Can you believe that summer break is almost over and it’s almost time to get back your the school routine? I feel like it was just yesterday we were celebrating the last day of school and now I’m planning the best way to hop back into our school routine. I don’t know about you but mornings are super tough around here so I’ve come up with a great morning routine to keep us on track.

What We're Talking About...

Creating A Back To School Routine

Our routine last year was a pretty good one but there are some changes that we need to account for in order to make it work for us. I’m a huge supporter (and enforcer) of routines. They set the tone for the day and expectations. They make it so you have your plan A but can develop any other plans just in case that one doesn’t work out. But how do you create it?

List Out All Activities By Day

With mini starting first grade, our activities look way different. She’ll be starting track this year so that means we have to make sure that we schedule this in. Make a list of all activities that everyone in the family is going to be participating in and what time they happen.

List Out All The Things That Happen Daily

Making dinner, waking up, bed times, etc. If it’s something that happens every day especially at the same time, make sure this is included.

Plan The Normal Day

Include wake up and bed times, morning and evening routines, time block for activities, dinner, etc.–have it all there.

Review With Your Family

This is an important step. You need to make sure that you set the proper expectation with them so they know what’s going on. And ask if they have suggestions or if there’s anything else they want to add. Their buy in is important and will make keeping the routine so much easier.

Morning Routine & Evening Routine

Depending on how old your kids are, this can be an independent thing for them But kids are kids so they sometimes need help. What has helped us is developing morning and evening routines that are posted. This way when I say it’s time to start our morning/evening routine, there’s no questions or confusion. Here’s what ours looks like:

Pre-Planning For Success of Your Morning Routine

I started doing this when mini was about 2 but every Sunday I would plan out a week’s worth of outfits for her. She would go and get a bag of her clothing and get dressed. This made our mornings seamless since there was no looking for pieces of clothing. Now that she’s 6, she does it herself and it definitely makes things way easier.

Interested in trying this out?

Grab 5 ziplock bags and label them with the days of the week. Keep in mind whatever special class (Art, PE, Music) they may of scheduled for that day. Pick out everything they would need from underwear to socks and everything in between and put it in the bag. Boom. Done!

Morning Routine Time Keeper Tutorial

Mini can’t tell time just yet but that doesn’t mean that she can’t keep on her schedule for her routine and help me with the baby! In this tutorial, we’ll be modifying a clock so your little one can keep track of time and on schedule!