Does your family face an early morning each school day? Our family has for years and we have fine-tuned the art of making early mornings run smoothly. Ok, most of the time they run smoothly. Here are our tips to make mornings run smoother.
In our house, we have a cross-country runner, a football player, and a soccer player. This means they both set their alarms for 5:55 am each weekday. And they are only 13 and 15. It’s a tough way to start each morning, but I am confident that this discipline at such an early age is going to pay off one day…..or so I keep telling myself.
And after a few weeks of rushed starts, forgotten items, and nutrition-free lunches, I decided we needed to have a better plan to make this early start work for our family. I gathered the kids and we discussed a few easy ways to make each morning run smoothly. We put it into practice the last few weeks and it has been working out well.
So whether you have early morning sport or band practice, or you just need to find a way to make school mornings work better in your house, check out these tips that have worked for my family.
7 Tips to Make Mornings Run Smoother
Make Mornings Run Smoother: Post a Schedule for the Whole Family
Everyone in our family likes to know what’s happening each week. Rather than tell them over and over, we have one central spot where we post a weekly schedule. It’s in a convenient spot int eh kitchen where the kids (and dad) can see the week at one place. For me, it helps to plan out the week so I am mentally prepared for it.
Make Mornings Run Smoother: Always Set a Back-up Alarm
Let’s face it. Alarm clocks are not fool proof – even the ones on your iPhone. Or if you are like my 13 year old son, he sleeps through them. So I make sure that both my kids have a back-up alarm set. Sometimes the “back-up” is me coming upstairs to make sure they are awake. There is nothing worse than a used start to you day because you work up late.
Make Mornings Run Smoother: Pack Your Bags at Night
Be one step closer to getting out the door by packing your school or gym bags the night before. It’s a quick step to ensure you are prepared for the next day. And you are less likely to forget something by packing at night with a fully-awake brain. We take it one step further and have the kids put their bags by the door, ready to go in the morning.
Make Mornings Run Smoother: Make Your Lunches the Night Before
We pack all the non-perishable items in lunch bags onto counter the night before. Personally, I don’t like packing lunches in the morning, so it works great for me to quickly make 3 sandwiches, grab the cold items and throw it in with the rest of the packed lunch in the mornings.
We have also created a list of items for each of our kid to pack and pasted it on the inside of our pantry door for the kids to take a little ownership in packing their own lunches.
Make Mornings Run Smoother: Lay Out Your Clothes
It’s a simple step but by having your clothes laid out before you go to bed, you avoid the time it takes deciding what to wear, or in the case of my boys, finding their clean clothes to wear. It works out for my foggy-brained boys to roll out of bed and crawl into the clothes they have picked out already.
Make Mornings Run Smoother: Less Bright Lights in the Morning
My older 2 kids get up early – like 6AM early, where the house and sky is still pitch black. To help keep the house quiet (and allow their younger brother to stay asleep), we have started using these GE Motion-Activated LED Night Lights. We placed one in the hallway leading to the bathroom and one on the staircase, so they don’t have to flip on the bright overhead lights each morning.
The Motion LED Lights plug in like a nightlight. They have a motion sensing on/off feature with dual light levels. I was very pleased with how well they light the staircase, preventing any late night or early morning tumbles. The lights have a 45-minute timeout feature so they stay on long enough to finish their morning routines.
I actually set one up in my kitchen to, so after I am going upstairs to wake the kids up, I can make my coffee without have to flip on the bright kitchen lights.
Make Mornings Run Smoother: Set Up a Carpool
Carpools have been a blessing for our family. We always find other friends in the neighborhood that are involved in the same activities so we can carpool, especially to the early morning practices. By not having to drive every other day or so, it’s one less responsibility I have to worry about every single morning.
By making a few changes to our routine and planning ahead, our mornings have been running much smoother. What tips do you have that work for early morning starts in your family?
GE Motion-Activated LED Night Lights Giveaway
I am excited to bring this fun giveaway to you where one winner will receive an Amazon gift card valued at $200 on behalf of GE! Check out how to enter below:
Disclosure: This is sponsored post with GE & Acorn. All opinions are my own.