The end of summer is just around the corner–for most, the first day of school is less than a month away! A return to routine can often be welcome for parents but challenging for children. As you help your kids adjust to the school year routine, some helpful tips and tricks will make your transition go more smoothly.
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Tip 1: Wake Before Your Children
A big part of successfully getting children through their morning routine with less stress is when parents wake before their children. This shift can make a profound difference for both kids and parents.
We understand this can be quite difficult, particularly if your child wakes early, such as six or even 5 o'clock in the morning.
If awakening before your child is not possible, it is still helpful when the parents try to be ready for the day before their children. As a parent, it is helpful if you can drink your coffee, be dressed, exercise, or overall be ready to begin your day before your children. When you can do this, it is a huge benefit to your child.
This enables parents to not be sleepy at the same time as their children but rather feel alert enough to guide their children supportively through their morning routine.
Tip 2: Train Kids to Navigate Their Own Routine
Next, the goal is to train your children to navigate their own morning routine.
This can be done through some kind of gradual process, for example:
- The first could be that you stay in the room with the child and actually help them get dressed.
- Once they've mastered that, you could stay in the room and coach them through the process as they dress themselves.
- Next, you could simply stay present in the room without any coaching.
- Once they are confident with that, you could stand outside their room while they dress independently and delightfully surprise you at the end!
Tip 3: Refine Your Child’s Eating Schedule
The third tip to a successful time-saving morning routine is to determine what is best for your child regarding their eating schedule.
Is it better for them to eat before getting dressed because that puts them in a better mood, or are they not so hungry in the morning, and getting dressed first will give them more time to build up an appetite?
Many children commonly wake up exhausted and sleepy from the night, with typically no motivation to get them moving to be ready for school. Couple this with the pressure to rush rush rush, and you have a difficult combination for cooperation.
Instead, consider if you wake your child with enough time to get through their morning routine with time to connect calmly while factoring in time to transition to an alert state to face the day. Setting up this scenario makes it much easier for the child to cooperate.
The Secret to Saving Time on School Mornings
There is not one magic tip that will make every school morning perfect for your kids. Children, like adults, are only human. They wake up well-rested some days and tired others; happy one morning and crabby the next.
However, with a few tips in your back pocket, you can do your best as a parent to help your child have a seamless morning before school and save yourself time (and headache) in the process.
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