And just like that, everybody’s back in school.
My kids always appreciate fall break, even though their breaks don’t often align with their parents’. Sleeping til 7 or even 7:20 is way better than waking up at 6:15 a.m. like they do on normal days, but we have started some routines this school year to make things just a little easier. Since we’re all back in school this week and no doubt feeling the effects of being off for a week, I thought I’d share some of my tips for making school mornings a little easier.
Honestly, the key to a good morning is a prepared afternoon. My kids know when they get home from school, we’ve got to do school prep. First, because my kids would rather be barefoot than anything else, put up socks and shoes. School shoes can be kept in the shoe caddy by the door for convenience, but it has to be put up. Then, we do homework. For my little one, this includes reading and doing a little math. For my older one…y’all, honestly I don’t know, she’s been self-sufficient since second grade.
Once homework is done, we hang our backpacks by the door on – I kid you not – Command hooks I bought from Walmart. Nothing fancy, but it gets the backpacks off the floor and in a convenient location to grab them when heading to school, because last year I took my little one’s backpack to school more often than I liked.
After that, it’s time to get clothes ready. This has been a GAME CHANGER in our household. Our kids wear uniforms, so we have to have a skirt, a shirt, and socks prepped. No more announcing 30 minutes before they leave for school that they don’t have a clean skirt. No more scrambling around five minutes before it’s time to leave that they can’t find matching socks. No, no, no. We take care of that nonsense the night before, and it makes for a much less frazzled morning. Often, too, while they’re getting their clothes together, I try to figure out what I’m wearing the next day too, because, frankly, getting ready in the morning is the bane of my existence.
This all (minus the homework, which can take somewhere between 15-45 minutes) takes 10-15 minutes on average to do. But it makes all the difference in the world in making our school mornings a lot more pleasant.
