Morning routine of getting ready for school! Lessons learned.
Making prep-time a nicer experience for everyone involved. A game for ages: 3 and up
This is a personal story. This is story mixed with creativity, time management, cereals and getting ready for school. Here we go.
Having kids that are really young and kind of inexperienced with the morning routine of getting ready for school has a certain sound to it. Based on my experience so far, it is a whirlwind of moving parts and sounds around sweet talking to wake up, brushing teeth, dressing up, eating breakfast, crying/shouting, lunch prepping. There are so many things that needs doing and you have a very specific time-box to perform that!
In the rare cases I’m guest in a friend’s house I clearly recognise the sound of “getting ready for school” homes in the surrounding apartments. It’s like balancing on a rope; many things can drop you off and even maintaining balance it’s really difficult!
Start early to have everything setup is really essential! I usually start my day at 06:30am or even 06:00am where I can have some time to read some news and setup mood music according to my mental state. My wife is working as a school teacher and I usually try to secure her all the morning time she needs to prepare for her work too! In that early morning window I prepare cereal for the kids, their lunch-boxes and water flasks.
I like drawing, so I manage to safe some time to draw something cute on stickers we add on each kid’s spoon/fork for lunch. This early-day creativity brings a smile on my face and I’m pretty sure my kids really like the result :)
Wake up the kids at around 07:00am. This can take up to 15 or 20 minutes. I try to overcome any difficulties at waking up with some cuddling and trying to bring a smile on their sleepy faces with whatever comes to mind. Of course I’m not in that mood daily and my wife could takeover part of this task.
Kids after that are jumping on their cereals. During that time I’m preparing their snack of choice.
This time needs a lot of focus and attention because the kids usually try to brag or tease each other, usually ending in tears or shouting. We try to overcome these situations by shifting focus to a common interest or to ourselves.
If the adults manage to stay calm at this point everything will be easier. Some of the techniques we use are:
- Role switching, where I usually try to put one in the other’s shoes by saying something like “Ok now, try to do like your sister does in such cases” or “What if you were your brother and your brother was you? Can you act on it?”
- Focus shifting, talk about something else to grab their attention away from competing and teasing each other.
- “We’re in a hurry” card, introducing a random reason to hurry up and start counting down :P For some reason this seems to work but not all times. It’s never done on a way to introduce anxiety but more like a play.
- Introduce some more chaos, chasing everyone around until we all start laughing.
Suit up and off to school! This includes many steps to complete and there are many ways things can go off-rail. What we try to do is introduce a routine to as many steps as possible.
The preparation for this usually starts on the previous night, where the kids choose their clothes for the next day. This is a life-saver as selecting clothes can be a really time-consuming process!
Another thing we introduced is a habit forming process on washing faces, brushing teeth and wearing clothes. In a moment of clarity and inspiration close to the period of reading The Power of Habit and The Brain we introduced a three word abbreviation for those steps, “BWC” (“ΔΠρΡ” in greek) which means “brush teeth, wash face, wear clothes”. It is amazing how this performed and sticked with our kids! Right now we’re at a point where the kids need no help in getting ready! I realised the power of this habit one time that my son told his sister “Come on! We’re on BWC now!”
Actually leaving home at~07:40am! When you have everything ready and set, comes the hardest moment. Literally, at the step of the door, the kids have the wildest revelations on life, the universe and everything! They recall a long forgotten ten-months-old book they have to dig out for school, or change their minds to wear their carnival costumes (now shelved on the dark depths of the attic)!
Managing your calm one more time is what’s needed. Again, we’re not talking about absolute numbers (a.k.a. “every time”) but a humble 70–80% of the times is enough. The only thing we try at this time is to leave some space to the most calm adult to handle the situation.
The balancing act described above has a very big impact in a person’s day. It’s actually the way the day starts so it sets some expectations for the whole day that follows! Trying to make this a working and enjoyable experience (or at least not unpleasant) has a direct impact in everyone’s mood. In order to do so, you must be creative, inventive, cooperative and trying to have fun.
This article is focusing on one part of a full day journal I’ve written here. Hopefully I’ll be able to detail out more parts of the day. Thank you for reading!
