You have breakfast, lunch, you are dressed and ready to walk out of the door but what about the children? Are they ready? Are they even awake yet?
I have heard funny stories so many times about a mom dropping their child off at school only to realize they are still in their pajama’s, or the child does not have their backpack, lunch or homework. Or the kids are in order but mom is wearing slippers with her business suit.
A goal for many wives and moms is to make mornings smooth and get everyone where they need to be on time…even dad! How does that get accomplished? Many of the tips that I have shared all week can be used on the kids as well. For those whose children are out of the toddler stage in elementary school, you can begin to incorporate them into the nightly preparation times and teach them how to get their things ready.
- Get yourself ready first. This way you can focus on the children!
- Pack back packs before bed: Do they have their homework, library book, show and tell item; all papers are signed and checked?
- Fill their water bottles and pack lunch items before bed as well.
- Have the children set out their clothes and shoes the night before on their dresser. This will lessen morning temper tantrums and in decisions.
- Do all baths and showers the night before.
- Make sure they have decided what they want for breakfast.
- Tuck the children in bed at a decent hour. Children usually need 10-12 hours of sleep so plan accordingly. This will help ensure they get up easily too.
- If you have several children or several family members but 1 bathroom delegate bathroom time. If more than ones are brushing their teeth at the same time it will more likely turn into play and a mess.
Here are some other thoughts on getting kids ready on the morning.
Top 10 Morning Madness Tips for Getting Kids up and Ready
What have I missed? My kids are older now and can take care of getting out the door on their own. As the saying goes it takes a village, so tell me what works in your house for making sure the family is up and ready to go on time. I am sure all my readers can benefit from all of the great input.
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Our biggest issue was finding all the snow gear every morning. Now we have all the gloves, hats, scarves, and boots in a spot right by the door. We get dressed eat get on our snow pants and jacket then go to the door for the last of it. Also, we do bathroom right after they eat. If i tell my kids to go as soon as they get up they will but then they have to go again before they get on the bus. I don’t tell them they can’t go before breakfast i just don’t tell them to go lol.
We do lunch boxes as soon as we get home from school, that way it actually makes evenings go smoother too. Nothing worse than coming home from a late dinner to realize there is still milk in the thermos of the lunch box that is sitting on the counter. Yuck.
Remember to include a small amount of time…5 minutes is plenty…for prayer and a verse (short people, short devos) before leaving home. It helps set the tone for the entire day, helps focus the children, and helps remind them they are “more than conquerors” against anything that comes against them that day.
I’ve figured out how much time it really takes from the time the kids get up until everybody’s dressed, fed, and out the door. So I know how much “planned time” to allot. The trick is: getting myself up in time to allow for the whole “planned time” to be there. When we’re running late, it’s often because I had a plan, but didn’t stick to the plan. Working on that … 🙂
My three kids are in elementary school and we do many of the things you describe, with pretty good success. We really set the clothes out the night before building a fill-sized ‘clothes kid’ on the floor so they can’t even step out of bed in the morning without being reminded to get dressed down to the shoes. We also have personalized checklists for each kiddo near the front door to help remind me to remind them to brush teeth, comb hair, collect homework, etc. We review it together and as each child completes it, they’re dismissed to the car. I also shout out times throughout the morning, which they get a kick out of: T-30 minutes to departure, T-15 minutes, etc.
Having as much done the night before is the biggest thing and the second is they can’t turn on the TV in the mornings.
My most helpful thing is having things ready the night before so I don’t risk running into any problems or forget anything in the morning,
Alarm clocks~start when they are young~ set it for them when they are young and let them know they can hit the snooze button 1 time and then it’s rise and shine time. If they turn it off instead, that means its time to get up right away. Takes awhile, but they do get it and it helps ease the morning routine 🙂
I haven’t tried this, but I heard that using a timer have worked really well for a lot of families.