For some people, getting up in the morning can be a challenge within itself, but by adding children to the equation it changes the game completely. Mornings are often a dreaded time of day, with lots of negativity and stress, but by implementing a simple yet effective routine for you and your children, you’ll notice smoother, calmer mornings ahead. When creating a routine for you and your family, concentrate on what works well for you, from timings and other stages to your routine that need to be included.
Start with Planning
One of the most challenging parts to a morning can be having not planned in advance. There’s nothing worse than trying to feed your children whilst pack their lunchboxes and put the laundry on all at the same time. Figure out what needs to be done for the morning and, prepare some of the items such as lunchboxes and laundry the night before. This will free up so much time in the morning for you to get ready and, handle any unexpected issues that are always possible when it comes to little ones!
Plenty of Sleep
Whether you’re an adult or a child, sleep is essential. It’s so much harder to have a productive, positive day when you’re tired and unmotivated. To prevent having grouchy children in the morning, set a suitable bedtime and stick to them. Similarly, choose a time that suits your routine to wake your children and ensure they are getting the right amount of sleep. Children should receive at least 7 or 8 hours sleep a night, so early nights are essential for a productive day!
Introduce an Alarm
Many people are unsure whether or not it’s good to wake your children yourself. It’s not a bad thing to wake your children, however, once they reach a certain age it’s a good idea to introduce an alarm clock to their lives. Whilst you may still need to pop your head through the door to ensure they haven’t fallen back to sleep, an alarm clock will both give your child a sense of independence, as well as help keep a consistent routine for yourself and them too.
Set Some Tasks
For your children, achieving goals and being rewarded is something they are introduced to from an early age at school. Introducing this kind of system at home will enhance their positivity and encourage them to achieve each goal or complete each task, in order to be rewarded. Create a system that has a selection of morning, or day related tasks. Choose the activities that are relevant such as making their beds, brushing their teeth, getting themselves dressed and even eating all of their breakfast. You can then add other tasks such as hanging up their coat at the end of the day, tidying away toys and other tasks that you want your children to actively do without being asked to many times. These simple yet effective tasks will encourage your child to be neat and organised, and you can then reward them with a treat at the weekend, some chocolate or a magazine.
Create a chart out of card that has boxes for each day of the week, next to each task. These will look perfect attached to the kitchen cupboard door, where you can then have your little ones stick their golden stars in the boxes when they complete the task in question. This will help them monitor their achievements too, and keep them motivated to get to the end goal.