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
Hello, I am struggling a bit with this, I find that I have a cluster of things that need to get done before the school run. My 2 kids are still needing help with their tasks. I don’t have a set order or time, as long as its all done by 8.20am. Is this good enough, or is it better to really thrash this out, including the timing??
I have my set tasks, simple tasks that I know the kids can do independently, and then tasks that they need help with. This is how I have pretty much divided up my morning.
Thanks, Lee
It’s a good idea that you complete your tasks while the kids are doing theirs independently, then once you have done what you need to do to then help them kiddies. Perhaps if you are finding the morning really busy you can add one or two of your morning tasks into the evening routine, to make your morning a little less chaotic.
Done – already had working routines in place for myself and for each of our four daughters, so this was very easy! 😉
4 girls, I am sure they would keep you on your toes!
found this quite a challenge in itself but done now
But it will help you so much Alison, put a bit of structure into your mornings and help you get everything you need to do done.
Done! I already had a morning routine for the kids – now updated for 2015! I’m always rushed getting myself out the door – looking presentable vs harassed?! I am looking forward to having my own routine as well to help 🙂
It should help you, especially if you know the night before that you have to be out the door early, you can look at the list and see what you can do the evening before to help make the morning a little easier.
Done this one! I’m sure this will change quite a bit if / when I go back to work and as my 4 month old’s routine changes etc 🙂
And the beauty is when you realise something isn’t working you can change the routine to adapt to bub.
Done – already had one laminated on my prep daughter’s bedroom wall for her mornings(which is very similar to yours and which she just LOVES). She loves to consult it and see what job is next. While I had a ‘loose’ routine for me it was good to give it some more thought and make it explicit on paper – less need to pause and think about where you’re up to.
that’s right Lisa, takes the thinking out of the busy mornings sometimes, helps to glance and continue on with the next task 🙂
Ha Ha! So I did my morning checklist and trialled it today, because its no use if it doesn’t work. And the moral of the story is… I way underestimate how long things take me to do… And… finding things that aren’t where they should be takes a lot of time. Revisiting the revised revised morning checklist tomorrow!!!! 😉
Love it that you can step by step make it as you need!!
Hi Kat,
How do I join the FB page for this challenge?
Hi Ruth, I sent you through a facebook request check your emails from facebook, otherwise if you can’t find it email me challenge@theorganisedhousewife.com.au and I will have to do it a different way 🙂
Thanks Kat, Found!! And the revised revised routine worked better today! Kids have had a routine for a while which works great for them. We are currently working on doing the routine with no reminders!!!
Love that doing it with no reminders. I went to a fantastic session last night at my kids school which talked about something similar, don’t remind the kids they need to learn the responsibility themselves.
Done 🙂
Fantastic Belinda!
Done and Done!
pretty simple when there are only 2 people in the house!
Great, you will find it handy to have though!
Printed! And re-printed the kids routine I purchased a while ago! Will work on my routine over the next couple of days and get it sorted and get kids back into their routine 😀
You are onto it, Belinda!.:)