Practical Daily Schedules For Kids That Make Life Easier

Inside: Kids thrive when they have a routine and predictability in their day. Here are daily schedules for kids to use for being at home when school is in session or for a homeschool daily schedule.

With a schedule and routine, comes calm.

At least this is what I have found to be true in my own home as well as what I’ve come across in the research.

Having daily schedules for kids doesn’t just bring calm, but it also helps kids with time management skills, focus, and attention skills, and feel a sense of stability and safety amongst a slew of other things I break down in this “routines for kids” post.

When the brain feels safe, it can grow and change in a healthy and positive way.

According to an article on Melbourne Child Psychology, “In what some researchers have described as an ‘epidemic of anxiety’, the predictability and familiarity that comes with routine offer the perfect ‘safe space’ that kids need.”

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I know there are some naysayers out there who have even gone the lengths to create memes about how routine charts are so overrated.

This simply is not true.

We know from years and years of research and many studies on the topic, that having daily schedules for kids is extremely beneficial.

This is an excerpt from the abstract for the research document titled, “The Importance of Creating Habits and Routine,” by Katherine Arlinghaus and Craig Johnston:

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away. This popular expression indicates that apples are good for one’s health, and highlights the importance of routinely eating them. Often the message individuals take away from the apple-a-day health advice is to eat more apples. However, perhaps the more important take away message is to eat nutritious foods regularly. The term lifestyle change inherently means that changes are made such that they can be followed for the lifetime of an individual. Implementation of a lifestyle change implies that a routine is followed and habits are formed. A healthy lifestyle includes habitual consumption of nutritious foods, regular physical activity, and consistent sleep.”

Have a I convinced you yet? *wink wink*

Daily Schedules For Kids May Feel Too Hard To Implement

For some people, implementing a daily routine comes naturally.

However, for many, it feels daunting.

It may feel like it’s just way too much work so they don’t even try. If you fall into the latter group, I want to give you hope.

Setting up and keeping a daily schedule for kids doesn’t have to be hard AT ALL…with the right tools. Sooo guess what?! I am providing you the very tools you need in this post.

At the beginning of summer, I wrote about the benefits of routines and schedules as kids have a lot more unstructured time out of school. The daily schedules were such a big hit that I decided to make some slight changes so you can use them for your everyday life. Also, many schools are not reopening this Fall, so you can utilize what works best for the situation you are in.

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Daily Schedules For Kids

I love all the different ways you can develop and maintain a daily routine. Some families prefer a block schedule where they chunk their day into the same themed blocks every day. For others, a daily checklist works better.

The key is to discuss what your kids want their days to look like. Get their input! A great time to do this is during Family Meetings. It may take some trial and error, but remember, do what WORKS for you!

In fact, we have a schedule as part of our Family Meeting Agenda (my most popular printable that you can grab here for free when you sign up for the Raising Kids With Purpose Newsletter).

We first go over rules or other topics that came up during the week that we want to change or expand on. Then we go over our weekly schedule. Within our schedule are our built-in daily routines which include the same tasks for morning, after school and bedtime.

Not only are we bringing more calm to all of our lives, we’re spending less mental energy on things we do every day. There sure is power in creating habits!

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Daily Schedules For Kids – Block Style

This kind of schedule and routine is a big hit for many families. The reason is that there is flexibility paired with predictability. It sure helps me be more productive when I chunk my days into sections. I mean, schools have been doing this for eons so it’s about time we parents caught on!

I created a blank schedule and also one filled in with this basic block schedule for kids who are in school during a big chunk of the day:

• 8:00am – 9:00am (Block 1): MORNING ROUTINE – Get dressed, eat, brush teeth, get ready for the day
• 9:00am – 2:00pm (Block 2): SCHOOL  
• 2:00pm – 4:00pm (Block 4:): ENERGY BUSTER – Go somewhere to play, jump, run and have fun!
• 4:30pm – 6:00pm (Block 5): DINNER – Prepare and eat dinner then clean up after dinner.
• 6:00pm – 8:00pm (Block 6): BEDTIME ROUTINE – Hang out, read, prepare for bedtime.

