After writing this post, I got a tremendously helpful comment from Granola Girl of End of Ordinary. Because of her, I made the item pictured above.

I had made schedules for Ana before, but never picture schedules, and never ones that could change the way this one does. For example, we had a school schedule, but what about errand days? Weekends? Park days? I made this out of construction paper and poster board and some packing tape, with about 10 cards of the major things in her life: breakfast, getting dressed, quiet time, cleanups, going out, etc. The pocket on the side stores the cards that aren't in use.

I had a difficult time deciding how many events to allow her to see at once. Should she see the whole day? Half the day? I decided eight items was enough for a 6 year old to cope with, and we do the schedule twice a day. First thing in the morning I help her do her own schedule, and then after lunch we do it again, taking out the things she's done. So far, it has really helped her deal with all kinds of issues.

For example, getting dressed is usually a 2-3 hour process that involves lots of crying. Today she only changed her clothes 3 times, cried once and got dressed in something reasonably presentable, lol. Then she had breakfast. Amazing!

Thanks so much for the great idea Granola Girl! :)