Morning check list saves the day

Difficulty: Easy

How many mornings have you had when you are clambering out of the front door of your house with children following behind screaming “….but you haven’t done my hair” or morning conflicts in the bathroom between siblings because one of them looked at the other in the wrong way. For some of us, far too many times.

Thinking about how to tackle this situation (specifically with a tween mind you), I decided to evolve an approach we once used to teach our younger child on morning routines where we had a metal board and magnets for each task for the morning. Rather than a physical board I went digital and created a checklist on her phone.

I used Apple Notes created from Mac for the checklist but similar steps could be applied to any software that does check list bullet items including from an Apple iPhone.

Steps

Step 1: Come up with the morning tasks

1. Using a piece of paper write down the tasks for the morning

2. It is recommended to sit with your child and come up with this list together as he/she will feel more part of the process and more likely to adopt it

3. If your morning a complicated and you need some non-negotiables then come up with a draft list and sit with him/her.

4. Re-assure your child that the list and order can change after having done it for a few days

Step 2: Create the List(s)

The step create the list in your Note (as a parent) which is then shared with your child. You can also simply create the list in your child’s Notes

You also can decide if you need two lists e.g. one if taking a shower or not

1. Open up Notes on your Macbook

2. Enter a heading at the top of the note “Morning Routine Checklist”

3. Click the “Make a Checklist” button

4. Add an emoji to make it more visual and fun looking:

   1. Position your cursor at the beginning of your list and press the control + command + space buttons. This will present a searchable list of emoji’s

   2. Select an emoji that is relevant to the task e.g. Sun for waking up

5. Start typing in the tasks for the morning on separate lines (simply press enter for a new check button)

Step 3: Add a banner (Optional)

To add a little more flare to the list you can create your own banner. These steps use https://flamingtext.com/logo/Design-Banner but there are many other sites you can find that will do something similar.

1. Browse to https://flamingtext.com/logo/Design-Banner (there are many other sites you can find that will do something similar)

2. Enter the following fields

3. Select the Text Tab:

   1. Logo Text = Morning Routine Checklist

   2. Font = Rounded

4. Select the Logo Tab

   1. Text Mode = Color

   2. Text Color = Select a preferred color

5. Select the Background Tab

   1. Select a color

6. Click the Next button

7. Click the Download button

8. Drag the downloaded image to the top of the Notes

Step 4: Share the note with your child

1. Click the “add. more people to this note” icon

2. Select the Messages option of sending the note

3. Click Share

4. Enter the Apple ID for you child

5. Click Send