Pocket Chart Schedule

I've learned a few things over the years and one of them is learning to recognize when I am reaching my breaking point. I could feel the frustration building and knew that I needed something to help. I came up with the idea to have more structure in our lives by using a daily schedule. My goal was for this to help with a few things:

• Less meltdowns from Matthew. Matthew's meltdowns are not out of control, he is just very emotional (crying, whining, etc.) Every time I ask Matthew to do something it was a fight. Getting dressed, going to the bathroom, putting shoes on, giving me a few minutes of time to myself, whatever. So I was hoping that being able to show him in a concrete way the flow of our day would help. Matthew usually responds well to these type of things. Having something he can look at and talk through solves many a problem. My sister also suggested incorporating more choices into his life to help him exert his independence. So he gets to help me decide what types of things he wants to do throughout the day. 
•  Almost always when life with Matthew gets frustrating its because he needs more challenge in his life; he is ready to go to the next level. I knew that Matthew was ready to start doing some preschool type activities but wasn't sure how I wanted to incorporate it into our day. Usually we found ourselves simply wandering through each day. Now we can easily make time to do all of the things I want to do with him. They don't have to take long and be really involved, since he isn't quite old enough for that anyways. I can plan activities ahead of time the night before, or I can just wing it. But this can help give some purpose and direction to my days, as well as allowing Matthew to learn and explore and engage in new and exciting ways.

So Monday morning I was charged with resolution to try this new system and have more fulfilling days. I went to the store to buy my pocket chart and they didn't have what I was looking for. I did find some other fantastic things in the dollar section at Target though. (see later in post) So I ended up ordering my chart online, and had to wait for it to arrive. It took me longer to make up the cards than I anticipated, but Matthew can identify almost all of them so I think the time was worth it. Thursday was the day for my package to come and oh how I needed it. Thursday was one of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days. Without going into detail I will just say I reached that breaking point I had felt coming on. But pulling myself together I got the chart all ready to go for Friday morning. Granted, we have only really used it for one day, but it was a FABULOUS day! I think the best part was that because I set aside specific times to do things with Matthew (and Koyle) I wasn't bored or frustrated while doing it, AND Matthew was happy to play on his own when it was time for me to get something done. Problem solved. Hopefully it will continue to bring happy times into our lives. Here are some pictures of what we did on Friday:

 For art we used some of those foam stickers that I found at Target in the dollar bin. Matthew LOVES these things (they used to do them in nursery all the time) and he had been begging me to open them. I am going to try and incorporate Koyle into as many of the activities we do as possible.

 Top Left: Matthew's Top Right: Koyle's Bottom: Mine : )

 For math we did some counting. I put different (mostly) edible items in a muffin tin. We counted how many things were in each tin, and then we counted 1-10 pointing to each cup as we went. Then the boys got to eat all the yummy treats!

 This is a picture of our chart. I have about 40 different cards to choose from as well as some blank ones. The key to this for us is FLEXIBILITY. We do not strictly live by this. When we need it, it is there for us. And if we want to deviate or change our plans, then we do! This has also helped with bedtime. The first night Matthew looked at it and said, "we put on our jammies, we read our scriptures, we said our prayers." Then he paused and I said, "now what?" "Bedtime" he replied with a sigh. And then he went right to bed.