Morning routine ideas for your child
Many mornings can feel chaotic and like a race to get to school and work on time. During the week, your mornings can be all over the place with little organisation. It can be hard to wake your child up or get them ready, so they can have breakfast, and many crucial tasks can often be missed. This can also be the case at weekends, and during school holidays, as your child may want to stay in their pjs and watch TV, making you feel like you are never going to go anywhere for the day!
The morning rush can make any parent feel like they’ve lost control and you may want to scream as chaos surrounds you. Don’t worry, as we are here to help get your mornings on track with calming morning routine ideas for your child. These ideas can turn your chaotic mornings into peaceful, organised and happier mornings for everyone!
Plan a structured bed-time
In order to have a morning routine for kids that works, it is vital that your child gets enough sleep so they can wake up feeling refreshed. If a child has lack of sleep, they can be moody and groggy in the morning which won’t help them be productive when they wake up.
To ensure your child gets enough sleep, it is important to plan a structured bed-time and create a routine to follow every night. Doing this helps you make a positive and calm start to your day. There are many ways to create a structured bed-time that you can try to see what works best for your child.
Make a relaxing bath
A great way to calm your child down from the day is with a relaxing bubble bath. Set a time that works for you to slot a bath into, this could be after you have eaten. Let your child unwind and have some bubbly fun where they can splash around, calmly play with toys or read a book. Baths help kids to de-stress and is a perfect way to settle them down to go to sleep.
Encourage reading before going to sleep
Let your child curl up with a book in bed and spend some time escaping into another world. Reading aids children with calming down and feeling sleepy. You could further enhance this by reading a story to them as your child can feel soothed and ready to fall into a deep slumber.
Try to encourage some form of reading every night. However, if your child doesn’t want to read one night, find another activity such as singing a song to them or letting them play calmly with teddies. Make sure to avoid any screen time as looking at the light wakes the body up and keeps the mind running, so it is harder for your child to settle down.
Set a specific time for lights out
To encourage your child to go to sleep, have a set time for lights out. This will depend on your child’s age and how much sleep they need. It will also depend on the day and what time they need to wake up the next day. For a younger child, you may want to set lights out at 7:30pm during the week and 8:30pm for weekends. While for an older child, you could set lights out for 8:30pm during the week and 9:30pm for weekends.
Doing this helps your child get into a night-time routine and encourages them to go to sleep and wind down. This then ensures they wake up refreshed and rearing to go the next day.
Get a head start the night before
To be able to make a morning routine more successful and easier, it is a great idea to get as much as a head start as possible the night before. This could be doing anything that you tend to forget about when the morning rush hits. Ticking off as many jobs as you can the night before creates less things to do in the morning so you can focus on getting you and your child ready.
You could make and pack lunches the night before during the week. This ensures that your family have their lunch ready and waiting for them to take to school and work. Or you could encourage your child to pack their toys away and tidy their things so you don’t have the stress of clearing everything away in the morning.
You could also pick out clothes for yourself and your child the night before. Make sure to put clothes in an accessible place for the morning, such as hanging on the wardrobe door or in a basket outside your child’s room. This can be done for both during the week and at weekends!
Another great job to do the night before is packing bags. This could be school bags for the week or a bag for a day out at the weekend. Make sure everything your child needs is packed away ready for the morning. This prevents the last minute panic of checking if their homework’s in the bag or their P.E kit. Once packed, ensure that the bag is in an accessible location so your child won’t forget it in the morning.
Wake up first
Waking up before your child is one of the best morning routine ideas as it allows your morning to run more smoothly. This could be a couple of hours before your child wakes or even half an hour before. Doing this allows you to have crucial time to yourself. You can wake up peacefully with a coffee and get yourself ready for the day.
During this time, make sure to do what you need to do to be prepared for the day. This can be as simple as having a shower and getting dressed. When you are ready before your child, it makes sure that you can focus 100% on them when they wake. You won’t have to worry about getting yourself ready amid all the chaos once your child is up and about!
Gain your child’s input with making a morning routine
When planning your morning routine, it is best to get your child involved with making it. Doing this gives them a feeling of ownership and they will be more inclined to stick to it.
Create some time with your child to discuss what they would like their morning routine to be. Divide this into school days and non-school days and give them guidelines on tasks and chores they can do to help them.
Let them decide what order every task should go in and draw or write it out so that you can both see the plan easily. If their order doesn’t make sense to you, ask them questions like “why is this task here?” to gain an understanding. Try to keep the routine as close as possible to what your child wants. If any changes are needed, discuss them first and make sure that they agree before changing. Remind your child that the routine could be changed again if it doesn’t work and if this happens, revisit it together.
Create a gentle morning routine & stick to it
Make sure the morning routine you have created is as gentle as possible to encourage your child to carry it out effectively. Waking up gently helps your child to kick-start the day positively and be happier with the routine. Children can often wake tired and grumpy if they feel rushed, so having plenty of time in the morning is key.
