Routines
Duration/age

Children often love to help around the home. Establishing regular routines and ways for completing tasks helps them to be involved in the everyday activities you do as a family.
You might be surprised to discover just how much your child will enjoy taking part in your family's everyday routines.
Get together as a family and brainstorm different types of routines. Some routines might be for things that you do every day and other routines might be weekly or just every now and then. Make a list of all the routines you have, group them into daily, weekly or sometimes. Look at the daily routines with your child and talk about which ones they might like to take responsibility for, such as brushing their teeth, getting ready for bed or getting dressed in the morning.
Once your child has chosen the routine that they want to be responsible for, explore together what it involves and when it will happen. Depending on how old your child is, they may be able to complete the task on their own or they might need some support. If they do need support you could create a visual schedule of the activity using photos that you have taken or you could make a storybook together about how to complete the task.
Materials you will need
- Paper
- Pen
Alternative tools
- Glue
- Camera
- iPhone
Why does this matter?
When children are involved in the set-up and following of family routines they are learning to follow direction, listen to instructions and to predict what will happen next. As they do this they learn that a routine is regular, planned and that it will happen in the same order each time. Understanding how events are ordered helps children to transition from one activity or experience to the next.
By planning and following routines, children are experimenting with ordering, sorting and grouping using time and frequency.