Key takeaways
- A bedtime routine chart lists 4 to 6 steps in a fixed order, such as packing the backpack, bath, pajamas, brushing teeth, a book and lights out, and hangs where the routine happens so your child can follow it without reminders.
- The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends 10 to 13 hours of sleep per 24 hours for ages 3 to 5 (including naps) and 9 to 12 hours for ages 6 to 12. Bedtime is wake-up time minus your child’s sleep need.
- The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends turning off all screens at least 1 hour before bedtime and keeping TVs, tablets and phones out of kids’ bedrooms, especially at night.
- Routines change with age: at 3–5 parents walk through every step with picture cards, at 6–9 kids work through a checklist mostly on their own, and at 10–12 parents only set the frame, such as lights-out time.
A bedtime routine chart is a short list of steps, usually four to six, that your child follows in the same order every night, from after dinner to lights out, hung where the routine happens. A morning routine chart does the same from waking up to walking out the door. Both take the daily negotiating out of the routine because you stop announcing every step, and the evening chart protects the sleep kids need. They work best with a bedtime based on wake-up time minus sleep need and a screen-free last hour.
Below you’ll find routines by age, a sample schedule with times, a bedtime and a morning routine chart template to copy, a weekly chart for kids, steps to introduce it and what to do when the routine falls apart over summer break or the clock change.
Why do routines help kids at bedtime and in the morning?
Routines help kids and parents because a fixed sequence is predictable and doesn’t have to be renegotiated every day. On its parenting site HealthyChildren.org, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says the same wake-up time on weekdays and weekends, along with regular mealtimes, nap times and play times, helps children feel secure and comfortable. For young children it suggests a simple routine: brush, book, bed.
The second reason is sleep. In 2016 the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) published a consensus statement, based on a review of 864 scientific articles, on how much sleep children need per 24 hours:
| Age | Recommended sleep per 24 hours (AASM) |
|---|---|
| 1–2 years | 11–14 hours, including naps |
| 3–5 years | 10–13 hours, including naps |
| 6–12 years | 9–12 hours |
| 13–18 years | 8–10 hours |
The CDC lists the same ranges for ages 3 to 12 on its sleep pages. Within each range, individual kids differ, so work out bedtime backward: wake-up time minus your child’s sleep need. A child who gets up at 7 a.m. and needs ten hours should be asleep by 9 p.m.
Bedtime routine chart by age: what changes from 3 to 12
A bedtime routine chart has to fit your child’s age: what a 4-year-old manages with picture cards and a parent alongside, a 10-year-old does alone and without a chart. The times in the table are rules of thumb from our editorial experience for a wake-up time between 6:30 and 7 a.m.; shift them with your own wake-up time.
| Ages 3–5 | Ages 6–9 | Ages 10–12 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steps per routine | 3–4 | 5–6 | as many as needed, the child plans |
| Chart format | Picture cards at eye level | Checklist with pictures or words | No chart, just anchors |
| Parent’s role | Walk through every step | Prompt, check briefly at the end | Set the frame (lights out, phone parking spot) |
| Wind-down in bed | 15–30 minutes of reading, a song | 15–20 minutes of reading aloud or alone | Reading alone, a short talk |
| Lights out (rule of thumb) | 7:00–8:00 p.m. | 7:30–8:30 p.m. | 8:30–9:30 p.m. |
| Mornings on their own | Getting dressed with help, clothes laid out | Dressing, breakfast, teeth, backpack | Setting an alarm, the whole morning |
For 3- to 5-year-olds, naps count toward the total. A child who still naps often goes to bed later, which is fine as long as the total adds up. The AAP also recommends keeping routines “portable” so they work at grandma’s house or on vacation: the same steps in the same order, wherever your child sleeps.
Sample bedtime and morning routine with times
This sample schedule is for a 7-year-old with school starting at 8 a.m. and a 15-minute walk or ride. It’s a starting point, not a standard; adjust the times to your family.
