After School Routine Clock DIY (For Parents)

Because establishing that after-school routine is just…HARD…

Once upon a time, a little video tutorial spread like wildfire across the internet. It’s from the uber-popular Kids Activities Blog,  and it’s about making an “after school routine clock” for your family.

Here’s what their clock looked like…

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The concept is that each hour after school is color-coded. You make the after school routine clock, then hang it on the wall with a key so that your family stays on track for your after school routine each day.

Great idea, right?!

You can grab one of these super inexpensive wall clocks from Amazon. I bought one, and when it arrived 48 hours later, I got to work on my clock.

And while I was coloring my after school routine clock, I got to thinking…

Remember that time I made a chore calendar?

Then there was the Pinterest-inspired behavior bingo game?

The ticket reward system…

the kindness jar…

the velcro-ed, laminated activities of daily living sequencing cards, customized with names and favorite colors??

All gone the way of the floppy disk. Just a long line of feeble attempts to rally a bit of support from the short people round the cause of ORDER or just a hint of CLEANLINESS. 

And here’s the reality bitch slap moment.

There will be NO order in this court, before school, after school, none of it.

Not today, and not after this darling routine clock is made.

The reality, in our household, is that no amount of craftiness is going to make the “putting one’s dirty underwear in the clothes hamper” task any more appealing. I can magnetize that order, color it with chalk pens…

I can even whip out the label maker and stick 260 point, bold font arrows along the exceedingly difficult terrain one must traverse in order to get the undies to the laundry hamper (i.e. the 6 feet stretch of our standard, nothing notable hallway).

And know what? I’d STILL be picking up those flipping undies.

I yield.

And with that, I decided that what we all needed wasn’t an after-school routine clock for the kids. What we needed was an after-school routine clock FOR US PARENTS.

Because parenthood is like controlled anarchy. And there’s no such thing as that.

We are like the Wicked Witch of the West in Munchkin Land, folks. We have no power here, and we best just be gone before somebody drops a house on us, too. Kinda feels like that’s happened already, but I digress.

So with that said, I give you:

The After School Routine Clock…

for parents.

Let’s DO this, guys! Watch the video, then make your clock!

Best of luck in Munchkin Land, friends. We’ll keep all you parent friends in our prayers. Please do the same. We all need all the help we can get, right?

Pin this project for later! And if you decide to try it, leave a comment on the pin! That helps others know whether they want to try it, too!