Morning Tips for Kids & Their Parents

Morning is the best time of the day. Working parents of schoolchildren will only chuckle here. They lack time for everything, and the children mess around and fail to do anything quickly. However, morning is the best time of the day, if you arrange everything properly. Try to put these tips into practice, and you will see that you can help you child get ready for school without any hassle.

Here are some simple but effective tips.

Get enough sleep

This is the first and most important advice. The quality and quantity of rest influences our state of health, mood and performance. If you do not get enough sleep, the rest of the day will be spoilt. Is it difficult to figure out when to say “stop”, drop your home affairs and go to bed? There are useful calculators that will determine the correct time to go to bed. For children, you should simply add 2-3 hours to the time you get. For example, if you and your child need to get up at 7 am, the kid should be in bed at 20:00, and you should go to sleep not later than 22:00.

Pack your things in the evening

To get rid of much stress the morning, do everything you need the night before. For example, immediately after dinner prepare the containers with the dishes that your nearest will take to work with them the next day and place them in the refrigerator. Cook breakfast in the evening not to waste time in the morning. Put the tea leaves into cups (coffee in the coffee maker) and lay the table.

Children can collect the needed notebooks and textbooks, as well as prepare the clothes they will wear the next day. Select a special place where you will put all the school stuff, in such a way you will not have to wonder where the school bag, indoor shoes or boxes for lunch have disappeared. By the way, arrange a place for your things too – rushing around the house in search of the phone or the keys looks funny only once.

Get up earlier than your children

If you set your alarm clock 15-30 minutes earlier than the time other members of your family wake up, it will be easier to get into a working pace. The best way would be to have enough time to take a shower, to get dressed and drink your morning cup of coffee. Think of the morning ritual that will serve as a good start of the day and stick to it before the kids wake up.

Make a schedule

This is just a list of everything that needs to be done in the morning. For little children, you may use pictures with actions instead of verbal descriptions.

Sample items:

• Brush your teeth.
• Comb your hair.
• Wash your face.
• Get dressed.
• Have breakfast.
• Put on your shoes.
• Take the school bag and the container with lunch.

When you make a list, go through all the steps together with the child, highlighting the importance of each step.

Set feasible tasks

Give children the instructions they are able to cope with. Your child may be old enough to take a shower and get dressed on his/her own, but a baby will not do this. Consider the child’s abilities and set a reasonable time limit to be sure the task is fulfilled. Encourage your child to perform these instructions and do not do everything for him/her. Of course, it will be much faster if you dress your child, but it is a disservice that will discourage the children from learning new things.

The “when – then” rule

This is one of the most effective tools in parents’ arsenal – the rule of the sequence of activities with a delayed reward. Or, if we put it simpler, the “when – then” rule. This rule will help to motivate the child to perform all the morning duties, even unwanted ones, like brushing his/her teeth or getting dressed. The hated occupations should be followed by the most desired ones – breakfast, games or watching cartoons. We need to specify what morning occupations the child loves most of all and make them possible only after every other task is accomplished. For example, only when the kid gets dressed and makes his/her bed, everyone will sit down to breakfast. Be confident of your determination and toughness; otherwise using the rule will be pointless.

Keep calm

Children feel that you are in a hurry and cannot help starting to “slow down” in contrast. When everything goes wrong, exhale and explain to your child why you now need his/her help and say quietly what he/she has to do. Kids tend to copy our actions and the tone of our conversation. If you often raise your voice when communicating in the morning or manifest your discontent by pushing, try to reconsider your behavior.

Weekend is a holiday

On Saturday and Sunday, you should not aspire to accomplish all the points in your traditional schedule. Just make sure the children get adequate sleep, and then you may relax and forget about the usual routine. Cook breakfast together, read a story to the children before they go to wash and brush their teeth, watch cartoons together with the whole family, go to a cafe or shop. Together with the children, think of some entertainment options that will please every member of the family.

Coping with a thirst for attention

Children may strongly oppose the established routine, starting endless debates about breakfast dishes, refusing to wear certain things or just playing when they should be ready to leave. In the morning, they often want a little attention from the parents, and resistance or failure to act will surely help achieve this goal. There are several ways to satisfy both sides of the conflict – the child will get your care, and you will leave the house at the right time.

Encourage the child and remind him/her of the things to be done, but do not coddle. Let the child understand the consequences of wasting time – for example, a missed breakfast, or a forgotten notebook with the homework.

Make it clear that TV can be watched only after everything is done

Use an alarm clock in the children’s bedroom. Then you will be sure that the child will wake up at the same time every day and will not oversleep, if you are busy and forget to wake him/her up.

Avoid lecturing. Questions like “What will happen if you do not dress in time?” and “How did you feel when you were late for the class?” are much more effective when involving a child into dialogue. Boring lectures make you want to cover your ears, whereas independent reasoning helps to understand the connection between the action and the result.

Speak about a case in your life, when you were putting the things off for later, and the consequences of such procrastination. These stories are very instructive for children.

Plan in advance and give your child plenty of time to carry out the tasks. Remember the importance of sober expectations.

Let your child see that you need his/her help, and tell him/her that you will be very grateful if he/she gets dressed quickly to get to school in time. This welcomes cooperation rather than provokes a protest.

A quick action plan for good parents

Here are some questions, the answers to which will prompt what is wrong with your morning.

• Do your children have a list of morning occupations and do they follow it? Will the kids perform their duties with greater pleasure, if you draw a list of tasks in the form of a colorful schedule?
• Are there any procedures that you perform with the children each morning? Are there any that can be done the night before? For example, choosing clothes, preparing dinner and putting it in containers, packing a school bag and so on.
• Do you have time for a cup of coffee in peace and quietness until the children wake up?

There are no right or wrong answers. The purpose of these questions is just to help you figure out the situation and understand what you can change to make your morning good to you and the whole family.

Study the sleep schedule of your family members and make sure that no one suffers from lack of sleep. Just a few weeks of normal sleep will help you understand how easier it has become to get up. Discuss with your family the value of each person’s effort in the morning to have good spirits and to be ready in time. Come up with fun ideas for the weekend together. Let everyone look forward to these days.

Attempts to establish a morning routine may be frightening at first because of the imaginary time consumption, but the ease with which you and your children will get ready in the morning soon justifies the effort completely. Your morning will no longer seem very nasty and will turn into the most peaceful time and a great starting-point of a good day.