Back to School Routine Charts & Giveaway!!

For those of us Down Under, "Back to School" preparations are well under way, with less than two weeks to go until school is back in session after a long summer holiday. The sheer length of the holidays means that many routines that are regularly in place during the year have well and truly fallen by the way side by the time school is ready to go back.

I have written before about how Stephen thrives on a regular routine, and have found using a picture routine chart really helps to give him structure to his day. Over the holidays we stopped using it as we succumbed to lazy days, but now that school is soon to be on us, it's time for a rejig. For the new year, I have moved his routine chart to the playroom, underneath our daily calendar, and included a new chart for Irini now that she is nearly 3 and about to start pre-kindy. The new set up is in the pic at the top. I also included some frames around the boards to showcase some of their art (there are two larger frames just out of the shot). The great thing about a picture routine chart is that they are suitable for pre-readers and readers alike.

The plan for the charts is to have a calendar session each morning after breakfast, where we will go through the days of the week, the date, and what each of the kids has on their chart for the day. This will hopefully give them some rhythm to the week, and help them to start understanding the concept of calendars and dates.

If you want to start a picture routine for your child now that school is going back, then make sure you enter this fantastic giveaway courtesy of Little Billies, the company that I bought my routine charts from. Little Billies offers a full range of personalised routine charts and reward charts for both toddlers and school age children in a range of fun designs available from their website, as well as a range of non-personalised charts available from a range of stockists nationally.

Little Billies has offered one lucky winner this fantastic Morning & Evening Routine Chart.

This chart is perfect for establishing a morning and nightly routine for a toddler, reinforcing an established routine for a pre-schooler, and helping a school age child take responsibility for packing their own bag in the morning based on what activities have been placed on the chart. The chart includes the magnetic activity tiles with a clear picture and the written description of the activity, which is wonderful for helping those children who are developing their reading skills. What I really love about this chart is the ability for child to slide the completed tasks from the to-do section of the chart to the tasks completed section. This is a wonderful way to instill a sense of accomplishment in your child.

If you would like to win this amazing routine chart, then enter now!

To enter:

• Visit Little Billies and let me know your favourite routine chart design

You can gain extra entries by doing any (or all) of the following (please leave a comment for each one you do!). If you already do any of the below, make sure to leave a comment, since that counts too!

• Leave a comment describing how you instill routines with your children
  
• Subscribe to Chic Mummy by email or by RSS
  
• Follow my blog publicly on Google Friends Connect
  
• Blog about this giveaway and link to this post - leave your link in the comment
  
• Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway. Feel free to copy this tweet:

RT @chic_mummy Enter to win a Little Billies Routine Chart! http://bit.ly/dZgaJU #giveaway

Giveaway ends January 29th.

Disclaimer: Giveaway prize has been provided by Little Billies.