My kids are back at school after a very restful Easter Break. So we are back to our school morning routine – alarm clocks, lunches and getting out the door on time. Recently I asked the community “What are your best tips for getting the kids organised in the morning?” Here are some of my favourite responses, which I think will help create an effortless and calm start to the day for both you and the kids and will make the school mornings easier.
I buy the $1 mason jars from Kmart. I make a big smoothie for all of us and we drink in the car on the way to school. The kids aren’t allowed out of the car until it’s finished. Win win? – Melanie
The best thing I do in the morning, is go for a walk before my daughters get up. It clears my head and sets me up for a great day! – Liv
The kids getting dressed can be disorganised chaos. I put hang-up wardrobe storage shelves with 5 compartments and put 1 whole set of uniform in each. Shirt, Shorts, undies, socks. When I say “go get dressed” they’re not faffing about wondering where their clothes are! When I haven’t refilled it, it can cost us 15 precious minutes in the mornings looking for uniform and kids all scatty. – Amy
Definitely, have clothes laid out ready and lunchboxes packed the night before. It makes mornings soooo much easier. – Alison
I find that organising the lunches ( with the childrens help) the night before is so helpful in getting ready in the morning:) – ClaireMy biggest tip is to have lunch made the night before and a checklist for kids to follow in the morning to get ready. – Katrina
WRITE UP A LUNCHBOX PLAN – Making a plan of what to put in the kids’ lunchboxes through the week not only helps to ensure that I have the fridge and pantry stocked with lunchbox food items but also helps the kids know what to pack in their lunchboxes.
Lunch Box Planner: My lunchbox planner pad is available to purchase here.
ONE WEEK OF HEALTHY LUNCHBOX IDEAS FOR KIDS – Struggling to create a variety of healthy lunchboxes each day? Here are my top tips for packing a balanced lunchbox for kids and one week of lunchbox ideas with a printable to help you plan a week of healthy lunchboxes for your kids. Find lunchbox ideas here.
My most successful initiative is the ‘helping hand’. A friend told me about it and it really works. At the start of the year, I laminate an A4 piece of paper with an outline of a hand on it. Then I draw with white board maker (so I can change it), one job on each finger I.e. 1. Make bed, 2. Eat breakfast, 3. Brush teeth 4. Get dressed, 5. Feed a pet. These jobs can change according to age/ability/needs of child. You can draw pictures instead of write if your little one’s can’t read. I stick the paper to their wardrobe so if they forget they can check it. Each morning they just do their helping hand while I tend to the baby and I don’t need to yell a thousand times while I get dressed and eat breakfast. I just day ‘Please do your helping hand’. They sound like obvious jobs but they have really helped my 5 and 7 year old kids know what’s expected in the morning and it has really reduced all the morning yelling directions I used to have to give. – Jane
Screaming, stress and shouting… no longer with my blackboard wall in the kitchen, floor to ceiling. On it, a T-chart with ‘To Do’ and ‘Done’. Blu-takked tasks (that we’ve written together) on personalised coloured paper makes for an easy visual. Move your tasks to ‘Done’ and we are a happy household! – Katherine
I have pictures on the fridge representing the things the kids need to do in the morning, along with magnets with ticks on them. They’re not allowed access to any sort of electronic device before those things are ticked off. It works really well for us because it’s so visual, and the kids have ownership of their pictures as they move the magnets to tick them off. Every time they ask for a device or the TV I just ask them to have a look at their list and see if there’s anything left to do. Working toward self-management! – Coralie
STEP BY STEP TASKS – This is when my children must follow their morning routine chart and make their way down the list. I have designed my own morning routine charts that are available as an instant download in my shop here. Having a visual routine available for the children helps them recognise what they need to do each morning and helps them create habits. One big thing that I found important when I created these charts for my kids back when they started kindy was to have the brush teeth task before get dressed, as I found they used to blob toothpaste on their clothes, therefore having to change. This chart helped them to see to brush teeth before getting change, less washing for me!! The good thing about these charts is that you can personalise them to suit you and your family’s needs.
Routine Charts: range of colours for morning, afternoon and evening available here.
It was difficult to keep them on track in the mornings, they’d get side tracked and start to play! Now I use a timer, I set timed tasks interspersed with free time periods and the morning routine remains exactly the same everyday to get them into the habit. Now things run smoothly, we aren’t late and I am far less frazzled. – Lisa
Train your children to be independent and organized from an early age and your mornings will run smoothly. Don’t let electronic devices control your mornings. – Aileen
Every Sunday I write up a ‘What’s On’ checklist for the week ahead. Special events and appointments, notes to be handed in, library books due.. That sort of thing. I also make all the school lunch sandwiches and snacks on a Sunday and freeze them for the week. – Jane
Like many boys my three (6, 7 & 9) love Star Wars and for one of their birthdays, we were given a Darth Vader Alarm Clock. I have charts for them telling them what they need to do (before school, after school, before bed, etc…) which they are very good at following, trouble was getting them started in the morning as they have no sense of time…and as per most young boys they don’t want to listen to Mum or Dad. So now we have Darth Vader on our side – and when Darth Vader speaks (or should I say breaths) the boys actually listen! If they are in bed when Darth Vader’s heavy breathing starts they know they have to get up and start to get ready for school (and or weekend sport) – if they are already up playing they know they have to stop playing and start to get ready for school. I have been blown away with how much control Darth Vader has over our boys and how much this has helped with getting our mornings underway and us out the door on time (and without me having to raise my voice – awesome!). – Tara
WHAT IS YOUR BEST TIP TO ORGANISE THE KIDS IN THE MORNING?