want to do something like add items from both the personal care list and the grocery list to a single list. The custom list also gives you a wide variety of choices of images for the top of the list. It can be a little hard to find the images you want for this list because there are so many, so I highly recommend using the Search box for this list.
Because all of the clipart is available on this list, it is the only list you cannot buy individually. The only way to purchase the Custom List is to buy the bundle that includes all of the Picture Checklists.
Add Your Own Pictures
If you can’t find a picture that is right for your list, you can upload your own pictures. The best images will be simple, zoomed in on a single object, square, around 1000×1000 pixels, and have a file size less than 8MB. Once you add a picture of your own to The Trip Clip website, you will be able to add that picture to any one of your lists. Your pictures are completely private and are not visible to anyone else.
Here’s a blog post with more information about using this feature.
You Can Request Additional Pictures
In some circumstances you may have a picture you’d like to see on the clipart lists and adding your own won’t work for you for some reason. In this scenario, please let me know! I get requests from customers all the time for additional clipart, and I do my very best to add the items that are requested. You can see from this roll-up of all of my new clipart posts that I’ve been increasing my clipart collection for years! I love it when I hear from customers with new requests.
I’ve also been working on making sure my clipart is diverse, and I truly need help from my customers to do this well, because I am just one person with one perspective on the world. People from different cultures, ethnic backgrounds, religions, and parts of the world have all contacted me to teach me about things that are important in their lives and to their families and I have loved to learn from them and to find the clipart they need to help make my website more useful for them!
Write Any Text In Any Language
When you add a picture to your list (by clicking on it or dragging it onto the list) the default text that goes along with the picture will be added to your list. You can change this text by clicking on the item once it’s in your list. This is great for making your lists super customized for your kids, and it’s also great for being able to write in any language. I’ve worked hard to make sure I have full language support for as many languages as I possibly can. I have successfully translated my lists into Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Malay, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, and Ukrainian. You can see samples of these here.
If you run into any problems making a list in your own language, please email me and let me know, and I will do the work to add support for a new language if I possibly can!
To Do / Done Board
If you buy any one of these lists, you will automatically get access to customize and print your own To Do / Done Board. You can print your To Do / Done Board on regular paper, on magnet paper, or laminate it. The Trip Clip Website lets you choose colors for your To Do / Done Board, change the title at the top to anything you want (in any language), change the headings “To Do” and “Done” to anything you want (in any language) and choose a picture for the bottom left corner. You can also print it with and without the circle markers to indicate placement for any picture clips you use with your board.
List Types: Daily, Weekly, Interactive
The Trip Clip lets you make a number of different kinds of lists. The most basic is a daily checklist with a single column of checkboxes. You can also make a weekly list in either vertical or horizontal format depending on what you need and what will work best for your kids. You can also print your checklist as Picture Clips (in big or small format) to make an interactive list with moving parts.
I find it’s important to change each of these settings depending on what kind of list I need. Different lists call for different layouts!
Mobile Lists
All of the lists you make, including daily and weekly lists, can be used from a mobile device like a phone or an iPad. The only exception is the Lunch Box Checklist. If you’re interested in using the Lunch Box Checklist from a mobile device and are disappointed it doesn’t work yet on a phone, email me and let me know and I’ll bump this up in my priorities.
The great thing about this is that you don’t have to do anything extra at all for your lists to work from a mobile device. The Trip Clip is a cloud-based system, so every list you make is automatically saved (no need to click a save button) and will be instantly available from your account on any device. You just need to use the browser from the device to navigate to TheTripClip.com, and sign in to your account to see all of your lists.
Create, Edit, and Save As Many Lists As You Want
Every list you make is saved automatically to the cloud, and you can keep adding new lists while preserving any lists you want to use again. Examples of lists you might want to preserve and use again later are weekly items you get on every trip to the grocery store, a summer and winter packing list, or morning routine lists that are specific to each of your children. I’ve set it up so that there is a current default list saved per device, so if you create a list for each of your kids, and they navigate to their personalized list, that list will be the one that shows up on their device again the next time they go to The Trip Clip.
Display Options
Many people simply print out their lists on paper and use them with a regular pen or pencil. There are lots of other options, though. You can use them with a Trip Clip Clipboard and 4-color pen, you can laminate your list or put it in a plastic picture frame and use it with a dry erase marker, or you can turn it into an interactive magnetic or hook and loop checklist. Learn more about all of these choices here.
Print Options
I’ve tried hard to keep the layout of The Trip Clip lists simple so that using them is straightforward. There are a few things you can tweak at print time, though, to help format your lists for your individual needs. By default, the lists will print on a half sheet of paper in landscape format. If you want, you can change this to vertical (portrait) format. You can also change the size of the text to make it a little bigger or smaller to get your list to fit well on the page. You can also choose to print in color or in black and white, and for non-US customers, you can specify that you want to print on A4 paper and the layout will be adjusted accordingly.
For anyone who wants to print in color but doesn’t have a color printer, all of The Trip Clip lists are generated as PDFs that can be saved and then emailed or carried on a removable drive to a print shop that can print your PDF in color for you.
Posted in Life Skills, New Features
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PDF: After School Chart With Pictures – Magnetic or Hook & Loop
This printable PDF (available on Teachers Pay Teachers) includes all the printable items you need to make a magnetic or hook & loop after school chart with pictures.
You can get the PDF here, or buy it all pre-made (magnetic or hook & loop) from The Trip Clip website.
This packet includes:
- 20 printable picture clips (big and small so you can choose which to use)
- A 7×10 To Do / Done board with placement markers (lined up for small picture clips)
- A 7×10 To Do / Done board without placement markers (for a cleaner look)
Directions For Making a Magnetic Chart
- Print out the pages you want to use
- Trim the edges of the To Do / Done board to 7.5 x 10
- Affix the picture clips (big or small) onto adhesive magnet paper
- Cut apart your 20 magnets
- Use magnets to hang the To Do / Done board on any magnetic surface – a cookie sheet will work
- Arrange the magnets on the To Do / Done board
You can also get all of these pieces pre-made from The Trip Clip
Directions For Making a Hook & Loop Chart
- Print out the pages you want to use
- Laminate the pages
- Trim the edges of the To Do / Done board to 7.5 x 10
- Cut apart your 20 picture clips
- Put scratchy hook & loop pieces on the left and right sides of the To Do / Done board
- Put soft hook & loop pieces on the back of each picture clip
- Arrange the the picture clips on the To Do / Done board
You can also get all of these pieces pre-made from The Trip Clip
The 20 pictures include:
- Wake up
- Eat breakfast
- Brush teeth
- Go to the bathroom
- Get dressed
- Do hair
- Comb hair
- Get lunch
- Pack homework
- Get backpack
- Make your bed
- Put away pajamas
- Get water bottle
- Take medicine
- Put on socks
- Put on shoes
- Put on coat
- Get in car
- Goodbye kisses
- Wake up happy
Posted in Life Skills
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