Toilet training log & readiness checklist.

The two most common potty-training mistakes are starting before the child is ready and running different systems at home and at daycare. The checklist handles the first: when most of the readiness signs are checked, it's time — a calendar age isn't the signal. The shared-plan section handles the second: same words, same rhythm of offers, same low-key response to accidents, in both places.

• Agree on the plan before day one. The three plan lines are a five-minute pick-up conversation. Nail down the vocabulary especially — a child hearing two different words for the same thing is learning two systems.
• Log tries, not just successes. "Tried, nothing happened, no fuss" is progress. The pattern of tries is what tells you whether to offer more or less often next week.
• Keep accidents boring. A note like "accident at 10:40, right after snack" quietly finds the timing patterns — and the notes column is for what helped, never for blame.
• Photocopy or reprint weekly and keep the finished weeks — a month of sheets shows a trendline that a single hard day can't erase, which is exactly the reassurance a discouraged family needs.