Prepare the Friday treat
Waiting for something you are looking forward to is heavier to carry than plain boredom, and Friday evening feels impossibly far away at breakfast. The pictures below turn the preparations into something that happens now.
♀Mixing the Friday treat
A woman in an apron stirs chocolate batter in a bowl beside sprinkles and a tray of cookies.
About this visual support
Anticipation is powerful and uncomfortable at the same time. A child who knows the Friday treat is coming carries that knowledge all day, asks about the time twenty separate times, and gets more wound up the closer the evening creeps. Waiting for something good is harder to sit with than waiting for nothing at all.
The preparations are the answer. Once the popcorn is measured out, the blankets are carried in and the bowls are on the table, waiting has turned into doing, and time passes without anyone having to hold it. The visual support shows which preparations belong to the evening and in what order, so the child can start without asking.
Let the child own one part outright: setting out the bowls, mixing the seasoning, or picking the film from three pictures. Real responsibility gives the excitement somewhere to go. In the Routined app the whole Friday preparation can sit as a recurring routine that appears at the same time each week, confirming that today really is the day.
Use this image in a schedule
Build your own visual schedule with this image and download it as a print-ready PDF. Completely free.
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Take the visual supports with you
In Routined you build schedules from these pictures, add timers and voice instructions, and your child follows the day on their own.
* 14-day free trial included for new users.