Five Tips For A Stress-Free Kids’ School Morning Routine
On this blog, my goal is to provide busy moms with tips and tricks to make their life easy with kids. If you have school-age children then you know how mornings can get hectic. Hence, in this post, I am going to share my 5 tips to make your kids’ school morning routine stress-free.
These epic tips also work for distance learning or homeschooling school morning routines!
1- Establish A Good Sleeping Routine
A happy school morning routine depends upon a good night’s sleep. We all know that children need more sleep than adults. They spend tons of energy running around, playing supports, helping others, or just enjoying their lives. On top of everything, their bodies always experience growing pains. Therefore, they need to get more sleep at night to rebuild their energy level and restore their mental health. Ideally, 9-11 hours of sleep a night is what a child should get.
These are the few points we follow in our family to provide our kids with a good night of sleep:
- Take gadgets away from your children once they are done with their homework.
- TV or other screen time should be cut off at 5 pm. This is absolutely going to help you out.
- Follow a strict dinner routine for the whole week.
- Remind them to brush their teeth right after dinner.
- Ask them to help you to pick their clothing for the morning even if they do homeschooling, distance-learning, or online schooling. They should look neat and clean in the classroom. It doesn’t matter if the classroom is virtual.
- Have their school bags, notebooks, and pens, etc. ready for the morning.
- If they are in distance learning, ask them to plug in their Chromebooks or other laptops, so they are fully charged for the morning.
- Ask them to help you to clean their study table for the virtual classrooms.
- Once they are done helping you, ask them to change into their pajamas.
- Now, since they are all ready, tell them that they have 5 to 10 minutes before bedtime. It gives them a mental reminder and prepares them to go to bed smoothly. This trick works every time and they don’t argue with you, either.
The above-mentioned points not only will help your child to have a great school morning routine but will also help develop good and responsible habits.
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2 Always Complete These Three Tasks Every Night
Dishes And Countertops:
These three tasks are for the parents to complete. However, you can always involve your children with you. You should not go to bed without running your dishwasher and cleaning your countertops in the kitchen. Waking up to a clean kitchen with dishes ready to go for breakfast will definitely help to make your morning routine quicker and faster
Lunch Prepping:
This is super helpful for working mothers, as you have to leave to work as well. Lunch prepping takes a good amount of time and ultimately makes your morning hectic. If you are not already doing it, start packing lunch bags for your family at night. I use these containers for my kids. They have dividers so you can put a variety of food in them.
By doing this task you are going to save yourself 45 minutes to an hour in the morning and that’s pretty good deal.
Check The Important Paperwork:
Make sure you take a look at what your children brought home for paperwork in case you have to sign anything or if there is any note from the teacher to respond back. These things should be done at night and put back into their school bags. Kids normally forget to inform the parents if they brought home anything that their mom or dad needs to sign. Therefore, you should always check their school bags and get things done on time.
3- School Morning Routine Chart For Younger Kids To Follow
My dad started his career as a school teacher, so I saw all kinds of charts in our home. My dad was a brilliant guy, and his handwriting was amazing. He used to make charts with calligraphy. I learned to be organized and systematic from my dad, and confidence and décor skills come from my mother(I wish my kids would have met my dad, may his soul rest in peace).
You can teach anyone anything with visual aids, and these morning routine chore charts are the best visual aid to get your kids to get ready for their school morning routine!
Kids like colorful stuff, so I have created a very colorful chart totally free to download. All you have to do is print it on cardstock or paper. Then, either frame it (with a glass cover), or laminate it. By doing so, you can use a dry erase marker to mark the tasks when they are done. You can use the morning chore chart for ages 2-12 as it has a picture with each task.
These are the tasks I have included and it should be easy for them to complete.
- Get up, pray, and make your bed
- Go potty
- Wash hands and face
- Eat your breakfast
- Brush your teeth
- Get dressed
- Comb your hair
- Get your school bag
- Put your shoes on
In our home as Muslims, we start our morning with the first prayer called Fajar, and in my personal opinion, no matter what religious background you belong to, start with saying Thank You to God.
Practice this morning routine chart with kids for the whole week, and if they are under age 5 then do it for 30 days until they get that routine down. You can write their name on the bottom with a matching color marker. The downloadable printable has the named place empty for your child.
Appreciate them and cheer for them on each task they complete. It might be time-consuming in the beginning, but eventually, they will pick it up!
4- Assign A Fixed Area For Kids School Bags & Files
Assign a fixed area for your kids’ school bags and paperwork to make for a smooth transition in the morning. You can use your entryway closet or your mudroom for this purpose. If you have a small home or live in an apartment, then use baskets for each child so they can have their bags, files, and jackets together. Every second count in the morning. It means every effort you put to be organized will lead you to a stress-free morning. You can check out here how I have organized my kids’ area to make them happy little creatures in the morning!
5- Set Up A Reward System For The Kids, And It Works Like A Charm
Who doesn’t like extra icing on a cake? Kids love anything extra or rewarding. They absolutely put their best foot forward to complete the task you assigned them in order to get a reward. It’s human nature that we all want to be appreciated. I have a point system for everything for my kids. I don’t give them money otherwise. It has to be hard-earned money and if they don’t complete their tasks for some lazy reasons then they owe me money back.
Here is what I do for my kids’ reward system!
My 7-year old son is the most responsible child I have seen on earth, and I am not kidding.
- He helps us to keep the kitchen clean.
- Organizes his clothing
- Completes his homework on time
- Shows so much love and caring towards his sisters
The list just goes on and on and I sometimes have to tell him to stop so he doesn’t get too tired. I reward him by giving hime $5 every week, which he mostly spends on either his book or his Legos at the end of the month. I was thinking to give him $3, but my husband thought it was too little, which is true.
On the other hand, his sisters sometimes owe me money. My older daughter is doing so wonderful in school and pulling straight A’s ever since I have started a reward system. Since she doesn’t want to owe me the money back, she does all her school homework on time and gets over 90% on her quizzes and tests!
Distance learning has become very easy for us due to the reward system!!!
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