Creating a Smooth School Morning Routine for Your Child

Parents with children often feel under stress to do everything on time when starting the day. Establishing a school morning routine can be the right way to improve your organization. Here’s how to ensure the kids (and you) complete all tasks and arrive at school on time!

Contents:

• Stress-Free Morning Routine for Parents and Kids
  • Planning a Routine for School Mornings
  • Example Routine for School Mornings
  • Tips to Help Your School Morning Routine Work Well
• School Morning Routine for Teens
• After-School Routine
• FAQs

Stress-Free Morning Routine for Parents and Kids

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They say preparation is key to success. That’s among the top priorities when establishing a morning routine for school. It will take some trial and error until you perfect things. Our advice is to remain patient since that’s the recipe for coming up with an optimal schedule.

Here is some guidance that will help everything go well on a school morning!

Planning a Routine for School Mornings

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It’s all about knowing what to expect ahead. That’s why you want to sit down and think about things that must be a part of your school routine. And here’s the kicker—most of the action might happen in the morning, but you want to start preparing in the evening.

Here are some steps that can help to create a bulletproof schedule:

1. Think about things that happen each morning. These include ensuring the kids’ bags are ready for school, having breakfast, and getting dressed. These are regular occurrences, so they’ll always be a part of your morning routines.
2. Consider specific events for the next day or week. Your kids might have a gym class on Tuesdays. Perhaps your child is part of a show in school, and that requires a costume, so you need to ensure they take it with them. These aren’t regular occurrences, but you can plan them ahead.
3. Analyze everything and see what you can complete the evening before. You have more time then, so you’ll feel less stress. Helping your kid to get their bag ready, ironing out children’s clothes, charging all devices, and preparing lunch are some tasks to finish before you head to bed.
4. Create a checklist and timeline for the morning. The idea is not to let anything surprise you. We suggest listing everything that usually happens, from making the bed to visiting the bathroom and having breakfast. Being careful in planning how long every activity takes is crucial. Our advice is to leave some time in between for “unforeseen events.” You can also prioritize things to complete and focus on top priorities first.
5. Adjust the list on the go. The first routine followed might not prove more productive than a usual morning. The key is in assessing what went wrong, and where you can do better. For example, if getting up on time is a problem, discuss with your kid how to improve that. Also, try to adjust the routine and allow it to start a bit later (as much as possible).

Example Routine for School Mornings

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No one-size-fits-all formula exists for a school morning routine. It’s all about designing a perfect schedule for your family. However, here are some examples of how a common routine looks:

• 7:00 AM. You are waking up and visiting the bathroom.
• 7:15 AM. Time to wake up your child.
• 7:30 AM. It’s when your kids have time to visit the bathroom. Explain that they should brush their teeth, wash their faces, and comb and tidy their hair. You can use this time to prepare breakfast.
• 7:50 AM. The slot for having breakfast together.
• 8:15 AM. Now your kid should get dressed and check if their bag is ready for school.
• 8:30 AM. Time to leave the house and take your kid to school.

You can also sit down with your child to discuss how to create a great morning routine. Using some videos from YouTube for inspiration could be helpful:

Or use one of these ready-made reminders (you can print it out and hang it on the wall, or create a new one with your child, turning it into a fun and useful activity!):

Tips to Help Your School Morning Routine Work Well

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The routine is ready, and it seems like something that could work. Based on years of experience, here are some tips that can ensure everything goes smoothly:

• Bath time is always the night before. It ensures that the task will be completed. Also, it could be better from a health point of view. If they take a bath in the morning, you risk that they go to school with their head wet, which could cause a cold.
• Getting up early is easier if you head to bed earlier. That’s basic math regardless of your age. Depending on how old they are, your kid will need anywhere from eight to 12 hours of sleep. Our tip is to agree on a mutual bedtime that works for all parties.
• Set the alarm for yourself and your kids. It reduces the risk of someone sleeping longer than planned in the mornings. You can motivate your child by giving them a timeframe for waking up. For example, if they get up at 6:45, they can watch a cartoon. But if they get up at 7:15, there is no cartoon or choosing which shoes to wear.
• Aim to be in a good mood. A smile is always free, and it’s a good way to encourage your children to finish their tasks. If you seem nervous, that will transfer to the young ones, increasing the tension and causing delays in the schedule.
• Make everything a game. You can tell your kids that anyone who manages to finish all their tasks and leave the house on time gets extra time for watching cartoons or playing games on a mobile device in the evening.

