If there’s one thing I’ve learned from raising my own kids, and from 15 years of working on The Trip Clip, it’s that there is no single checklist that will work for every kid. Even if you find a good one for your kid at one point in time, they will grow and change and need something different later on. As a result, The Trip Clip has expanded over time to help parents craft a checklist that’s just right for their needs at any point in time.
I loved having these checklists for my kids because instead of needing to ask every day “Did you brush your teeth?”, “Did you pack your homework?”, “Do you have your lunch money?”, I could ask just one question: “How’s your list?”. Eventually my kids got old enough that they could keep track of all of this for themselves without needing the checklist. But until they got to that point, these lists saved me from having to mentally keep track of every step of their daily routine in my head.
Here are examples of all the different kinds of Morning Routine Checklists you can make:
Daily Morning Routine
A daily checklist is the most basic form, and may be the only type of checklist you need. For a long time I had each of my kids’ daily routines taped to the wall. They didn’t cross the items off so we didn’t need to print a new one every day, but you certainly could! They just used it as a visual reminder and would mentally check things off. If your child likes to mark each box, you can avoid printing every day by putting the checklist in a plastic sleeve or a plastic frame and use it with a dry erase marker, or you can try the mobile version (see below).
You can try this for free here. Or if you want to edit it, you can choose from 100s of different pictures, write your own text, and upload your own pictures using The Trip Clip website.
Weekly Morning Routine
Some families want to make a checklist that lasts the whole week. There are two weekly checklists available from The Trip Clip.
The vertical weekly list still has a single list of pictures down the left side (very similar to the daily list) but it lets you keep track for a whole week instead of needing a new list every day.
Just like with the daily list, you can print this weekly, or use it in a plastic sleeve or picture frame, or on a mobile device.
You can try this for free here. Or if you want to edit it, you can choose from 100s of different pictures, write your own text, and upload your own pictures using The Trip Clip website.
The other weekly options is the horizontal weekly checklist. This list lets you make each day different, so you can be a little more specific. This was useful for us to help the kids know which day they needed to be wearing sneakers for PE, bring money for lunch, or bring their school library books in for library day, etc.
You can try this for free here. Or if you want to edit it, you can choose from 100s of different pictures, write your own text, and upload your own pictures using The Trip Clip website.
Mobile
If paper is not your thing, all of the lists above can be used on mobile devices like a phone or an iPad.
The Trip Clip makes it seamless to use any list you’ve created on a mobile device. My kids started to prefer the mobile list as they got older. It also helped them to have access to the list wherever they were in the house, not just in the kitchen. The changes you make to a list are automatically saved to the cloud, so they are immediately available from the My Lists page on any mobile device. Because you can create as many lists as you want, you can make lists for each of your kids, and they can each access their own list from their mobile device. Click on any of the pictures above from a mobile device and try the interactive lists right now for free.
Magnetic or Hook & Loop Checklists
And finally, The Trip Clip lets you turn your morning routine into a magnetic checklist, or a hook & loop checklist. I was surprised by how popular this was with my kids, but my younger son especially really liked being able to physically move the magnet from one side to the other and see his progress through his morning.
You can purchase just the 20 morning routine magnets and create your own system on the fridge or on a cookie sheet. You can also print a To Do / Done Board on paper, or order a magnetic pre-printed one from The Trip Clip website.
The Print Your Own Magnets feature also lets you make custom magnets if you need any that aren’t included in the 20 pack. It comes with website access and adhesive magnet sheets so you can choose your own pictures and words, print them on regular paper, and then turn them into magnets.
You can also do all of these things with hook and loop clips just like you can with the magnetic ones.
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