Morning Routine Chart Maker

How to make a morning routine chart with pictures

1. Add your child's name. It goes on the ribbon under the title ("Let's start the day, Leo!"), and that small bit of ownership does more than you'd think.
2. Pick an age. The chart fills with starting steps for ages 2 to 3, 4 to 5, 6 to 8, or 9 and up. Treat them as a first draft, not a rule.
3. Make the steps yours. Rename any step, tap its picture to swap it, drag the steps into the order your mornings really run, or add one from the ideas. Up to 12 steps fit on one page.
4. Pick a look and print. Sunny rows is a classic checklist with big pictures; the game board turns every step into a card with a sticker spot. Download the PDF on A4 or Letter paper.

Nothing is locked. This is a free, editable morning routine chart, so when mornings change (a new school, a new baby, an earlier bus) you change the chart and print it again. Your last chart stays saved in this browser, and the share link opens it exactly as you left it.

A morning routine chart for toddlers and preschoolers

Little kids can't read the chart, and they don't need to. On a morning routine chart for toddlers the picture is the instruction: a toothbrush means teeth, a shoe means shoes. Three things help it land:

• One action per step. "Get dressed" is one step for a 5-year-old. A 2-year-old does better with fewer, bigger steps and a grown-up close by.
• The same order every day. Predictability is the whole trick. Once the order is familiar, your child knows what comes next without asking you.
• Something good at the end. Breakfast, a song in the car, a hug at the door. A morning that ends well gets started more willingly.

These are the starting steps the maker suggests for each age. A morning routine chart for preschoolers lands around eight steps; big kids get steps they can run on their own.

• Ages 2 to 3: Wake up, potty time, wash your hands, get dressed, eat breakfast and brush your teeth.
• Ages 4 to 5: Wake up, use the toilet, wash your hands, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush your teeth, put on your shoes and off to school!
• Ages 6 to 8: Wake up, make your bed, use the toilet, wash your hands, brush your teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast, pack your backpack, put on your shoes and off to school!
• Ages 9 and up: Up on time, make your bed, wash your face, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush your teeth, pack your lunch, check your backpack and out the door.

Use it as a morning checklist or a visual schedule

The same steps print three ways, so go with what suits your child:

• A morning checklist. Sunny rows prints a box next to every step. Slip the page into a plastic sleeve, and your child ticks the boxes with a dry-erase marker and wipes them clean for tomorrow.
• A game board. Each step becomes a card with a star to color or a spot for a sticker, plus an "All done!" box at the bottom. Kids who love a finish line love this one.
• A morning routine visual schedule. Prefer cards your child can move? The visual schedule maker prints every step as a picture card to cut out. Stick them on a strip with Velcro dots, and your child moves each card to "done" as they go.

Mornings are one part of the day. Make the matching bedtime routine chart, or put morning, after school and bedtime on one page with the daily routine chart. For the school-morning side of things, like wake-up times, night-before prep and sample timings, read our guide to the school-morning routine that ends the 7 a.m. scramble.