Goodness knows that my older son is a schedule-kid.  He thrives on routine and repetitiveness.  He also has a tough time handling transitions or change, typically when he isn’t prepared for them.  Here are some tips we use to make transitions easier.

  1. Time is on your side - I always prepare my son for a change by letting him know it is coming in a matter of time.  For instance, I may tell him that we are leaving the house in four minutes to go to school, and he knows that he needs to be getting ready.  I sometimes have to give him a countdown (three minutes, two minutes, etc), especially if he is really involved in something else.  However, he has enough sense of time to understand the concept.
  2. Routines really work - by keeping our routine each morning and evening relatively the same, we eliminate many of the factors that could lead to a breakdown.  My son knows the “order” of the morning: breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth, comb hair, etc.  Even during the summer, we try to stick with the routine to simply make our day start out on a good note.
  3. Put some fun in the task at hand - with my younger son, we hold lots of “races” - races to brush our teeth, races to pick up the trains, races to get dressed.  He loves to do anything that resembles a game, so making it something simple yet fun is so much better than simply putting the toys away.
  4. No room for backtalk - arguing about a transition or a task is simply not allowed in our house, and that goes for adults as well as children.  When the arguing begins, I simply state, “You have two choices: do what I asked you to do or sit in that chair for three minutes to get ready to do what I asked you to do.  Which would you like to do?”  My child still has a choice, but in the end, he will complete the task!