17 Tips for a Morning Routine For Kids That Works
Are your mornings with your kids stressful and chaotic trying to get out of the house? You are tired of yelling at your kids, dealing with tantrums and crying? Here are 17 tips for a morning routine for kids that actually work!
One child can’t find his left shoe all while you are dealing with a power struggle with your other child over what to wear. It’s only 7am and already your day is off to a rocky start.
Starting the day off on the right foot is essential for children (and mom!) to have a successful day and be in a good mood. Having a morning routine can help kids stay organized, create good habits, set the tone for the rest of the day, and get them in the habit of being productive.
It helps to have an effective morning routine to make mornings less stressful and more enjoyable for both parents and kids.
Picture this stress-free morning: everyone, both your younger kids and older kids, working together as a team to do their part to get out of the house with less stress and less chaos.
You might even all get out of the house with some extra time to spare. WAHOO!!
Now every family will look a little different, depending on your situation, so go through and take the tips that will work for you and create a successful morning routine checklist for your family.
Start Small
Anytime you are starting something new, the first step is have patience with yourself, the whole family and to start small with baby steps.
Just add one new habit at a time. Chore charts help a lot, and the one my kids have been using for years has worked great!
Give yourself enough time
No one likes feeling rushed trying to leave the house in the morning, and chances are if you are reading this blog post, you have had a few rushed chaotic mornings.
Young children need ample of time, a solid morning routine and positive reinforcement.
Healthy habits start with mom first
If you are feeling rushed, stressed, it changes the vibe and mood in the atmosphere.
As a veteran mom of four kids, I learned early on the value of getting up before my kids get up. I make sure I give myself lots of time in the morning and I have my own established good morning routine.
I make sure my alarm clock is set at least one hour before my kids established wake-up times. I am not a morning person, so I’m not saying waking up before my kids is easy, but I am a better mom and in a better mood when I can focus on myself first.
I have found that my morning feels so much easier and smoother if I get dressed first and drink a HOT cup of coffee prior to my kids wake up, and eat a healthy breakfast.
Related Post: 9 Must do’s in a morning routine for busy mom’s
Get enough sleep
Just like adults, kids need consistent routines and a good’s night sleep. Having a sleep schedule is a good place to start. It is easier to establish a wake up time, if you’ve already introduced and established a sleeping schedule.
Have established wake-up times.
Have a decided wake up time and use a wake up clock to help younger children know when it is time to wake up and come out of their room.
If your kids wake up before your decided wake up time, what should they do?
Have you heard of Individual Play? Individual play teaches your children to play quietly and helps as a tool for them to stay in their rooms. There are so many benefits to Individual Play and we personally love using this technique in our home.
Related Post: Benefits of Solitary Play and How to Begin
Like any new routine, it will take some time to be fully adapted and feel like it’s making a difference. Stick with it, these skills are life giving for you and your family.
Tips To Establish Healthy Sleeping Habits:
- Get a good night’s sleep: Kids ages 6 to 13 need 9 to 11 hours of sleep each day while teens aged 14 to 17 need 8 to 10 hours of sleep each day.
- Be Consistent: Try to keep your kids on consistent schedules to help regulate sleep. Don’t stray too much on the weekends!
- Have an environment that encourages sleep. A sound machine, black out curtains, no electronics right before bed, and reading books together are all great ways to help encourage sleep.
Use Timers
Timers are every moms best friend (AKA: your secret weapon).
I use timers for everything. I call it “race the clock”. I will set a timer and it is a fun game to see how fast we can get things done before the timer goes off. I use timers for clean up, toy pick up, brushing teeth, sharing toys, you name it, a timer can always help.
Make routines visible
Use a visual daily routine chart t to stay on tasks for a realistic morning routine. Put it in a place where your kids can see it easily and refer to it daily as they go through their morning routine.
A checklist is such a vital tool to keeping kids on task. It is hard for them to remember everything they are supposed to do in the morning.
We use this Daily Checklist and it has been very successful for my kids, even during summer!
Snag your FREE Daily Checklist by joining the GMH’S Tribe HERE!
The Checklist is available in the Resource Library after signing up, along with lots of other free resources available to all of my GHM’s Tribe Subscribers.
If they get off task, I simply say “is your daily checklist complete”? And usually that is enough of a reminder for them to run and check their handy chart and get back on task, or report back to me that they are all done with their tasks.
Need a morning routine chart? Want a step by step guide to help you create the perfect, calm and stress-free kid morning routine?
As a mom of four kids, all three years apart in age, getting out of the house used to feel impossible. So I put the best tips together and created a bullet-proof plan to have successful mornings with young kids. Snag it here:
Reduce Distractions
Here are a few tips to reduce distractions. Have toys put away, have tooth brushes and clothes in easy to grab places, and avoid TV or devices in the morning.
