by Brian
“The only reason I’m coming out here tomorrow is because the schedule says I have to.”
Sparky Anderson, MLB Player and Manager
Schedules are beneficial for most of us, but absolutely critical for Dylan and Jolee. If left on their own, Dylan and Jolee would only do preferred tasks such as Wii or drawing. Needless to say, chores and appointments would be quickly neglected. We also found that a lack of knowing exact times that things needed to occur caused a lot of unnecessary stress.
When Dylan and Jolee first moved into their apartment, we tried to give complete control of their schedules to them with just verbal reminders of what needed to be accomplished. This did not work. So on to the next option.
They are both visual people, so we set up large wall-mounted dry erase boards to help them stay on task and productive. We worked together to create their weekly schedule. Since we didn’t want to remove their independence, the kids were provided the tasks that needed to be accomplished that week plus any appointments. It was then up to them to decide the day and time that they would perform these tasks. To improve the functionality of the schedules, we also purchased small circular two-sided magnets. One side of the magnet is green with a smiley face while the other is red with, you guessed it, a frowning face. We found these schedules useful to add structure to the kid’s day and the dry erase part made it easy to add, delete, or swap days or times for key activities. Putting together the perfect schedule was not only helpful for Dylan and Jolee, but also a good scorecard for us when we stop over. At a glance, we can see whether the day is green or red and a given activity is done vs. incomplete. I find there is something very pleasing about crossing an item off the to-do list or in this case moving a green smiley face next to a recently completed task. Even better is flipping a red frowny face over to green. Makes me smile, how about you?
