Sample Children’s Schedule You Can Follow At Home
With summer winding down and talk of back to school ramping up, August is often the month that parents start to think about transitioning their child(ren) from a loose, go-with-the-flow summer schedule to a more structured one for the fall.
Not sure how to best structure the day for your child? Here is a sample schedule you can tweak to suit your individual family’s needs and begin to implement now to better prepare everyone for when back to school/daycare time comes in September.
SAMPLE SCHEDULE
7 / 7:30 a.m. Wake up and eat breakfast
8:00 a.m. Get ready for the day (toileting, teeth brushing, dressing, etc.)
8:30 a.m. Indoor play (creative play with toys, dramatic, sensory, crafts, cooking/baking, music/movement)
9:30 a.m. Snack
10:15 a.m. Outdoor play
11:30 a.m. Lunch
12:00 p.m. Nap or quiet play for older children (reading, colouring, activity books, puzzles, etc.)
2:30 p.m. Snack
3:00 p.m. Indoor or outdoor play
5:00 p.m. Dinner
7:00 p.m. Bedtime routine (bath, teeth brushing, pajamas, books, quiet snuggles, etc.)
7:30 / 8:00 p.m. Sleep
If your schedule has been very loose this summer, don’t fret! Summer is the time to let things go a little and have some fun. When you’re ready to get back to a more structured routine, start slow so everyone has a chance to adjust. This sample schedule can be easily adapted to suit children of any age and allows for flexibility.
Schedules aren’t meant to be rigid, but rather are meant to provide structure for a child’s day so they know what is coming next, which actually takes stress off of them. While it might not always seem like it, children enjoy structure and thrive off of routine so a simple daily schedule that allows them to predict what comes next actually makes them calmer, more relaxed and makes transitions and independence much easier for them, and thus for you!
So don’t feel like you’re taking their summer fun away by starting a schedule, you’re actually doing a favour the whole family will reap the rewards of!
