5 Top Tips For Stress Proofing School Mornings

Do you yearn to have a stress free school morning, but find you are swimming against a tide of lost shoes and unfinished homework? These five simple, yet effective tips will help you move towards a more relaxed start to the day.

1. Get ready for the week day – use a couple of hours on Sunday night to plan ahead your week. Press your clothes, polish shoes, get school bags and briefcases together and prepare packed lunches, so you start your week organised and in control.
2. Create a weekly plan – either draw up on a large piece of A4 paper, or use a family calendar (with spaces for each member of the family) and write down all the activities and meetings that everyone is attending that week. Swimming club, Scouts, evening meetings – everything should be included on the list. When you have all the appointments on the calendar, make a note by each one of everything you will need. For example, swimming kit needs to be ready by Tuesday night for Wednesday morning’s class.
3. Show me the money – leading on from the weekly plan, make sure you have the money you need for everyone’s activities. The evening meeting you have to attend means you will have to use a nearby car park, so have the fee ready. Junior’s school trip needs a donation to cover expenses, so have that prepared too. Have the money prepared on Sunday evening, as part of your getting ready time in tip one.
4. Get the gang involved – don’t do it all – delegate! Sit down as a family and work out tasks that everyone can do to work towards stress free mornings. Age appropriate tasks can be allocated to children, so they are learning how to work as a team as well as developing confidence in being able to organise themselves and taking responsibility. Also, by delegating some tasks, you are able to concentrate on other things on your to-do list, which often have to wait until the evening or the weekend.
5. Time to eat – breakfast is widely recognised as the most important meal of the day, both in terms of children needing the energy to carry them through until snack-time and for busy parents who are looking after them and going to work! By planning ahead and laying the table for breakfast the night before; not only are you ensuring you all have something to eat before you leave the house – you are making the most of the time you have saved by planning ahead to enjoy a stress free meal as a family!