Draw the curtains

About this visual support

You draw the curtains open and the light pours in, but the child in the bed is nowhere near as ready as the day outside. The step from dark and safe to bright and active can feel abrupt.

That is why it is worth making the opening its own step that the child recognises. When the curtain picture comes first in the morning order, the child knows what is coming, and the light becomes an expected part of waking rather than something that switches on without warning. One idea is to open a little at a time on the mornings it is hard, or to let the child draw one curtain while you take the other, so the big step splits into two smaller ones.

Over time the bright square in the window becomes a signal the body links with the day beginning. If you want to place the first step of the morning in an order the child recognises, you can build it in the Routined app, which you try for fourteen days before anything costs.