Parents everywhere have dealt with the school morning struggle at one point or another in their parenting journey. From missing socks to constant nagging to get your kids to brush their teeth, school mornings can be stressful and chaotic.
When the school year finally begins, it’s important to get back into a school morning routine. Although it may seem difficult to put a routine into place, it doesn’t have to be. In fact, there are many benefits to creating a school morning routine for your family. Here’s why school morning routines are important.
Keep reading for some tips on making school mornings easier.
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Why School Morning Routines are Important
Expectations
When you create a school morning routine for you children, they come to know what to expect when they wake up. This results in your children preparing themselves for the tasks at hand, rather than being caught off guard. A routine makes sure that your children know what is expected of them in the morning, leaving them to feel more comfortable.
Top Tip: Make your routines visible to everyone. Make lists or charts and hang them up where everyone can see them.
Focus
Having a morning routine in place, helps to improve your little one’s focus on important morning tasks. Knowing that as soon as breakfast is complete, they have to brush their teeth will lead to them focus better on a set timeline rather than flying by the seat of their pants and forgetting important aspects of the morning.
Top Tip: For some, a timer is a good way to keep focused and on task. When the timer goes off, it’s time to go on to the next step of the plan.
Less Stress
Morning routines help to make sure that your family experiences less stress in the morning. School mornings can be chaotic, especially when you have multiple children, have to go to work yourself or have pets. No matter the cause for the chaos, having a routine in place can greatly minimize it.
When your children know what to expect and are able to better focus on tasks that must be completed, things get done in a timely manner, allowing for some time to relax in the morning. It also reduces the need for you as their parent to constantly tell them what steps they have to take to get ready. No one wants to have to explain why it’s time for them to brush their teeth or put on their shoes, they will just do it on their own.
Top Tip: Get as much done the night before as you possibly can. Choose clothing for the next day, pack lunches and backpacks/briefcases – you can even prep breakfast ahead of time too! The less you have to get done in the morning, the better.
Establish Healthy Habits
From brushing hair to brushing teeth, routines are fantastic for helping your little one develop healthy habits. Kids who regularly practice these skills are better able to manage their time as they grow older. This helps them to have more self-discipline when it comes to healthy eating habits, grooming habits and more.
Top Tip: You might want to get up earlier than your kids do. Even 10-15 minutes can give you that head start on the day and a few minutes to gather your bearings before you need to jump into
School morning routines are important to not only making mornings more predictable, less chaotic and more functional, they are also important to your little one’s focus, self discipline and helps them to develop healthy habits.