A morning routine for kids can have anything they need to do to be prepared for the day in it such as:
Wake up
There are many things you can do to make the mornings more peaceful and gentle on your child. For starters, you could wake your child up with some snuggles and soothing music. This is a great idea to do if your child struggles to wake up on time and if alarms don’t work.
You could start the day with some out loud reading together to gently activate your child’s brain and wake them up. Reading is a fun and exciting way to wake up and creates quality bonding time with you. Your child can feel positive about the day when waking up with you by their side. They can feel comforted and close to you which, in turn, motivates them to want to carry out their morning routine.
Once your child has gently woken up, encourage them to carry out their tasks and chores to get ready for the day. This could be with upbeat music to make the routine feel more fun or create an engaging competition with a timer and see if your child can beat their best time to get ready.
Go to the toilet
When your child is awake, it is best to encourage them to go to the toilet straight away so that they can be comfortable for the rest of the morning. Make sure that they wash their hands and have a wash, or shower, afterwards too so that they feel refreshed and clean for the day.
Eat breakfast
Once your child is clean and is comfortable, they could have breakfast to give them energy for the day and wake them up further, so they want to carry out the rest of the routine. Plus, having breakfast before they are dressed prevents any spillages on their clean clothes.
Brush teeth
After breakfast your child could brush their teeth to feel fresher for the day and reinforce good dental hygiene.
Get dressed
Once their teeth are brushed, they can get dressed for the day with the outfit you have prepared the night before. Doing this after brushing teeth makes sure no toothpaste gets onto their clean clothes and gives them more time for their brains to wake up, so they want to get dressed and start the day.
Brush/comb hair
When your child is dressed you could brush/comb their hair, or they can do it themselves. You can decide together if they want it styled and take some time to make them look presentable for the day.
Chores
Now your child is ready, they can carry out some simple and quick chores before they leave. This could be making the bed or tidying their toys away!
Check bag
Get your child to check their bag to make sure they have everything they need, especially for school. Pack their lunch into the bag or, if you haven’t had time the night before, pack their bag with them.
Pick an activity for when you’re home
Just before you leave the house for school and work or to go out at the weekend, let your child pick out one activity they can do as soon as they come home. This could be drawing or playing with a certain toy. Whatever they choose, let them get the items they need out and place it somewhere reachable, such as the dining room table.
Put on shoes and coat
Have your child’s shoes and coat ready and in an accessible place. This could be on a shoe rack and coat hanger by the door, or, if you don’t have these, get them out earlier and place them near the door. This makes sure that less time is spent looking for their shoes and coat and they can quickly put them on to leave on time.
Check you have everything & leave
Have a quick final check that you have got everything needed for the day, before you exit the door, and then head outside for school or for a fun weekend day out!
Have easy to see morning routine checklists
One of the most important morning routine ideas is to create eye-catching morning routine checklists. This will break down task by task what your child needs to do when they have woken up. Having these checklists around the house creates a visual reminder for your child and reinforces what they need to do, so they are more likely to stick to it! Checklists can provide you more time to focus on what you need to do as they encourage your child to get ready for the day independently.
Make sure to have copies of these checklists around your home in visible places, such as your child’s bedroom, the bathroom and on the fridge in the kitchen. This way, your child is constantly reminded of the routine so they feel more inclined to carry it out every day.
Make a morning basket or drawer for needed items
To make your mornings that little bit quicker, it is ideal to create a morning basket or drawer for needed items. Think about everything your family needs instantly in the morning and put it all in one, convenient place. This could be items such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, hair brushes/combs, plasters and bobbles.
This basket or drawer could be stored in a convenient place that everyone uses, such as the landing or bathroom. Having the needed items in one place makes sure that everyone has what they desperately need to get ready instantly. This reduces time that may usually be spent trying to locate a needed item that can often make you late.
Take away distractions
For during school time, one of the best morning routine ideas is to take away any distractions, or try to reduce them. During the week, it is vital for your child to focus on their morning routine and getting ready for the day, as they have to be ready for a certain time. Try to limit or take away distractions during these mornings to keep your child on track.
Distractions could be toys, TV, phones, tablets, games and activities. Anything they can play with, get distracted by and stall their morning routine with needs to be put away or limited. For example, you could discuss the importance of being punctual for school and how there isn’t much time for these distractions.
You could set a small amount of time aside in the morning, like 10 minutes, for your child to use one of these distractions. But, make sure they are willing to part with it after this time and crack on with their morning. Stress to them how important it is to turn it off, or stop playing, as soon as the time limit is over to avoid any time-consuming tantrums. If your child does have a tantrum, simply take the item away and don’t allow them to use it the next morning.
