You could.

But often, we spend so much time trying to solve the problem that by the time our glorious velcro routine chart is actually done, we've lost the steam required to implement it.

Our founder has done all the work for you — ten years of work, in fact — coming up with the perfect system for your family.

The result is a system that might look simple, but has every single thing accounted for — including a fall-back for routine items or activities that you forgot.

After all, the last thing you want to do is spend a bunch of time DIYing something, paying to have it laminated, and then discovering you forgot something.

Plus, you can feel good that you're supporting a single mom's hard work.

“We've tried to create visual systems before, but we really struggled to pull systems together that we could see all the way through and stick with.” — Jessye

You may have downloaded a visual schedule on Etsy or tried to DIY your own. Maybe you got one on Amazon, or you have a big command center, but the kids aren't referencing it.

Mighty + Bright's visual schedules are different (that's why we get feedback like Jessye's!). Every aspect of our well-thought-out visual system is thoughtfully designed to get kids on board. Here are a few of the problems our schedules solve:

• Kids don't look at the command center. Kids need their own calendar with only their stuff on it. When there's too much to look at, their brains basically short-circuit and they get overwhelmed.
• Kids don't stay motivated to use it. Kids need something engaging and fun in order to stay motivated (that's why we use fun stickers, which kids LOVE, magnets that make that satisfying "click," and fun add-ons like our Stay on Task braceelt. We also have a special way of introducing our schedules, which you'll learn about in your Power Up.
• Kids won't even try it, because they don't like being bossed. Kids need to feel like they had a say in their schedule (don’t worry, we’ve got a hack for that in the Power Up.)

We fully recognize that these charts aren't cheap. But there are several great reasons for that.

High quality with a thoughtful design

We've spent the last ten years perfecting these schedules. They're extremely tough. Made of thick, powder-coated metal and finished with a thick dry erase varnish, they're built to stand up to years of sticky fingers and constant dry-erasing.

They're also thoughtfully designed. Every aspect of these charts — from the neutral color of the chart itself to our exclusive method of using reusable stickers — is intentional. They're strategically designed to engage kids, so they actually get used long-term. They may look simple, but that's because we've taken all the guesswork out of it for you, so you're ready to go in fifteen minutes.

Meant to last years

These charts grow with your kids as they mature. If you buy this for your four year-old, they'll still be using it when they're thirteen (seriously! Teens are usually too cool for the stickers, but the love of dry erase is lifelong, both on the magnets and the chart itself).

Unlike a $10 chore chart from Target or a DIY from Pinterest, these are investments that are meant to last.

We're a small business

And speaking of Target, another major factor in our prices is that we are a small business.

We don't have the buying power of Target, which means our products are more expensive for us to purchase. We also don't have the same flexibility as Amazon — we are real people.

Sara runs the business. Angela runs the warehouse. Katie helps with social media and managing projects. And Cherry helps source products. When you buy from Mighty + Bright, you're helping real women put food on the table every night. In fact, 50% of our operation are single moms. And we are very, very grateful.

The truth is, some things are better when they're analog, and this is one of them.

Kids' executive functioning skills aren't developed yet, and these charts provide a bridge between what we want them to do and what they're capable of doing. We want them to learn how to do things without relying on a device's notifications, which automatically interrupt us so we don't have to use our brains to remember them. It's similar to relying on a Maps app. We don't actually learn how to get to school if we rely on the maps to get us there every time.

Using devices keeps the invisible invisible - so unless we remember to check the list, we don't actually solve the whole "out of sight, out of mind" problem. It doesn't give us a sense of control over our lives — it gives us a sense of being dependent on a device so we don't completely lose our minds. I don't know about you, but I'd prefer my daughter not grow up that way.

We should also consider the impact of teaching our kids using apps. Notifications are great for things we need to be reminded of, but it's not ideal for reminding us to do things we need to do on a daily basis to take care of ourselves. Again, we aren't actually creating the neural pathways we need to learn a habit, and notifications affect our stress response.

According to Dr Sanam Hafeez, a psychologist at Columbia University, “[Notifications] send our brain into overdrive, triggering anxiety and stress, and at the very least, hypervigilance, which is meant to protect us from predators, not the phone.”

And, on a less serious note, it's nice to have something that you can use for years *without* a subscription.

If we want a tool like this to work, we want our kids to feel a sense of pride and ownership and like they had a part in building it.

Part of being a kid is feeling like life is happening to you. All the grown-ups make all the decisions, they're constantly telling you what to do and what not to do...just bossing you around, all day long.

Being part of the conversation about what is going to happen during the week or day gives kids a sense of control that every human needs in order to relax, no matter what their age is.

When you're splitting the calendars between multiple kids, you can understand how that sense of control might be diluted.

When they feel a sense of ownership over the calendar because it represents them and their lives, they feel a sense of pride. And with that sense of pride, comes a willingness to use it. And when they use it, they feel even more pride, and more responsible, and they continue to use it.

When something belongs to just us, we like it better. And we want them to like this and use it. So as much as I wish I could tell you that the kids can share it, it's going to be much more effective if they have their own.

We know that buying a chart for each kid can get very expensive, which is why we offer discounts on 2+ of every calendar kit.

The decision to carry only weekly calendars was not made lightly — it was made based on research about what kids can handle.

The truth is, depending on the age kids can handle only about a week or two at a time. Especially when they're going through something difficult, it can actually increase anxiety to see too far down the line.

Also, depending on their age, they might not be able to think that far down the line. When a kid asks for a snack and you tell them they can have one in five minutes, they react like, "that is literally my whole life, I will starve to death." So if five minutes feels like that, imagine what a three weeks might feel like!

The goal is to display the child's life for them to understand — not to create a command center for the whole family. In this case, making it as simple as possible is a benefit.

That said, if you have a reason to show more than one week at a time (such as co-parenting arrangement where the child sees a parent every other weekend), you might want to create an always up-to-date perpetual calendar. Here's a post from Instagram showing you how to do that.