How I am setting up my kids for a successful day

With school already a few weeks in, it’s become even more important to for me that my kids continue to keep an easy flowing morning schedule. I think a lot of us working moms will agree that every minute in the morning is GOLD. Between getting our little ones up. out the door and having to be at work right after; it can itself feel like a never-ending action-packed mission. Honestly, over the past years I’ve had my share of not-so-great mornings where even the smallest obstacle would throw off our whole morning routine. I was struggling to get my youngest two up in the morning on time and ready for their day, and I was constantly feeling burnout. Some mornings, I felt like I was playing catch up with time so early in my day and I didn’t feel good passing on my stress to my little ones. I remember a couple of times calling my husband almost in tears because one wouldn’t put on the outfit, I had chosen for them or couldn’t find their “favorite” pair of shoes and we were supposed to be out the door like 5 minutes ago. I decided last year to switch our routine up and it has been a game changer for us. I started making our mornings COOL. Mornings are actually very cool TBH though and I wanted them to see that from my mindset rather than it being the same Ol routine every day. I wanted easy simple mornings, and it worked! This change I made last year changed everything.

My coworker actually was the one who gave me this cool idea of how to make our mornings feel like a treat. I remember telling her at work sometimes how exhausting my mornings had been and she was quick to recommend this that actually worked for her kids when they were little. I tried it out her method and we ended the year strong with great mornings! Obviously, I had to start it up this school year again and let me tell you, WE are STILL THRIVING. My kids love seeing their chart get full of stickers by the end of the month, they love being able to add their accomplishments every day and they love the prize at the end of the week.

How my chart works

The chart is meant to be simple. The top 3 items on the posterboard are morning tasks and bottom two are night tasks. I have my kids add a sticker to the task they did under whatever day it falls on and they will keep doing that every day for the different weeks! For Fatima, my 8-year-old, I added an extra night task of choosing clothes the next day. It’s ok if the stickers overlap, don’t worry!

How much Did it cost?

I spent about 10 dollars in total and that’s only because our Dollar Tree is $1.25 now per item and I chose extra sheets of stickers to add to our collection. The kids love choosing their colored poster board and their stickers from dollar tree. Of course, you can go fancier on the materials but for us this works great.

At the end of the week, I take them to get a treat from dollar tree or the 5-dollar bin at Target or some ice cream as a treat. I NOW always try my best to make mornings fun and hype up our days and let them know how great our day is going to be and they are here for it! I am happy that I am not running around like a chicken without a head in the mornings and we all have great start to our days! It’s a great Win- Win for all of us.

Thank for reading my blog and I hope you were able to take some tips from this for great mornings. Have a great day!

-Csy

Csy-Lux