Extra tip: Use the Kids360 app to get children off their phones. In today’s digital world, it’s hard to forbid your kids from using cell phones. However, you can limit their time spent on a mobile device.

The Kids360 app

The software allows creating a schedule that will ensure kids don’t use their phones at specific times. That could be time for homework, school hours, or during morning routines. It’s also possible to add tasks to finish and unlock additional screen time. That makes Kids360 the ideal motivational software to encourage your children to finish their assignments on time!

Kids360 app is available for Android and iOS for free, or with additional premium features. Try it now!

School Morning Routine for Teens

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Once your child gets older, you might need to adapt the morning routine to some extent. For example, teens might want to prepare their own breakfast, and it could be something different than what their parents eat. They’ll surely prefer choosing what to wear themselves.

Overall, teenagers want to feel more freedom. Your task as a parent is to make that possible as long as it doesn’t affect things being done in time. Swapping the order of doing two-morning activities isn’t that important as long as they finish them both.

That’s why your exact schedule for a morning routine could become more like a chart. Ask your teen to sit down and establish what the entire routine will look like. Here are some things you need to cover:

• Come to an agreement on which activities to include in a routine. The essentials must remain, and that includes brushing their teeth and ensuring the clothes that they’ll wear are clean, ironed, and ready in time. Completing homework and getting school bags ready should also be on the must-complete chart.
• Try to be as adaptable as possible. Does your teen say they’ll finish homework after dinner instead of before? Would they prefer to take breakfast to eat during a pause in school? You can agree to these but always double-check if they actually did what they promised. Honoring the deals made is crucial, and that’s something parents should emphasize, as well as do their part.
• Ask what kind of assistance they need. You can ask if they want you to prepare breakfast or iron their clothes. However, underline that it’s necessary to think ahead and ask for favors in time.

After-School Routine

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Things couldn’t have gone better in the morning, and the kids are off to school. That motivates you to consider how you will plan the rest of the day. Setting up an after-school routine can also help to complete all tasks for the day while having sufficient hours for leisure activities.

The critical thing to consider is that the after-school routine doesn’t have to be as strict. There’s more time, and that means far more flexibility. You don’t want to be too leisurely because it’s still necessary to finish some things.

Here’s how an example after-school routine can look:

• 4:00 PM. Picking up the kids from school.
• 4:30 PM. Having a meal together at home or outside.
• 5:00 PM. Letting children wind up by choosing what they want to do.
• 6:30 PM. Time to do the homework.
• 8:00 PM. Having dinner together.
• 8:30 PM. Preparing for tomorrow.
• 9:00-10:00 PM. Heading to bed.

The routine can be flexible and you might need to alter it from one day to another. For example, there might be sports or other after-school activities on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can also assess the situation when you go and pick up your children from school. If they seem energetic or eager to do something, consider if it’s doable to insert an activity like riding a bike. But if they feel like resting, head back home and let them chill after a tiring school day.

Worried about your child’s safety at school? Findmykids offers real-time location tracking to give you peace of mind. Download the app now and stay connected all day long.

Parents must understand that establishing a school morning routine that works is a process. It could take time to ensure your kids start waking up early. Perhaps you’ll need to add some incentives to motivate them to finish their bathroom activities and get ready on time. But after a few weeks, everyone will feel comfortable and enjoy the routine.

What are your experiences with school morning routines? If you have a secret tip or a recommendation we failed to mention, don’t hesitate to share it in the comment section. We are looking forward to exchanging opinions and ideas on designing the perfect school routine for our young ones!

FAQs

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What Is a Good Morning Routine for School?

A good morning routine is one that gets your kids to finish all planned tasks for the morning and leave the house on time. The general routine includes visiting the bathroom, eating breakfast, getting dressed, and getting ready for school.

What Is the Best Morning Routine for a Student?

It depends on how old the students are. However, some basics are to wake up on time, eat a healthy breakfast, and have sufficient time to get ready for school.

What’s a Good Morning Routine for a 13-Year-Old?

It starts by waking up on time while hopefully getting enough hours of sleep. It’s why the morning routine actually starts the night before. Teens can also get their clothes and school bags ready in the evening. That leaves bathroom activities, having breakfast, and getting dressed for the morning.

What Do You Do in the Morning Before Going to School?

It’s best to prioritize things. For children, it’s important to have a healthy breakfast, brush their teeth and do other bathroom activities, and get their bags for school ready. Parents, on the other hand, should prepare breakfast, consider the clothes the kid wears, and monitor if all activities are completed. Homework should be completed the night before to avoid limited time for finishing it in the morning.

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