Lastly, here is a block schedule for families with kids who are not yet in school or have more flexibility because of homeschooling:

• 7:00am – 9:00am (Block 1): MORNING ROUTINE – Get dressed, eat, brush teeth, get ready for the day
• 9:00am – 12:00pm (Block 2): FUN ACTIVITY – Go somewhere fun or plan something to do at home on days you don’t feel like going anywhere. 
• 12:00pm – 1:00pm (Block 3): LUNCH & CLEAN – Eat and clean up the kitchen.
• 1:00pm – 4:00pm (Block 4:): QUIET TIME – Nap, rest, quiet or room time.
• 4:00pm – 6:00pm (Block 5): DINNER – Prepare and eat dinner then clean up after dinner.
• 6:00pm – 8:00pm (Block 6): BEDTIME ROUTINE – Hang out, read, prepare for bedtime.

Daily Checklist For Kids

These types of daily schedules for kids is especially beneficial for kids ages 10 and up. They may not want to follow a specific routine, but we parents want to make sure their brains and bodies are getting all they need in a day.

If you have a pre-teen or teenager who is doing distance learning on a computer all day or is drawn to wanting to only be glued to a screen, this checklist should help! It can even be used to be completed BEFORE playing video games or getting on a device.

Here are the items that they should complete every single day:

• Personal Care | Basic hygiene
• Contributions | Chores, helping a sibling, help prepare meals
• Learning | Some kind of school such as homeschooling, unschooling, going to a school building or staying at home on a computer
• Mind Care | Mindfulness, gratitude practice, breathing exercises
• Exercise | MOVE!
• Connection | Hang with family or friends, talk on the phone, FaceTime
• PLAY! | Have some kind of fun

Daily To-Do Schedule

Again, this is a great kind of schedule for a child who is 10 years old or older and is developing more advanced time management skills.

This is what I personally use to go over my day each morning. We have our weekly schedule and daily routines and then I have my personal daily “To Do” sheet that I fill out so I don’t forget any appointments or scheduled events. It just helps me plan my day before it starts.

Basic Weekly Schedule

This schedule came in handy over the summer since we didn’t really know what we were going to do every day especially with so many places closed.

This is very simple to use. I suggest laminating it so you can write with a dry erase marker to reuse over and over again.

At the beginning of the week, you would simply write in what you have going on for the week. With school being in session, the schedule may remain the same most weeks with a few events or activities to fill in as they come up.

Homeschool Daily Schedule

Lastly, I wanted to share with you what we used for our daily homeschool schedule when we had stay-at-home orders.

This homeschool schedule can be used for any kind of school at home. Our kids go to a school called Prenda so we took their basic structure and adapted it to homeschool.

Having a schedule like this gave us a framework to follow. This can work well if you are teaching or are using an online program or doing distance learning.

I also created a homeschool daily schedule for regular homeschooling.

Here are instructions on how to use this daily homeschool schedule:

1. Print out each week (or print once and laminate so you can reuse it!)
2. Write down what subjects, tasks, activities you are doing for each hour
3. Your kids, check off when they complete it for the day!

I know one of the attractive qualities of homeschool is all the flexibility you can have in your day. However, as mentioned above and in this post about summer schedules and this post about morning and evening routines, having a schedule will increase your child’s learning experience.

Get Your Free Daily Schedules for Kids Here

You can all these daily schedules for kids and home school daily routine charts for free when you sign up for the Raising Kids With Purpose Newsletter. Fill out the form below or click on the image.

What Kind of Schedule Do You Use?

What kind of schedule or routine does your family follow? I would love to know so I can create more helpful tools!

Also, please share this post to parent friends and families!