Kick-start the day with a nutritious breakfast
It is vital to kick-start yours and your child’s day with a healthy and nutritious breakfast. This ensures everyone has the energy needed for their day and starts the morning off positively. There are lots of nutritious breakfast ideas that can be made quickly and easily. Try some of these ideas out for a different, healthy breakfast.
Quick crepes
A quick and nutritional breakfast option is crepes. They are easy and quick to make for the mornings as they only take a couple of minutes to cook. Your child can have fresh, made-to-serve crepes with their favourite fruit, like strawberries or blueberries, to start their day off just right.
Breakfast quiche
Bake a breakfast quiche the night before ready to serve as a quick and healthy breakfast in the morning. Find out how to make it here.
Porridge and fruit
A simple and quick classic for your child’s breakfast is porridge with fruit. All you need is porridge oats and milk to heat in the microwave and provide your child with a healthy, warming and delicious breakfast! Let your child choose their favourite fruit to have with it such as banana or strawberries.
Yoghurt and fruit
Another really quick and nutritious breakfast for your child is yoghurt and fruit. Make sure to purchase some tasty thick, low-fat yoghurt (natural or Greek) and have delicious fruits, like raspberries, blueberries or peaches.
Healthy fruity muffins
Get your bake on the night before ready for a scrumptious, healthy breakfast to kick-start your morning. Make healthy fruity muffins, these could be strawberry muffins or blueberry, and provide your child with a yummy morning treat. You could even let your child help you make them!
Granola and yoghurt
Give your child that crucial burst of energy in the morning with some tasty granola and yoghurt. Granola is very nutritious and starts your child’s day off positively, as it is the perfect cereal to fuel your little ones body.
Have some fun playtime scheduled
Within your morning routine, schedule some time for fun. This is ideal for the non-school days but can also be implemented into school days, for a shorter time period. Allow your child to gain energy through play. They could do some imaginative play with toys or head outdoors to blow off some steam with trampolining, cycling or role-playing. Having this time makes the routine more engaging for your child so they want to participate in it. It also gives them an opportunity to have some fun before their day starts.
You could even encourage exercise time within this. You could do parent and child yoga to stretch the body awake and feel refreshed and ready to tackle the day ahead.
Be flexible & plan for extra time needed
No matter how perfect a morning routine for kids is on paper, something is always bound to happen from time to time, that can really delay your morning. Make sure you factor in for unexpected occurrences when you plan your routine. Carry out your morning routine with an open mind and be flexible when disaster strikes.
A great way to do this is by factoring in extra time needed when doing your tasks. This means waking a little earlier and ensuring your child wakes a little earlier too. It is also good to start the first task as early as possible so that if anything happens, you have the time to deal with it. If waking up can be a problem, plan extra time to carry out a certain task to give you that extra time for disasters to happen.
Unexpected tantrums can occur during the morning, or the risk of oversleeping or snoozing an alarm too many times. Someone can spill something on themselves, lose an item or have an accident too. The best thing to do when anything like this happens during the morning is not to panic. Remain calm and deal with the situation. Don’t rush the solution as the extra time you have created allows you to calmly solve the issue.
Doing this allows you all to be able to have some chaos in the morning without being behind schedule. You can feel relaxed and happy through the chaos knowing that you can still make it out the door on time!
Remember, being ahead of schedule is always better than being behind!
Reward your child for their efforts
No matter how your morning went, whether there were some organised chaos or it went perfectly, reward your child for their efforts with their morning routine. This could be as simple as taking some time out of the schedule to praise them for their participation, or giving them a small treat. If you finish the morning routine early, you could reward your child with letting them spend the last few minutes playing, watching TV, or reading.
Rewarding your child for their efforts with their routine increases their motivation to stick to it as much as possible. It also recognises them for doing their tasks and chores, which can make them feel seen, responsible and grown up. They can breathe a sigh of relief that their efforts are noticed and they can feel excited to continue doing the routine daily.
Morning routines can be difficult to implement and can take some time before they work effectively. Try out our morning routine ideas for your child to make your mornings run smoothly and reduce the chaos of rushing around as much as possible.
It is vital for your child to have a calm morning to wake themselves up and be ready for the day, while remaining positive and happy. Remember, a morning routine for kids won’t fall into place overnight. Work at it with your child, readjusting areas that don’t work, and encourage your child to participate to create a more peaceful and stress-free morning that positively kicks off the day!
Morning routines can be difficult to implement and can take some time before they work effectively. Try out our morning routine ideas for your child to make your mornings run smoothly and reduce the chaos of rushing around as much as possible.
It is vital for your child to have a calm morning to wake themselves up and be ready for the day, while remaining positive and happy. Remember, a morning routine for kids won’t fall into place overnight. Work at it with your child, readjusting areas that don’t work, and encourage your child to participate to create a more peaceful and stress-free morning that positively kicks off the day!
