My daughter Kara was excited to start a morning school program. Unfortunately, that excitement faded as I struggled to get her and her younger sister out the door each day. To encourage Kara's independence, I made a "Good Morning Chart."
I took photos of Kara doing each of her morning tasks, such as making her bed, washing her face and getting dressed. I made the photos into tags and hung them from two sticky hooks I affixed to colorful poster board. I put the words "I did it!" above the second hook.
Now Kara goes to her chart each morning, looks at a picture of herself brushing her teeth and heads to the sink. She beams with a sense of accomplishment as she moves the tag from the first hook to the "I did it" hook and considers her next task.
This article originally appeared in the May/June 2010 issue
of Thriving Family
magazine. Copyright © 2010 by Tonya Wilhelm.
Used by permission. ThrivingFamily.com.