Morning routine (55 minutes)
| Time | Step |
|---|---|
| 6:45 | Wake up, lights on, bathroom |
| 6:50 | Get dressed (clothes laid out the night before) |
| 7:00 | Breakfast |
| 7:20 | Brush teeth, hair |
| 7:30 | Shoes, jacket, backpack (packed the night before) |
| 7:40 | Out the door |
Bedtime routine (from 6:30 p.m.)
| Time | Step |
|---|---|
| 6:00 | Dinner |
| 6:30 | Pack backpack, lay out clothes for tomorrow |
| 6:45 | Free time; no screens after 7:00 |
| 7:15 | Bath or wash up, pajamas |
| 7:30 | Brush teeth, bathroom |
| 7:35 | Reading in bed, together or alone |
| 7:55 | Short talk about the day, lights out at 8:00 |
From 8:00 p.m. to 6:45 a.m. is 10 hours and 45 minutes in bed, within the AASM range for ages 6 to 12. The trick is in the evening: everything that causes morning stress, clothes and backpack, moves to the night before. That leaves the morning with only what can’t be done in advance.
Pepp
Less reminding, more family time
In Pepp you set up recurring chores once – daily or on fixed weekdays. Your child sees what's due, and you stop chasing after them.
Screens before bed: how long before bedtime should they go off?
Screens should go off at least one hour before bedtime. The AAP recommends turning off all screens at least 60 minutes before bed and keeping TVs, computers, tablets and phones out of children’s bedrooms, especially at night. The CDC’s general sleep tips name 30 minutes as the minimum; for kids, the AAP’s hour is the better rule. How screen time limits fit together by age is covered in screen time rules for kids by age.
In practice, the screen cutoff is a fixed step on the bedtime routine chart, not a separate fight. In the sample above, that’s 7 p.m. For kids around 10 and up with their own phone, a phone parking spot outside the bedroom, where the device charges overnight, works well. It works best when it applies to the whole family.
Bedtime routine chart template
A bedtime routine chart is a list of steps with checkboxes, hung where the routine happens. Draw it on a letter-size sheet: steps on the left in the right order, days of the week across the top. For kids who can’t read yet, add a small picture in front of each step.
| Bedtime routine | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pack backpack | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | – | ☐ |
| Lay out clothes for tomorrow | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Bath or wash up, pajamas | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Brush teeth | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Read in bed | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
Morning routine chart for kids
A morning routine chart works the same way but hangs by the front door or coat hooks, where the morning ends. Keep it to four or five steps on school days.
| Morning routine | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Get dressed | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Eat breakfast | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Brush teeth | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Shoes, jacket, backpack | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
Checking boxes is a memory aid, not a performance review. If one step keeps getting stuck, a reward chart can help for a few weeks, but only for that one step and with a planned end. Brushing teeth and packing a backpack are basic responsibilities that stay unpaid; what kids can handle at each age is in the age-appropriate chores chart.
A weekly chart adds what only happens on certain days: swim practice on Tuesday, guitar on Thursday, library books on Friday, gym clothes on PE days. One row for “Activity,” one for “Pack” and one for “Job at home” (such as watering plants Monday, Wednesday and Friday) answers the question “What’s different today?” so your child can think of it while packing. Handing that kind of remembering to kids also lightens the family’s mental load.
Picture cards for kids who can’t read yet
Picture cards make a routine visible for kids from about 3 without any reading. Photos of your own child doing each step work best: brushing teeth, putting on pajamas, in bed with a book. Store-bought symbol cards work too, but kids recognize themselves faster.
How to set them up (editorial experience):
- No more than four cards per routine for 3- to 4-year-olds, five or six from about 5.
- Vertical, in order, on a ribbon or strip at your child’s eye level.
- The “done” trick: each card gets flipped over or tucked into a “done” pocket after the step. The next evening you flip them back together.
- Laminate them or use sheet protectors so they survive the bathroom.
How do you introduce a new routine?
A new routine usually needs two to three weeks of guidance before it runs without prompts (editorial experience). Start in a calm week, not the first week of school.
- Watch for three days. Note when your child actually falls asleep, when they wake up and where mornings and evenings get stuck. That’s your baseline.
- Set the wake-up time and count backward. Wake-up time minus sleep need gives lights-out time; before that, plan 45 to 60 minutes of bedtime routine, and before that, the screen-free hour.
- Choose the steps together. Sit down calmly with your child and agree on 4 to 6 steps in a fixed order. Let them decide where possible, like whether teeth or pajamas come first.
- Make the chart or picture cards. Your child draws, takes photos or decorates. The chart hangs where the routine happens.
- Walk through it together for two weeks. Guide each step and point to the chart instead of yourself: “What’s next?” instead of “Brush your teeth now!”
