TinyStepper
Child pressing colourful stickers onto paper with tissue paper and glue

After-Lunch Picture Plan

A simple visual sequence — eat lunch, nap, snack, mum comes back — drawn together so your toddler knows exactly when pickup happens at nursery.

Activity details

2y–4y10 minslowindoorMarkersPaper

Instructions

Get ready
  • Sit at the table with your child and a sheet of paper.
  • Draw four big boxes across the paper.
  1. Sit at the table with your child and a sheet of paper.
  2. Draw four big boxes across the paper.
  3. In box one, draw lunch together — let your child decide what's in the sandwich.
  4. In box two, draw a sleeping face for nap time.
  5. In box three, draw a snack — apple or biscuit.
  6. In box four, draw your face with a wave. 'This is when mummy comes back.'
  7. Point along the boxes and say the sequence out loud: 'lunch, nap, snack, mummy.'
  8. On nursery mornings, look at the paper together and trace the sequence again before you leave.

Parent tip

Set out markers and paper before inviting your toddler in so the first minute feels smooth.

Proud child holding up a painted sheet covered in bright handprints and splatters

What success looks like

Messy hands and a child who doesn’t want to stop. The artwork doesn’t need to look like anything — the process is the point.

On a piece of paper, draw four boxes in a row and fill each one together: a sandwich, a sleeping face, an apple, and your face waving. Talk through the order — 'first lunch, then sleep, then snack, then mummy at the door' — and keep the paper somewhere visible. Toddlers don't yet understand clock time, but they understand the order of meals and naps. Anchoring your return to a specific event in the day's sequence — not a time — gives them something concrete to wait for.

Why it helps

AAP HealthyChildren guidance on managing separation explicitly recommends giving toddlers concrete time markers they understand: 'I'll be back after nap time and before afternoon snack.' Toddlers hold on to events, not clocks — and seeing the events drawn out in order does what an abstract 'I'll come back later' cannot. The visual sequence transforms an open-ended wait into a clearly bounded one.

Variations

  • Make a sturdier version by drawing on card and laminating it with parcel tape — toddlers love things they can carry.
  • If the sequence varies on different days, make two versions and pick the right one each morning.
  • For older toddlers (3+), add a fifth box for 'home' so the full arc is visible.

Safety tips

  • Use washable markers — the sequence will probably end up scribbled on by little hands.
  • Don't promise events you can't deliver — if pickup might be late, stick to events you control.
  • If a planned event is cancelled (no nap one day), redraw the sequence so it stays accurate.

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