Great Morning Routines For School

These routines include tips for getting them out the door promptly, from waking up, getting dressed, making their bed, and making their lunch.

You'll also get a master plan to be implemented with your children to gain maximum benefits from your morning routine.

1. School-age children must wake up before the minimums

After an especially late or early awakening on a particular day, be sure to address the topic of getting children up promptly the next day.

One suggestion for younger children is to ask them to get up 30 minutes before the alarm.

In other words, after the kids have been woken up at 7:00, they should then go to sleep at 7:30.

As the child gets older, they can wake up earlier, with each passing week of school adding minutes to the hour until the alarm goes off.

Waking your children too early is a recipe for disaster. Their minds will not be functioning well enough to listen to anything you have to say, and they'll be half asleep when they get to school and unable to learn at their best.

And more than likely, your child won't wake up at all. Most young children need 45 to 60 minutes of sleep every night to wake up and function properly in the morning.

And by allowing your child to sleep in, you are increasing the likelihood that your child will be tired and have a hard time learning.

2. Make the bed

If you want your child to show up to school in the morning dressed appropriately, it is up to you to ensure that he or she makes the bed first thing.

Before leaving your child's room, fold the sheets and blankets neatly and place them in the linen closet, not the laundry basket.

It will be hard to keep on top of folding them, but with the help of a designated child, you should be able to keep up.

By the end of the school day, these sheets and blankets will be folded and put away.

Folding is a useful skill to teach early on, and it will serve your child well throughout his or her lifetime.

After your child makes his or her bed, he or she should hang up the towel that was used after getting out of the shower.

You can do this before the child gets out of bed if he or she has awakened before the alarm went off.

The towel can be kept out by your child's bed for the next morning.

3. Break up "My room, my rules"

For the older child, start teaching them that the bedroom is for sleeping in, reading, watching movies, doing homework, or other activities that are relaxing and not concerning to you.

They are not your TV or stereo system. That's what their room is for.

If they are part of the family, children should learn to use both rooms for their intended purposes.

As they grow older, this can change how they divide up their time as parents' schedules dictate.

Either way, make sure your child is involved in a simple, clear, and written agreement on who has which room and what is appropriate behavior in each.

4. Post a morning schedule

Perhaps the most important thing for any family to do is to set a morning schedule.

It should look like the clock at 9:00: get the children up, make their bed, eat breakfast, get dressed, and do their homework.

This may take some time for the child to understand and can be done by the child or by a family meeting.

If your family is a regular church-going family, having the children's church lessons or other meetings at a set time also is important.

This is so that the children will be well prepared for worship and will be able to settle themselves as they listen to the sermon.

A child in a faith-based home will have a set schedule that he or she is required to adhere to each morning.

If you make this a routine, it will become easier for your children to start school each day on time.

5. Schedule family meals

If you are a typical family, you should have dinner together at least three nights per week.

For families who work, dinner together is even more important

. Depending on your schedule, a weekly dinner or even a once-weekly dinner maybe your only time to spend with the family.

Family time is essential to a child's well-being, and it's also essential to the parent's mental health.

Not having this time to prepare for and gather around the dinner table may also cause your child to avoid the table at other times, which can hurt her or his ability to maintain self-control.

6. Prepare healthy snacks for snack time

Another great way to make sure your child's health and nutrition are intact and growing at an appropriate pace is to make sure she or he eats healthy snacks for snack time.

They should have a variety of different fruits and vegetables with each snack, with a minimum of one serving. These fruits and vegetables should be those in their color group.

Kids who eat a balanced diet are healthier, and it is important to encourage this early on.

7. Promote outside play

One of the best ways to grow a child's inner world is to spend time outside with him or her.

This is often referred to as unstructured play, and it is the type of play that stimulates a child's mind.

It is the type of play that is not self-directed and can cause a child to use his or her imagination and other cognitive thinking skills.

For these reasons, getting your child out of the house to play often is a wonderful thing.

Many families don't take advantage of all the opportunities for unstructured play that are in their neighborhood and other open areas.