- Step back and adjust. From week three, join only for the reading. If one step keeps failing, change that step or its time, not the whole routine.
When routines fall apart: summer break, daylight saving, big changes
Routines tend to slip when the daily schedule shifts: during school breaks, around the clock change and with big changes like a new school, illness or a new sibling. That’s normal; the key is to keep the order even when the times move.
Summer break. Keep the bedtime routine in the same order, just later. The AAP recommends the same wake-up time on weekdays and weekends; over the summer, a shift of no more than about an hour keeps the rhythm stable (editorial experience). In the last week or two before school starts, move bedtime and wake-up time back in steps of about 15 minutes every one to two days.
Daylight saving time. When clocks fall back in November, many kids wake an hour “early” and get tired an hour early in the evening; in March it’s the other way around. Spread the hour over several days in 15- to 20-minute steps instead of switching all at once. Before the spring change, the AASM advises going to bed 15 or 20 minutes earlier each night for several nights.
Big changes. During illness or after a trip, the routine can shrink to teeth, pajamas, one story. Once everyday life is back, so is the full chart. If a routine hasn’t worked for weeks, start over as you did the first time: watch, choose, guide for two weeks.
Paper chart or app?
For the daily bedtime and morning routine, paper is usually the better choice: picture cards in the bathroom and a chart by the door are visible without a screen, which fits the screen-free hour before bed. The steps of a routine are basic responsibilities and stay unpaid.
An app becomes interesting when a weekly plan with changing activities and jobs for several kids gets hard to track. The family app Pepp can set up tasks as recurring quests, daily, weekly or on fixed weekdays like Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and your child sees in their own view what’s due today. Because quests in Pepp come with a reward in money or screen time, they suit real extra jobs on the weekly chart, not brushing teeth or packing a backpack.
Conclusion
A good bedtime routine chart and a calm morning routine come down to a few steps in a fixed order, a lights-out time based on wake-up time minus sleep need, and a screen-free last hour. The AASM recommends 10 to 13 hours of sleep including naps for ages 3 to 5 and 9 to 12 hours for ages 6 to 12. Move everything that causes morning stress to the night before, use picture cards for kids who can’t read yet, and add a weekly chart for what only happens on certain days. When the routine slips over summer or around daylight saving time, keep the order and only shift the times.
Frequently asked questions
What should be on a bedtime routine chart?
Four to six steps in the same order every night, getting calmer as bedtime gets closer: pack the backpack, screens off, bath or wash up, pajamas, brush teeth, book, lights out. For elementary schoolers the whole routine takes about 45 to 60 minutes. The order matters more than the length, because the same sequence every night is what makes it automatic.
What time should my child go to bed?
Count backward from wake-up time. A 7-year-old who gets up at 6:45 a.m. and needs about 10.5 to 11 hours of sleep should be asleep between roughly 7:45 and 8:15 p.m. The AASM recommends 9 to 12 hours per 24 hours for ages 6 to 12, and children’s needs within that range differ.
How long before bed should screens go off?
At least an hour. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends turning off all screens at least 60 minutes before bedtime and keeping devices out of bedrooms, especially at night. The CDC’s general sleep tips set the minimum at 30 minutes, so an hour is the safer rule for kids.
At what age does a routine chart work?
From about 3, using picture cards instead of words, since kids that age can follow a sequence. Until about 5, you walk through each step with them; in elementary school they increasingly work through the chart on their own. By about 10, most kids no longer need a chart, just fixed anchors like lights-out time.
How do you get back on track after summer break?
Shift bedtime and wake-up time back gradually during the last week or two of break, about 15 minutes every one to two days. It helps to keep the same bedtime routine order all summer, just later. The AAP recommends keeping the same wake-up time on weekdays and weekends.
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Sources
- American Academy of Sleep Medicine – Recommended Amount of Sleep for Pediatric Populations (Paruthi et al., J Clin Sleep Med 2016, PDF)
- American Academy of Pediatrics, HealthyChildren.org – Healthy Sleep Habits: How Many Hours Does Your Child Need?
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – About Sleep (recommendations by age and sleep tips)
- American Academy of Sleep Medicine – Minimize the effect of daylight saving time by adjusting your sleep schedule
Editorial note: figures and recommendations were checked against the primary sources linked here (legal texts, professional bodies, youth services). This guide is not legal or medical advice.
