Morning checklist for school

The No-Nagging Morning Routine For School (With Printables!)

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Here’s an easy, no nagging, stress free morning routine for school that’ll help your kids get up, get ready, and get out the door.

Next year I will have a 4th grader, 3rd, grader, 1st grader, and Kindergartner to get ready each morning.

And out the door.

By 7:15 a.m.

I don’t need to tell you that this is what movies like Cheaper By The Dozen are made of.

Lots of beds to make, socks and shoes to put on, teeth to brush, and grits to eat. Lots of tears and shrieking and “get in the vannnnnnnnn!” if things aren’t going well.

One morning early on, I was actually so distracted by my racing heart beat from the School Morning Madness that I didn’t gauge my gas well and thought I could “make it.”

Then we broke down at the fire station less than a mile from the school.

We had to walk in a ditch to school because there aren’t sidewalks in the sticks.

I don’t know what to say.

I rock at life. 

So that was that and I made some Big Changes, and now we have amazing morning routines for school mornings. Everyone is at the door on time ready to leave the house and I am not yelling.

These school morning routines work so well I barely do anything and have 3 kids (plus my 3 year old) out the door dressed on time.

Oh, and their rooms are clean too!

An Effective Morning Routine For School

Here’s what we’ll cover, all the things that make for a good school morning routine.

It goes without saying – or does it – that a great school morning routine is usually preceded by a bedtime routine that gets them into bed at a decent hour!

If you’d like more specific strategies, be sure to check out my bestselling Simple School Routines.

Simple School Routines

Follow my 3 step system to organize your mornings, afternoons, and evenings to minimize the chaos and micro-managing.

Learn More

Wake-Up Routine

Some mothers like to go in and wake up their little ones with a kiss on the forehead and snuggle.

This is precious and sweet when it can happen.

But having 3 kids that need to get up and at ’em on school mornings, that doesn’t work for us. Instead, we use alarm clocks.

This helps them get up and get ready for school while I’m getting my own chores down.

By letting your child choose an alarm clock and setting it for a good time, you’re helping your child learn independence and feel the satisfaction of starting their day on their own.

• Figure out what time your child needs to wake up based on their personality. Are they fast moving or slow?
• Give slower children more time so you don’t have to rush them, but not so much they start putting together a puzzle and forget to get ready altogether. #askmehowIknow

Routine Cards

Want your kids to learn to independently follow their routines? These visual routine cards do the trick.

Learn More

Getting Dressed

So getting dressed can be the Exact Source of so many power struggles on school mornings. We have these garment bags per child who goes to school.

In the Day Of The Week Garment Bags we have the pants, top, and socks.

If you typically don’t love your child’s choices when they dress themselves, approving everything in the bags then letting them dress themselves goes a long way in the mornings.

Also, if you don’t want to pack for the whole week at once, it’s a good idea to let your child choose their own clothes the night before to save time (and power struggles) in the morning.

Tidy Up Routine

I am not gonna lie…. I can’t stand a mess. 

So I have all kinds of routines and systems to help keep the house as tidy as can be.

And one of these is that – before the kids come down/out of their rooms for breakfast – they make their beds and tidy their rooms.

• We use these routine cards to help the kids learn the routine, then they can do it by heart.
• I like bedding that’s easy to make. Nothing too complicated. Some of my boys just use blankets instead of bedspreads since we are in Florida and it’s hot.
• They pick up what’s on the floor, put away pajamas, and will bring down their sheets to the laundry room if there were any potty accidents in the night.

Read: Simple Daily Routines To Keep A Tidy Home

Printable Morning Routine Cards

DIY Breakfast

Now this took a while to figure out.

I had one child wanting me to make them grits, another wanted oatmeal, the baby wanted cereal even though it takes him 2343252 hours to eat it and we have 5 minutes.

It was a madhouse and I had no mercy.

One morning my mother was in charge of getting the kids ready and found a better way and now, I stick with it.

• Decide what your children’s breakfast options are. Healthy breakfasts are a plus!
• Where possible (if it doesn’t need to be refrigerated), put it on the table with bowls and utensils the night before so it’s ready in the morning.
• Get a container that keeps breakfast foods like oatmeal packs, grits, breakfast bars, rice cakes, etc. in one place. Put the container on the table if it’s out of reach of the kids in side the pantry.
• Teach your little ones how to prepare anything that requires doing.

This Is KEY!

Otherwise you are stuck at the kitchen table heating up oatmeal when you might need to be spraying your children’s hair to keep lice away or trying to sneak hair gel on your boys’ heads while they’re distracted.

JK. Okay fine, jk about the jk.

Out The Door Routine

So we usually pack lunches and snacks the night before and position the backpacks in one spot for ease of access.

Each morning one of the chores that needs to be done is to take the lunchboxes out of the fridge and put them into the backpack.

• Eat breakfast
• Brush teeth
• Check backpack for snack and lunchbox, zip up.
• Go to “meeting point” when kids are fully ready.

After they’ve eaten breakfast, made their beds, brushed their teeth, they get their backpacks and go wait outside by the van. Depending on where you live, this might not be what you choose to do, but consider it.

This helps you see who is not ready so you can help nudge them along.

At times, I’ll even have the kids go get in the van and wait if I sense that one child is having a Bit Of A Breakdown and needs some more attention.

