💥Great example of VISUAL calendar for kids

Hey everybody, what’s up? It’s me, Seth, and I’m here with Julie today. She’s one of the parents from one of the Facebook groups, and she posted this picture along with a little description of how she was scheduling things with her kids. I thought that one of the biggest problems people are going through right now is the lack of structure and schedule.

Julie has younger kids, if I’m not mistaken, and we’ll dive into that in a minute. It makes things a little easier than dealing with a super-resistant teenager who doesn’t want to follow a schedule. But nonetheless, she has some really key ideas that I asked her to share with all of you.

So, what’s up, everyone? I’m Seth Perler, executive function coach from Colorado. I help students navigate school so they can have a great life.

So, Julie, how did you come up with this idea for your schedule?

“Well, after being home with my kids and trying to work for a couple of weeks, I tried giving them very rigid schedules. I would write out exactly what they were supposed to be doing at every point in the day, and I got a lot of pushback and a lot of unfinished work.

So I knew I needed something more creative — something my kids could take ownership of. I have a big bulletin board wall in my house, and I wrote out index cards. The white index cards in the middle go from top to bottom and represent time periods of the day in 30-minute increments.

I have two kids, so each of them got one side of the column to add their own cards. I made pink cards for things they absolutely had to do, like mandatory school phone calls or online classes at certain times of the day.

Then, for one child, I used yellow cards, and for the other, green cards. Those represented things I wanted them to do as a parent — like extra reading, math practice, or exercise outside. I also included entertainment activities like TV and video games.

Every night after dinner, I asked them to start building their schedule for the next day by arranging the cards. That way, they had a say in how they completed their tasks. After using it for about a week, it’s been pretty successful. There’s a lot less whining, less ‘I’m bored,’ and less ‘I don’t know what to do.’ They’re figuring things out more independently, so I think it’s working really well.”

“Awesome. Thank you so much. For parents taking notes, there are so many great elements in what you just said. One thing you mentioned was buy-in. At first, the schedule was really rigid, and then you shifted to something more flexible. Can you tell us a little more about that?”

“Well, as a person myself, I like doing things that feel like my own idea — things I actually want to do. Over the years, I’ve learned that if I can help my kids see the benefit of something, or feel like it’s partly their idea, there’s a lot more self-motivation.

So I knew that with this new schedule, they needed to feel like they had some control over it. And they do. That feeling of control is comforting to most of us.”

“Have they gotten better at it over time? Is it more of a habit now?”

“Yes. They’ve realized that even if they forget to put something into the schedule, they can adjust it during the day. If they finish tasks more quickly than expected, they can move their free time or entertainment time around. Some cards get removed, some get rearranged. I think they find it really helpful for regulating their time.”

“Do you have extra cards in case new things come up?”

“Yes, there are always extra cards available. Off to the side of the board, each child has a little section with additional cards they can choose from for extracurricular activities or other options for the day.

Right now, those are mostly my ideas — things I think they should be doing as a parent. They haven’t asked yet to create their own cards, but I expect that will happen eventually.”

“I like that you’re anticipating that. When we anticipate things, we can think through how we want to respond and come up with more creative ways to handle situations. So what do you think you’ll do when they ask to make their own cards?”

“I think it’ll become a discussion. They’re pretty reasonable little people, and I think they’ll come up with good ideas for things they want to do. Obviously, being homebound, they miss going places and seeing friends, so this encourages them to be more creative. I trust that the ideas they come up with will be good ones and things they genuinely need.”

“Can you hold up one of the time cards, one of the pink cards, and one of the others?”

“Oh, nice. Okay, so this is around lunchtime. One of my kids has a pink card for an English class phone call. After that, I actually put lunch on the schedule. Honestly, I think everyone needs reminders to eat and practice self-care during times like these.

There are also cards for quiet time — something we often forget in our normally busy lives. Other cards include things like playing musical instruments, exercising outside, building Legos, and similar activities.”

“And why do you have them plan the night before? By the way, there’s a lot of research showing that planning the night before makes people more effective.”

“I guess that’s how I approach my own days. I try not to obsess over the next day, but I do like to put a few placeholders in my mind about what’s expected and what I’m anticipating. That way, there are fewer surprises and less stress.

If the kids participate in planning the night before, they wake up already having a sense of what the day will look like. There’s less rushing around wondering, ‘What am I supposed to be doing?’”

“Awesome. And since you have younger kids, this might look different for people with older kids. They might plan a whole week at a time or combine a weekly plan with a daily schedule. I think using both together is really powerful.

At the beginning of the pandemic, I talked about how important it is to have a visual weekly plan, and combining that with a daily plan can be incredibly effective.

So, Julie, if you had a magic wand and could give parents one final takeaway, what would it be?”

“I’d say: embrace creativity. At first, I created a rigid schedule because I’m naturally a very regimented person, but that didn’t work for my kids. It doesn’t work for everyone.

So I constantly remind myself to stay creative and flexible, even within structure. That’s probably my biggest takeaway.”

“Yeah, and I think there’s a lot of room for creativity with this system. One thing parents could do is let kids decorate the cards — drawing little icons for reading, art, lunch, and so on. They could even cut pictures out of magazines and glue them onto the cards to make them more visual for artistic kids.

Julie, thank you so much. I hope this helps people. If it does, leave a comment and tell us your ideas or thoughts about it. We really appreciate you.”

“Thank you. I appreciate your community.”

“Alright, thanks, Julie.”