School Uniform 247 have complied their most helpful, time-saving hacks to make school mornings easier for parents, and kids.
Get Up Just 10 Minutes Earlier
If you find school mornings hectic and stressful, start off on the right foot by giving yourself just a little extra time each morning. You don’t have to be up before the birds, simply setting your alarm for 10 minutes earlier than usual will mean you get to enjoy a peaceful moment before the house wakes up.
What you choose to do with this ten minutes is completely up to you; you may want to enjoy a coffee in peace and quiet, or appreciate the freedom of the bathroom all to yourself. Whatever you do with your extra morning time, make sure it’s something for yourself.
If that 10 minutes of extra sleep is something you just can’t part with, set your kids alarm for 10 minutes after your own. Are your kids naturally early rises? Make bedtime slightly later. Don’t worry about not having enough time to get everything done in the morning either, our next four tips will have you covered!
Keep Kids Engaged
If you feel like a drill sergeant each morning (“Brush your teeth!”, “Put your socks on…now!”) then you and your children may benefit from a visual checklist. Checklists can work for children of all ages, right from nursery through to secondary school. A checklist will keep each person accountable for their own morning routine, even the littlest members of your family. Use visually stimulating or tactile cues to help young children stay on track during those busy school mornings. For example, you could try writing the names or pictures of morning tasks which need to be completed on some counters or balls and keeping these inside a jar. Every time your child completes a task, allow them to pop the counter/ball in an empty jar, once the jar is full offer a reward such as a small sweet or 5 minutes of iPad time before school. Eventually, you may find your child follows the routine without help.
Put Screens away
Most of us are guilty of spending too much time on our electronics and school mornings are no exception. The truth is, most electronics only provide distraction from what needs to be done. This can be especially true for young children. If you find you fighting for your kids attention with their ipads/phones/TV then try a screen-free morning. Have everyone put their electronic gadgets in a basket (yes this includes you) and turn of televisions. Once all morning duties are completed enjoy a few minutes of screen time before you head out the door.
Don’t Let the Routine Slip on Weekends
It can be tempting to let bedtime routines slip as soon as Friday rolls around but you could be doing yourself and your kids a disservice. There’s no harm in letting little ones stay up a little later than usual on weekends, but abandoning the bedtime routine altogether won’t do anyone any favours. Kids will quickly adapt to staying up later, and by the time Sunday comes around you may find it hard to get them to bed, which won’t make Monday mornings any easier. Try to stick to some sort of schedule on weekend mornings too. Keep things relaxed, but sprinkle a few easy tasks in there to give kids some structure such as making their bed and changing out of their PJs.
Create a Morning Playlist
Create a playlist of music to accompany your family school morning routine. Start the day off with slow, easy listening music and start to gradually move towards more energetic beats as the morning goes on. Keep the songs in the same order each morning and use it as a cue to remind the kids and yourself what stage of getting ready you should be at by each song.
