I’m not sure what it was about Ivy turning three that changed her behavior, but it did. The term “threenager” is a very real thing, folks. And I keep trying to tell myself it will get better, but it hasn’t. So we needed a change and I’m hoping these routine and behavior cards will help.
At this age, Ivy’s becoming more independent and doesn’t like the idea of mom and dad always helping. She’s also enjoying pushing the limits to see what she can get away with. For instance, how many times can she run away from me at bedtime before I just throw my hands up and say, “ok, miss independent, you can put yourself to bed”.
Why Routine and Behavior Cards?
Well what three-year-old doesn’t love a challenge? The way I’m going to approach it is that we’ll see how many cards she can successfully earn in one day. I’ll likely provide some type of reward if she earns so many cards in a given week. It won’t be anything big – think an ice cream date or something along those lines.
The Routine and Behavior Cards I Chose
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Initially I thought about creating my own routine cards but quickly realized my graphic design skills aren’t advanced enough to design what I was envisioning. And I couldn’t find artwork I could buy that worked with my vision either. So I turned to Etsy and found some cards that did the job and weren’t expensive.
The cards I chose are from Little Graphics and are available for girls, boys or gender neutral color themes. They also come in medium and large sizes and are editable. I went with the large sized cards because they reminded me more of large playing cards. This set comes with 80 cards that fit into the routine, chores, behavior and activities categories. I won’t introduce all of the cards at once, just the areas we need to focus on most (routine and behavior) right now.
Other Routine and Behavior Cards and Chart Options
If you don’t need as robust of a selection, or the ones I selected don’t fit your taste, here’s a few other options to choose from. These are all available on Etsy and require you print and cut yourself.
- Routine-only cards (morning, afternoon, evening) by DaysWithDesign
- Routine and activities only by DaysWithDesign
- Routine cards by DabbleInk
- Chore cards with points by AmyJKids
There are other options that are already printed and ready to use that I found, in case you’re not interested in doing it yourself. The below options were a few I liked:
How I Plan to Use Our Cards
I will secure two envelopes to the wall in Ivy’s room. One envelope will hold all of the cards for the beginning of the day and the other will be where she can place the cards she completed. Additionally, I plan to create a daily tracker to put next to the envelopes so we can track how she did each day.
As I mentioned above, I have yet to decide what the reward system will look like. That’s probably going to be something I decide after we figure out how well this system works and if we need to make any changes to our approach.
Have you used routine or behavior cards with your kids? Did you find that it helped at all? If you have any success stories, leave me a comment below!
This is such a cute idea! I hope it works well for your daughter. 🙂
Thank you! I sure hope it does, too! 🙂