Maintaining a Schedule for Your Child

There is lots of buzz online about how to fill your child's day while he/she is out of school. All of these ideas are great and creative! In addition to keeping your child scheduled and busy, it is also important that they know what to expect. This includes schedules and activities, but also basic changes like who will be watching them. Visual schedules (a list or a big desk top calendar) are great tools to tell AND show kids what each day might look like. This is especially important if most of your days will be different; for example, "Tomorrow you will stay with your Aunt. I will drop you off around 8am and your grandmother will pick you up at 4pm. She will stay with you until I get home and then we can make dinner together and watch a movie" Review the plans for the next day each night so that is one less thing your child has to worry about before going to sleep. It also gives them the chance to ask any questions they may have. Older kids can handle looking ahead at several days at once while younger children may do better just thinking about one day at a time.  

~Dr. Sam