Nookly vs Daniel Tiger vs a Routine Chart: What Helps With the Next Little Step?

Your three-year-old has decided that bath time is an outrage. Every night. You've tried bubbles. You've tried a timer. You've tried pleading. A friend suggests the episode where the little tiger learns about a new routine. Another says, "Just make a chart." A third mentions making a picture story about your child's own bath, with his duck and his dinosaur towel.

All three are reasonable. They just work in different ways.

TL;DR: who wins where?

• Daniel Tiger wins for familiar, prepared stories, songs and games about routines and everyday feelings, featuring characters many kids already love.
• A routine chart wins as a simple physical sequence on the wall, tailored to your house and always visible, with no screen at all.
• Nookly wins when the routine keeps changing or the request is very personal — a new sibling, a new school, this child’s bath and this child’s duck — and you want pieces made for that exact situation.

Before choosing, it helps to notice what the sticking point really is. Is it the order of steps? A worry about one step? Boredom with the same routine? Each answer points to a different kind of help.

Three helpers, three jobs

A familiar show offers comfort and modelling. A chart offers structure you can point to. A personalized piece offers something that fits this child's specific moment. Many families use all three at different times.

Remember, too, that little steps are allowed to take a while. Most routines settle with repetition and patience, not the perfect tool. All three options are just ways to make the practice a bit easier.

Daniel Tiger: a familiar friend

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, from PBS, is a well-loved example of prepared children's media about routines and everyday feelings. PBS offers episodes and videos, and its parent pages include related songs, activities and games. For many kids, seeing a character they love go through the same thing makes it feel less scary.

The strength is familiarity and care. Many families find the character's songs become a shorthand they can use at home. The limitation is that the story is Daniel's, not your child's: his house, his family, his bath.

A routine chart: always on the wall

Never underestimate a hand-drawn chart. Three or four pictures in order (bath, pyjamas, teeth, book) stuck at child height. It's cheap, it's yours, and it doesn't need charging. Kids can touch each step, move a peg, or tick it off.

A chart shines for stable routines. It's less helpful when things keep changing, or when the problem isn't the order of steps but a feeling about one of them.

Where Nookly fits

Nookly is a tool for adults to create personalized learning pieces for one child. For routines and milestones, that might be a picture story, a short song, a sequence card set or a pretend-play activity, built around the specifics.

Here's where Nookly adds something different. You can describe what's happening: "He's three, he's scared of water on his face at bath time since a shampoo incident, he loves his yellow duck, and we're moving house next month." Nookly can help you make a short story where a yellow duck bravely tips its head back, a four-picture bath sequence using his actual things, and a splash game. When you move house, you can ask for a new version with the new bathroom. That's hard for prepared media or a fixed chart to do.

Ask for your child's own characters and belongings rather than familiar TV characters. You review everything first.

You can create a single experience on demand, or set up a personalized learning plan called a Blueprint for an ongoing Goal, a finite plan, handy for bigger transitions like starting school or a new sibling.

Here's a small example of how that plays out. You make the duck story on a Sunday and read it before bath. On Monday he wants to hold the duck while you rinse. By Thursday he tips his head back himself, then insists the duck does it too. Nothing magic happened. The story gave him words and a picture for something he was nervous about, and you went at his pace.

A note on potty learning

Toilet learning is one area where all three can help, gently. A familiar episode, a simple chart and a personalized story about your child's own potty can all make it feel normal. Readiness varies a lot, so keep expectations flexible and talk to your pediatrician about any persistent concerns. None of these tools diagnose anything.

It's also fine if one tool clearly suits your child better. Some kids love the familiar songs and ask for them daily. Some ignore charts completely. Some want the story about themselves read every night for a month. Watch what they return to and lean into it.

Using them together

Watch a relevant episode together and sing the song. Put up a chart with your child's own steps. When a new wobble appears, make a short personalized story about it. Each does one job well.

Whatever you use, keep the tone warm. Skip stickers-as-punishment or charts that show what they didn't do. The aim is for each step to feel achievable and theirs. A missed morning is just a missed morning.

For older kids, the same logic applies to homework or chores. A familiar video might introduce the idea, a chart keeps the steps visible, and a personalized piece can address a particular hurdle, like starting homework straight after school.

Test it for a week

Whatever you choose, give it a short trial. Pick one routine, perhaps getting dressed, and try your new chart, song or story for five mornings. On Friday, ask your child which part helped most. You might hear, "The picture of my socks." That tells you what to keep and what to drop.

A sample request

"My four-year-old is starting preschool next week and worries about saying goodbye at the door. Make a short picture story with her and her stuffed rabbit, Clover, going to school, a three-step goodbye routine card, and a pretend-play script we can practise at home." Read it through, tweak anything that doesn't sound like her, and try the goodbye routine a few times before Monday.

Side by side

On a phone, swipe the table sideways to see every column.

Comparing Nookly, Daniel Tiger and a routine chart for everyday steps

	Daniel Tiger	Routine chart	Nookly
Main job	Familiar prepared stories, songs and games about routines and feelings	A visible physical sequence of steps at home	Adult-made pieces around one child’s current situation
Personal context	Shared characters and settings	Your household’s steps	The child’s things, worries and changes
Formats	Episodes, videos, songs and games	Pictures or words on paper	Stories, songs, sequence cards, pretend play and more
When things change	Pick another episode	Redraw the chart	Ask for a new version for the new situation
Screen use	Watched or played on a device	None	Adult creates; most pieces are printed or read together
Keeping track	Not the focus	Manual ticks or pegs	Printable or shared routine pieces your family uses

PBS descriptions checked September 28, 2026 from public pages. Nookly isn’t affiliated with PBS or Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood

Facing a new little step? Make a picture story for it, with your child’s own things in it.