Morning High Five for the kids and myself
The daily rhythm of my home is changing soon, and it will be more important than ever to make sure our mornings run smoothly.
I remembered reading on Life As Mom about the idea of a Morning High Five for her kids. Picking the five most important chores, she made for them a colourful chart, like this:
I decided to be creative and/or mysterious, so I traced around the kids’ hands on coloured paper before school this morning, and quickly whipped up my own version of the chart while they were away:
This is a list for my kids, but there are kind of two lists in it for me.
The School Day Morning Routine
I need to make sure all of these tasks happen so we can head out the door by 8:30.
We all need to get through the full cycle of toilet, breakfast, clothes, teeth and hair, and the school backpacks need to be packed.
It would be nice if more things get done (breakfast dishes, made beds and so forth) but those can wait until after the school run. We must be realistic about these things. So I’ve split my school-morning routine into two sections.
One essentially my own “High Five” list, and the other is all the entertaining (ha!) “extra” tasks that aren’t as mission critical as those that Get The School Kids Out The Door.
The School Night Preparedness List
This is the most important, because nothing, nothing ruins the vibe of a morning like the echoing cries of “Mum, I don’t have any clean undies!” and frantic washing of yesterday’s lunchbox in order to fill it with today’s lunch. It’s a stressful way to start the day, rummaging through the mountain of clean washing to find a uniform top and the right kind of undies and socks.
What’s on your Next Day Preparedness List?