MORNING ROUTINE
Our mornings are usually like groundhog day when the kids are at school. However, there are so many benefits of having a routine in place:
- Having a regular and consistent routine ensures that I get the kids out the door with everything they need, clean clothes, lunches, notes for school
- When we have a hectic morning, our routine makes me feel less stressed as I know what needs to be done
- As your children grow they will learn the routine and want to help (my kids are currently at this stage and I am LOVING it), which is a perfect way for them to learn about responsibility
- If I go out for the day I enjoy coming home to a tidy house
My morning routine
This is morning routine I had when the kids were all in primary school. Now that my kids are older (all in high schoolnow) I have adjusted it slightly, they wake themselves up, I make lunches the night before and I make myself presentable before breakfast.
6.40am – wake up and have a shower
6.55am – make my bed
7.00am – wake up kids
7.05am – kids make their own breakfast
7.10am – start preparing lunches for kids and hubby (lunchbox ideas here)
7.20am – kids unpack dishwasher
7.30am – kids start their morning routine
7.30am – put away dishes washed the night prior, pack dishwasher, wipe benches
7.40am – eat breakfast and relax for 10 minutes, I check my to-do list and calendar
7.50am – brush and style (braids or ponytails) girls hair, ideas here
8.00am – put washing on the line if I didn’t do the night before
8.10am – time to get myself presentable for the day (hair and a little make-up)
8.25am – give the kids countdown 5 minutes till we leave
8.30am – in car driving to school drop off
8.40am – go to the gym or home, put the kettle on, while kettle boiling wipe over kids bathroom basin
8.45am – My day begins, either doing housework, working on the blog, running errands or catching up with friends
Create your morning routine
Use the blank morning routine list printable to create your own routine. Every family is different so please consider your schedule, the help of a partner and the ages of your kids when creating your morning routine.
- Be realistic with the time you have available
- Can you partner help with morning tasks?
- The ages of your children
- Add into your routine the areas that you know you/your family need help with eg. time for chores for the kids, putting dirty clothes into the laundry, washing dishes, preparing for the evening meal in the morning
You may also enjoy this post on creating a stress free school morning routine.
Create a morning routine for the kids
This is my kids morning routine chart pictured below, they started using this chart when they were in kindy (aged 3). This promptly removed the chaos out of our mornings and was a great visual reminder for the kids to know what they needed to do each morning.
I have tasks in a specific order, eg brush teeth before uniform/clothes goes on so they don’t get toothpaste splatter over their clean uniform (as kids do). I also like them having their socks on so when it’s time to go all they need to do is put on shoes not spend an extra 5 minutes to put socks on.
This chart is available in my shop along with the option to create personalised charts. View range of kids routine charts here.
[wlchecklist name=’PreTask3Createamorningroutineforkids’]
DOWNLOAD
Print the morning routine lists to help you create your own morning routine that suits you and your family.
- MORNING ROUTINE – file behind ‘Routines’ divider – click to download.
- BLANK MORNING ROUTINE – file behind ‘Routines’ divider – click to download.
270 comments
This is my biggest challenge, although I have had to threaten daughter with changing schools if she doesn’t get up for me (I also have fatigue issues with fibromyalgia) and her friend has been facetiming her in the morning to ensure she gets up for school.
My daughter is ten so clearly should be getting herself ready but she’s been taking advantage of the fact that I am sick so have told her I don’t need her to look after me (which is why she wanted to stay with me plus she was getting bullied at school).
so whatever works and so far she has 3 weeks worth of stickers for each day she is on time for school.
I printed out blank copies, and got them laminated, I know I just right on them with white board marker, that way when I change routine they are easy to change too.
great idea Erin, and to rub it off use glen 20 on the laminate, it’s fabulous for cleaning off whiteboard marker.
Love the idea of laminating Erin
Ha ha the only kid I have at home now is the big one 🙂
Version 1 done! I say version 1 as it WILL change. I’ve started with a list of what we currently do, which as I get more organised, I hope will change (eg, school clothes ready night before instead of morning of etc).
great that your adding study to it Rae and working around your priorities.
Im still working on my routened after 3 rounds lol! I guess they change as time goes buy. Currently i dont have to have my daughter out of bed or the house at a certain time each day but next year will be different for prep!
There is NO WAY these will get laminated yet – I see much tweaking in my near future!
great idea Shelley, you’ll find that you will keep changing it for awhile.
I expect I will tweak the routine as I go
Done, might require some tweaking as we go but our routines are pretty set YAY
Already rearranging Morning routine to accommodate my disabled Foster childs routine. He is peg fed, so I make up his formula for next 24 hours while dinner is cooking. I also make other Foster sons lunch for tomorrow at the same time.
That gives me time in morning where the Challenge requires me to prepare lunches to prepare meds or school instead.
Able bodied child gets himself up and gets his own breakfast.
We also make lunches in the evenings now, frees up so much time in the mornings. Hope you can work out a morning routine to suit you all 🙂
Having trouble downloading the files as error message says they are not valid pdf files?
Hi Zoe, can I get you to check that you have the most updated version of Adobe, let me know how you go 🙂