Good Morning?

Good Morning?
By Maureen McKay

How are mornings going at your house? Do you sip on coffee and read the newspaper while your kids get themselves ready for school and out the door with time to spare?

My mornings were downright awful until I realized that kids really do need more cues to get daily things done­­. I came up with technique that makes mornings much less stressful—for less than the cost of a large latte!

Over several mornings, jot down all of the steps your kids should do to get ready for school every day. After you have the list, arrange it in a logical order (example: brush teeth after eating breakfast). Bullet each morning step with a permanent marker on a small dry-erase board that has an attached dry-erase marker. (Make sure the dry erase board is not a glass coated "no stain" type. You want the permanent marker to stick.)

Hang this morning checklist in a central location—I use the inside of a kitchen cupboard door so it is out of sight the rest of the day. Explain to your kids that adults use lists all the time to remember things—like at the grocery store. Lists are a great tool for anyone. Show them the morning checklist and explain that every day, they will check off each step as they complete it with the dry erase marker. (Then you can wipe the check marks off and reuse the same list each day.)

Stick to it. Sometimes it takes months for this to become an effortless routine. Whenever you need to get things moving in the morning, take a deep breath and physically look at the list with your child and coach them on what to do next—without emotion.

My daughter has been getting herself up and ready for school (on time/without drama) since fourth grade with this method. Believe me, that is a miracle! Now she does everything on her own. My friends have children my daughter's age who still haven’t acquired this life skill. They ask my daughter how she does it.