Summer morning routine

About this visual support

Without school, the engine of the morning disappears. Teeth still need brushing, clothes still need putting on and breakfast still needs eating, but nothing forces any of it to happen at a particular hour. The usual result is that the steps spread out across the whole morning, and someone is still in pyjamas when lunch starts to approach.

Visual support in summer therefore serves a different purpose than during term time. It is not about being on time but about keeping an order the body already recognises. The same pictures as in March, only without clock times: when the sequence survives the break, going back to school mornings in August is far less dramatic, because nothing has to be relearned from scratch.

Tie the last picture to something the child wants to do outdoors, the bike, the lake or the friend next door. The morning routine then becomes the way to get there rather than an obstacle in front of it. In Routined you can keep a summer version of the morning alongside the school version and switch between them, with fourteen days to try at no cost.