MSU Extension Child & Family Development

For many families, mornings are one of the busiest and most stressful times of the day. Everyone in the home needs to get up, get dressed, eat, pack bags and be out the door by a certain time. Add extras like pet care or missing shoes and everyone quickly feels very frazzled. Michigan State University Extension recommends the following strategies to help smooth your morning routine.

Prep at night

Avoid the last minute rush by packing bags at night. Encourage your children to be responsible and have them find their homework, assignment notebooks and gym shoes by themselves. Consider providing a checklist to follow of items they take every day. Have children select an outfit at night as well, including laying out shoes, jackets and gloves so there are no items left to locate in the morning. Pack lunches the night before and have them prepped in the fridge to just “grab and go.” It’s far easier to locate missing homework at night rather than just before the bus comes.

Early to bed, early to rise

A good morning begins with a good night sleep. Establish a consistent bedtime routine. For example, bath, bedtime snack, books, brush teeth, get a drink of water and then lights out! Follow the routine consistently so that your children are familiar with the plan at night and go to sleep on time.

If your children are consistently difficult to wake in the morning, consider moving up their bedtime. School-age children should be getting 9-12 hours of sleep, and teenagers should be getting 8-10 hours of sleep, according to the Mayo Clinic. Furthermore, a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics showed that just a modest increase in sleep time, an average of only 27 minutes in this case, improved children’s ability to regulate their emotions, including impulse control behavior at school. Avoid TV and other screen time in the hours before bed, as research shows that screen time stimulates the brain and can make bedtime harder.

Get an alarm clock

Teach your child how to set an alarm clock and make waking up your their responsibility. Provide each child with their own alarm clock. If you have a large family, or one child who is a notorious sleepy-head, consider staggering waking times to allow each child the time that they need to get up and get ready to go on their own. If one child needs more time to eat, or another wants to shower in the morning instead of baths at night, help them decide on appropriate waking time and set their alarm clock accordingly. There are now alarm clocks that slowly make the room brighter, vibrate to help wake up sound sleepers, or even require you to complete math problems to shut them off!

Provide breakfast

Make sure your children are eating a healthy breakfast. Consider grab and go items like fruit, cheese sticks and granola bars, or participating in school breakfast programs if they are offered. The state of Michigan now provides free breakfast, along with free lunches. MSU Extension recommends that everyone, kids and adults alike, eat a healthy and balanced breakfast to restart your body and get the best performance out the day!

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, research shows that youth who eat breakfast have better brain function, memory and attention, and that eating breakfast improves children’s performance on vocabulary tests, math problems and challenging mental tasks. It also helps them deal with frustration. Additionally, children who skip breakfast are more likely to become overweight or obese and to develop metabolic conditions such as high blood sugar.

Teach responsibility

Learning to get up, get dressed and leave on time is an important life skill. Children need to learn to manage their time wisely and prepare accordingly. Forgetting homework or their recorder on music day is a life lesson. Resist the urge to “fix it” for your children and rush the forgotten item up to school. Instead, help them create a check list to follow to make sure they have everything packed and ready to go the night before. In the long run, they will thank you for helping them learn how to manage their morning time appropriately!

Calm mornings, with predictable routines and healthy balanced breakfasts, set the stage for children to be successful in school. Rather than a harried and rushed wake-up with shouting and tears, take time to work with your children to smooth the routines in your home so everyone can set out with their best foot forward!