Go to the school bus

#school bus#school#morning#backpack#bus

The bus leaves when it leaves, whether or not the sock is on crooked and breakfast has overrun. The pictures below show what has to happen before you leave the house, so time becomes something you can both see rather than something you keep announcing.

A boy with a red backpack hurries toward a yellow school bus.

♂

Go to the school bus

A boy with a red backpack hurries toward a yellow school bus.

The school bus stops

A yellow school bus with children in the windows and an extended stop sign.

A smiling child with a blue backpack walks towards a yellow school bus, with an arrow pointing at the bus.

♀

Child walking towards the school bus

A smiling child with a blue backpack walks towards a yellow school bus, with an arrow pointing at the bus.

About this visual support

The school bus is one of the few things in a child's morning that cannot be negotiated with. A timetable makes no allowance for a sock sitting wrong or breakfast taking ten minutes longer than usual, and the adult doing the reminding easily becomes the face of all that pressure. The conflict is rarely about the bus; it is about time being invisible.

Visual support makes the clock concrete. A row of cards ending with the picture of the stop shows how many steps remain before departure, and a child can track their own position in the row instead of relying on instructions. Mark the step that is the last chance to turn back, shoes on for instance, so you both know when the discussion about extra items is over. Put the backpack by the door the night before, and the final picture of the morning is simply about walking.

The same sequence can live in Routined with pictures, a time and a reminder a few minutes before you need to be out. The pictures here are free to download, and the app can be tried for 14 days at no cost.