Prepare the night before
One of the easiest ways to stop having a rough morning is to plan ahead and do as much as you can the night before. A great evening routine helps the next day.
Morning battles over clothes are the worst! So do THIS instead.
Pick out clothes the night before OR at the beginning of the week during your Sunday Reset Day, to eliminate the morning arguments over what to wear.
Use shoe hangers to store a weeks worth of clothes at a time. This is seriously so helpful and a game changer!
Related Post: Laundry mom hacks for busy moms
Do you feel like you’re scrambling in the morning packing lunches and double checking backpacks to make sure they have all the needed things?
Having an evening routine helps create a successful next morning.
Tips for your evening routine:
- Have prepped & pre-made breakfasts and lunches.
- Make sure bags, schools papers and homework are ready to go by the door.
- Have clothes picked out for everyone.
Related Post: 13 Powerful things I do in My Evening Routine
Don’t forget the most important meal of the day
Start your day with a nutritious breakfast to fuel your body for the day ahead. Make simple and easy nutritious breakfast. You can even have your kids practice making their own breakfast.
Best Breakfast School Morning Tip: Have a self serve / ready-to-go breakfast station
School mornings are busy and can feel chaotic. I love to train and teach my kids early to be independent and feel capable to do things for themselves. Having a breakfast self-serve station does just that!
A few years ago I created a self serve breakfast station and it was a huge hit and success with my kids!
It allowed them to get their own breakfast each morning, and allowed me to finish my morning routine, finish getting ready, and fake clean my house!!
Here are the easy steps I did to implement this genius concept:
Step 1: Create the menu and tape it to the inside of the refrigerator
Step 2: Prepare and prep the food
Different breakfast foods that I prep ahead of time:
- Muffin pancakes
- Egg bake
- Washed & cut fruit
- Cereal with mess free milk containers using this genius Dry Food Dispenser
- Gogurt with granola
I meal prep and food prep year round, probably even more during the school year with our busy schedules.
To spend LESS time in your kitchen, food prep as much food as you can at the beginning of the week, it literally will save you HOURS each week!
For more meal prepping and planning hacks, check out: 5 Meal Planning Hacks – How I save HOURS Each week
I highly recommend adding this asap to your school morning routine for your kids!
Some other easy breakfast ideas:
- English muffin + jam
- Bagel + cream cheese
- Toast with tomatoes, avocado, jam, banana & peanut butter
- Oatmeal
- Bacon & Sausage
Limit technology during school days
Another great tip to help make your morning run more smooth is to limit technology in the mornings during the school week.
Why? Most kids will wake up earlier just to get on the devices and it can create lots of chaos in your morning routine.
Using the “when… then” approach can be very affective to get your child(ren) to do the not so fun parts of their morning routine.
For example, “when you are done getting dressed, brushing your teeth and eating breakfast, then you can color in your new coloring book quietly in your bedroom.”
Have an emergency tote in the car
Even with the best intentions, an easy morning routine, and lots of practice, it will inevitably happen that a child will forget something.
We got all the way to school one morning when my middle son realized he didn’t have shoes on. Even after me going through our final checklist where I ask every child if they have a backpack, shoes, water bottle, snack, lunch & sweatshirt. He said yes to every single item, probably out of habit and didn’t actually look down at his feet.
Having an emergency tote with snacks, water bottles, shoes, socks and a change of clothes has come in handy so many times.
End the morning with positivity
We all get in the car, do our final checklist and then all cheer and make it a positive experience. Throughout the morning, I like to play music to encourage a peaceful and positive vibe.
Be flexible & expect some mornings to be “off”
If the morning feels “off”, call a “reset”! All kids go back to their rooms, everyone takes a 5 minute calm down break and come back out and try again. Because some days we just wake up “off” and that’s ok.
Teach kids to be Independent
While it may take some practice, it is such a great feeling when your kids can get themselves dressed, brush their teeth and make a quick breakfast.
Have a drop area
It’s helpful to have a designated area for backpacks, sweatshirts, jackets and shoes.
Schedule some physical activity into the routine
With 3 small boys, I will send them outside for a quick lap or ask them to do a few push ups. Boys have lots of energy and if not managed it quickly turns to fighting with a sibling. Even just 10 minutes of exercise can make a difference!
Practice and rehearse
Routines take time to learn so keep practicing.
Have patience and make weekends extra special and fun
And while routines are still important on the weekends, the weekends do serve as a great time to do extra fun things as a family, like a special breakfast or afternoon treat.
Even though mornings can feel rushed and busy, take time to connect with your children through conversations and encouragement as everyone does their best to get out the door.
Looking for more routines to make your day easier? Don’t forget to check out…
I would love to hear from you, leave a comment, and share your favorite morning routine tip below.
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Here’s a reel on what my morning routine looks like with my kids, check it out!
This post was all about morning routine for kids.
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