Well school has finally started for both my children just this week! Here on the West Coast we seem to start several weeks after the rest of the country.
My children only go to preschool and Kindergarten for a few hours but it still brings havoc to the household. We also have all those extra curricular activities like gymnastics and soccer so things can get super crazy.
I have been trying to get myself into a groove (and dragging the family along with me) to avoid those horrible mornings when you race out the door with no breakfast, the soccer clothes are all dirty, I forgot the (insert whatever it is here) that I was supposed to bring…
Such a terrible way to start the day, so here is one little thing I made to try and keep us on track in the morning and evening.
Now I have little ones and this just happens to be our routine and hopefully some of you can use this too.
I made this little one sheet paper with all the stuff that needs to happen in the morning and evening. Mostly I made this because my husband is in charge of dropping one child off in the morning and I go across town to get the other one to school. I like for us to both be on the same page with getting the kiddos ready so really this is probably more for him then me and the girls ;).
We live in California so I insist on sunscreen every morning- rain or shine. We just have a little pump right on the counter that I dab on their faces while I am doing their hair and then they rub it all in.
At bedtime, I try to get them to wash their faces especially on the nights we don’t have a bath so that they get into a good routine for their entire lives. I also have them pick up any junk they have left behind before bed- toys and books and clothing.
One thing that really helps is that I lay out everyone’s clothes the night before. I used to lay out a week at a time but that got to be too hard with keeping up on laundry and the weather changing etc… (And for my children clothing is a BIG deal so I work with them to figure out what they want to wear. Avoids huge tantrums in the morning…)
The last thing is to make sure we have everything we need set out for the morning. If it is soccer practice I make sure the backpack with all the soccer gear is ready to go.. if it is share day we make sure that item is ready, all homework and library books need to be set out and on and on… It just makes everything so much smoother.
So there you have it! I found a cute frame for $9.99 at Hobby Lobby and then had this printed out at Staples for $.50. My frame is actually 8×10 so I just need to pop down to Staples and get the image printed a tiny bit smaller but otherwise it has been working great!
The morning routine in blue here
or the morning routine in pink here
And if you have little ones, you might check out the Back to School lunchbox ideas here.
What a great idea – storing this away for future use!
{here in Wisconsin, the kids don’t start til after labor day. state law here}
My kids are a bit older (10 & 7) and have the morning routine down pat. The bedtime routine though still needs work, specially re picking up mess with the younger one. Thanks!
Thanks so much for sharing! I love it! Anyway to customize it by removing or adding things to the list? I have a special needs son that should work really well with, thanks again for posting.
when is bath time?
Melissa,
We don’t have a set time. My girls don’t have a bath every night and our evenings are usually different so sometimes they shower and sometimes bathe. It all depends but normally bath time would be after dinner and then they get a game or a cartoon and then the bedtime process starts.
thins is very helpful
Thank you!
Chore Charts is really work.
I am a single mother with three children all of them of preschool age so I know how important keeping organised. The evening and morning routine is important. In the evening, children collect backpacks and prepare clothes. They Wake up in the morning, wash their face, brush their teeth, make the bed, etc. We use the Manini app and we have set up a morning and evening routine. Children see tasks, complete them, and mark them as completed. It is a huge relief for parents and children when the morning starts easily.
Thanks for sharing your tips Amelie!