Tweak Your Morning Routines this Week!

This past week provided excellent practice for heading back to school.  All three of my sons have had morning activities, helping us refresh our morning routines morning-clipart-5-free-summer-clipart-illustration-of-a-happy-smiling-sunbefore school actually starts.  We have discovered some stumbling blocks, and can now clear them before the first day in a few weeks.

Whether you are going back to school or not, I recommend we all take some time to tweak our morning routines this week.  Here is how:

  1. Sit down with everyone involved in your morning routine. Discuss start times, breakfast options, bedtimes, carpooling, etc.  If your schedule is the only one to consider, sit down with a pen and paper, and think about your morning routine.
  2. Look at what works:
    1. My youngest son’s schedule is unchanged, so he and I will stick with our regular plan, in the 7 am to 8:20 time slot.
    2. I have the most flexibility in the morning, since I am up really early but don’t need to be anywhere until I drop off the little guy.  I’ll move my routine around everyone else.
  3. Look at what needs fixed:
    1. We have to rearrange our shower schedule from years past, as we’ll have two high-schoolers with a 7 am start time and my husband still needs to be up and out of the house by 6:45.  (I am just going to stand back, though, and let the three earliest risers figure out their plan).
    2. We need to recommit to better breakfasts.
  4. Get everyone their own clock, and make they know how to use it correctly!  Kids need alarm clocks.  Because Mom is tired of nagging (or maybe that’s just me).
  5. Make breakfast portable.  Not everyone likes to eat breakfast before 7 am, at least not in my house, but they still need to have something nutritious with them.  So healthy and portable breakfasts are going to be very important this year.  With my kids’ collaboration, I’m planning on breakfast bars or granola bars, microwaveable breakfast sandwiches and fresh fruit.
  6. Plan ahead now!  Regardless of your student’s age (or yours), determine bed times and wake-up times.  And start adjusting your current sleep and wake times to line up with the new ones.  For example, we came home earlier than normal on Sunday night  from a weekend away, because early Monday morning was just too chaotic last week.   As mentioned, great practice for back-to-school!

Spend a little time this week improving your morning routine, and reap benefits all year long!