Why Creating a Morning Routine for Kids Helps Them Feel Success (Free Printable!)
Will a Morning Routine Mean I Won’t Have to Remind My Kids About Everything?
If you’re looking for a way to start a morning routine for your kids, you might be living in the same world so many of my clients are. You’re looking for a way to keep your household running without having to be the one running every single thing. Sound familiar? Want to know a little secret about why your kiddos may be having a hard time focusing, staying on task or following through at home? Their brains may be overloaded by requests, reactions and responses. It’s called ‘decision fatigue’ and it can be crippling to a kid. I know I have stood in the kitchen and been close to pulling out my hair asking my kids to do routine things around the house. Why can’t they remember? Why do I have to keep following them around the house and reminding them? Why can’t they stay on track and focus on just getting the one thing done?
Modern-Day Living and Decision Fatigue
Well, the truth is, we all have a hard time keeping the demand balls of life juggling floating in the air. The way modern-day living has us running from thing to thing, demanding us to hold onto vast amounts of incoming information. This is actually decreasing our ability to focus and hold onto things. Add in screens and you have a big mountain standing in front of you that may seem insurmountable.
The key to making it up that mountain may be as simple as small tools that make a difference in our brains. And in my house, a morning routine for kids includes this checklist. It does two things: helps kids keep their brains organized and helps boost their brain by adding mindful self-awareness, reflection and gratitude. Print it out, take two minutes to sit down with your kiddos and sketch out their day in the morning (or the night before) and you can almost hear their brains give a sigh of relief as we let those brains unload the burden of keeping it all together.
Morning Routines Help Kids Feel Success
You can print them out and laminate them and then use a vis-a-vis marker that can easily wipe off at the end of the day. There is something very therapeutic about crossing things off a to-do list and often we don’t allow kids the opportunity to have that release. We pile more and more on, but they don’t always get the satisfaction of telling themselves “job well done. Way to accomplish your tasks for the day.” This checklist helps to balance out that decision fatigue and keep you and your child on track to have a great day.
Give yourself a goal to do this every day for two weeks and ask your child to notice any positive changes in how they feel about having it written down. If you are adding chores for the first time (and yes, my kids have chores in the morning and afternoon), then you may get a bit of pushback at first, but stick with it for a bit and notice changes you may see.
Yeah But…? Check Your Own Mindset
In case you have already started with the yeah, BUT’s such as “yeah, but we have so much going on after school”, “yeah but this won’t work on my kid”, etc... Take a moment and check your own mindset. It won’t help anyone in your family to start this checklist already thinking it will fail. I have a busy family with all the modern-day “stuff” as well, but guess what? I am not standing in the middle of my kitchen wanting to pull my hair out anymore. I want that for you too! I want all of us to have peace-filled brains and homes so we can truly enjoy our lives.
Morning Routine Checklist Options
This is available in four different design options perfect for any kiddo’s taste. Download it here or head over and grab all of our free resources.
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