No more frazzled mornings! These 10 tips will make school days a breeze.
Crazy mornings might seem unavoidable when you’re trying to get your kids ready and out the door for school or daycare, but with a little planning you can make mornings much more pleasant and organized for everyone in your family. Here are some tried and true tips from a mom of five boys to take the stress out of getting ready for school and can make the evenings calm and relaxing, too.
1. Everything needs a home. Designate an area for shoes, backpacks, jackets and other items your child will need in the morning. You don’t have to spend thousands on a fancy bench and shelf system from Potty Barn, we line up shoes and backpacks near the front door and have jackets hanging from simple hooks on the wall above. Belts, hats and gloves can be tucked into the backpacks for safekeeping.
2. Now that everything has a home, make sure your children know where it is and get them into the habit of using it. You might be shaking your head and muttering under your breath “Does she KNOW my kids?” but with consistent, gentle reminders, all children can learn to put their things in the right spot. After all, they do it at school every day!
3. Make sure your kitchen is stocked with easy, nutritious breakfast options. This doesn’t have to be fancy, if your child will eat an apple and peanut butter sandwich for breakfast, that’s wonderful! Let them eat that. A Google search will turn up hundreds of different ideas for quick, inexpensive, wholesome breakfasts but don’t feel like you have to go overboard and make something new and fancy every day. Once you’ve found a couple of easy breakfasts rotate those and save experimenting for the weekends.
4. Have a system for making lunches. You could make them at night or in the morning, whatever works best for your family just make it a consistent part of your routine. Again, most children are perfectly happy eating a few favorites again and again so don’t kill yourself trying to win the most elaborate lunchbox contest unless it’s something that you enjoy and have time to do. Older children can make their own lunches, just supervise at first to make sure it’s reasonably balanced.
Don’t feel bad about making the lunch box foods off limits for at home consumption so that you aren’t constantly running to the store to replace food. I try to stay away from individually packaged foods, but sometimes a box of granola bars can be a lifesaver – but not if the kids eat them all on Sunday night! Reasonable limits on food will not give your child an eating disorder.
5. Mom and dad need school supplies, too. While supplies are cheap, stock up on pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, notebook paper and other essentials that you’ll need to help your child with homework, sign papers and other tasks. Make a home for them and make sure parents and children alike are diligent about putting things away. This happens to be my own area of weakness, I’m sure I have half a dozen staplers stashed around the house that I hid so the boys would stop using them as weapons but can never find the three times a year I need to staple something.
6. Keep a household petty cash box. Many of us pay for virtually everything with a debit card and never have change. Even if your school still takes checks (our elementary school does not) do you really want to write a check for two dollars for an official school planner or field trip money? Or have to make a stop at an ATM and send the kid to school with a $20 and hope he remembers the change? Stash a five, ten or so singles and a handful of quarters in a safe spot to be prepared for when you need a little cash.
7. Lay out clothes including socks and clean underwear the night before. In fact, I try to lay out the entire week’s worth of clothes as I’m folding and sorting laundry. Of course, this means my kids are wearing the same five outfits again and again since I’m pulling them from last week’s washed laundry but nobody has called CPS on us yet and they seem well adjusted.
8. Make sure your children are getting enough sleep. Young children’s sleep needs vary but most of them still need much more than adults. Their days are packed solid and they are still growing so ample sleep should be a priority. Well rested children are much more cooperative and easy going and will be in prime condition for learning at school. You might have to cut back on extracurricular activities to make sure you can get everyone in bed at a decent hour. Don’t try to cram too much into each day.
9. Keep the TV and video games turned off in the mornings. It only adds to the noise and chaos and makes it difficult for the children to concentrate on getting ready. This isn’t written in stone, if it works for your family to have tv time as an incentive to eat breakfast and get ready in a timely manner, then go for it. My personal experience has been that it makes my particular children more hyper and less cooperative to have screen time in the morning.
10. Give your kids plenty of play time and space to move their big muscles. I said in the point above that TV in the mornings doesn’t work for my family. What does work? Letting them run in the backyard if they are ready early so that I can get dressed and have a second cup of coffee or read a couple of emails.
Even if early morning play is impossible, your children will benefit and be more able to focus and follow instructions if they get time to play and exercise every day. Gross motor activities such as running, jumping, swinging and climbing are not only good for physical fitness but they also help growing brains develop. Kids who do not get enough of this kind of activity are more likely to be fidgety, uncooperative and just plain cranky.
Do you have any tips or tricks for easier mornings?
Tracy O’Connor is the mother of 5 boys and a freelance writer who provides ghostwriting services. Follow her on twitter.
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photo credit: ©istock/Blue Cutler