Morning Routine For School Printable

Printable Morning Routine Cards

Get your printable morning routine cards here.

These work great throughout the school year AND summer and are also helpful with younger kids.

Our School Morning Routine

• 6:45 am – Alarms go off, kids get up, get dressed, make beds, tidy rooms (I do a sweep to make sure everyone is up and at ’em and put lunch boxes into backpacks)
• 7:00 am – Kids make their way to the kitchen for breakfast, eat, get on jackets, and backpacks
• 7:15 am – We aim to walk out the door and get in the van

Got a Kindergartner? Here’s my two cents… Kindergarten Morning Routines Little Ones Can Do On Their Own!

Read These While You’re At It

Sources:

• The importance of schedules and routines
• Routines minimize chaos which promotes resilience and regulation
• Family routines and rituals strengthen families

Family Routines Reboot

Take our 3 day challenge to create life-giving family, child, and self-care routines.

Learn More

16 Morning Routine Checklists for Kids & Visual Morning Routine Charts

Add a morning routine checklist to your morning routine.

There are two points in the day that set the tone for how a family runs. The first is the morning routine. If mornings are stressed, rushed and chaotic it affects everyone’s mood for the rest of the day. If the morning runs smoothly, includes some connection, and even a little fun everyone can start their day with a smile.

The second super important part of the day is bedtime. If yours needs help you can see our life-changing bedtime routine here. PS. A smooth bedtime helps with the morning routine too! 

We started off this school year with a few missteps in our morning. I quickly realized that it was going to take a little planning (along with some trial and error) to make mornings fun (and functional) again.

As always I pulled out my favorite parenting technique… conflict resolution. We had a problem and I needed help with the solution! Bring on the kids. I placed my giant whiteboard on the table and asked the kids to help me make a list of everything that has to be done before school.

We wrote a time (or estimated time) next to every task. Next, we calculated how much time there is between waking up and heading out the door.

Guess what?!?! For Big M there was plenty of time in the morning, but not for our little sleepy head. If she wakes up at seven and then spends some time actually getting her eyes to open, there isn’t enough time for her to accomplish everything. No wonder we were running around like crazy!

Here’s where the magic happens. (This is the reason I adore conflict resolution.) Laid out in front of them is a problem, they can clearly see it. They understand it and now they can solve it.

I saw an answer pretty quickly but patiently waited to see what they came up with. It wasn’t long before they had made their own individual morning (and afternoon) routines. The bonus? They realized on their own that there wouldn’t be time for screen time on school days.

I could have done this entire process by myself. But now they are invested. They made the rules, they made the routine. They are far more likely to follow it… because it is their plan! Will there be hiccups, of course, but we will figure them out together. (Check out the conflict resolution post for step-by-step instructions.)

Morning Routine Checklists for Kids

Once everything was figured out it was time for the fun part. Creating a cute morning routine checklist.

I rounded up a few printable morning routine checklists for kids. You’re sure to find one that will fit your family (or at least inspire you to create your own).

Morning Routine Checklists for Kids

• Morning To Do (includes ART!) from Raining Hot Coupons.
• Are You Ready Checklist from Carrie this Home.
• To Do and Done Morning Chart from What Moms Love.

Morning Routine Template

This list of morning routine templates are designed for you to fill in yourself. (You might want to add a good morning joke to the checklist!)

• Work, Play, Learn Chart from Cloud Mom
• Morning Routine Fillable Checklist from Hey Donna.
• Rainbow Morning Routine Checklist Template from Create Simple.

Morning Routine Chart with Pictures

These visual morning routine charts will be great for all kids but will really help with preschool and toddler morning routines.

• Magnetic Morning Cards from I Can Teach my Child.
• Good Morning Flash Cards from Living Locurto.
• Stress-Free Morning Cards from Live Simply.
• Super Simple Magnetic List from The Trip Clip Blog
• Visual Step by Step Routine from Over the Big Moon.

Morning Routine Checklist for Students

School morning routine can be extra busy, these checklists are specifically designed with school in mind.

• School Morning Checklist from Kids Activities Blog.
• Dry Erase Morning Checklist from The Search for Imperfection.
• Are you Ready for School List from Girl in the Garage.
• Don’t forget the morning kiss from Children Inspire Design.
• Remember Hugs Checklist from The Chirping Moms.

Do you already have a working morning routine or do you need to sit down and create one? 

Give me 7 days...

I'll show you the mom you really are.

List of accessories required for each item

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DAILY AT EVERY LESSON content subjects are needed:

• Pencil case where should be:

- 2 blue pens
- 2 simple HB pencils
- 1 red ink pen
- 1 green ink pen
- ruler 15-16 cm
- 2 erasers
- sharpener with chip container
- felt-tip pens
- well-sharpened colored pencils in 6 primary colors

The contents of the pencil case are checked by parents weekly.

The number of notebooks is calculated for a year, daily you should have 2 notebooks in Russian, algebra, geometry and English.

Russian

• 15 lined notebooks of 12 sheets in a cover
• Notebook in a cage 48 sheets for recording theory (maintained from the previous year)
• Photocopy folder A4

Literature

• Checkered notebook 48 sheets
• Lined notebook 12 sheets in cover for writing

Algebra

• 15 checkered notebooks with margins 12 sheets with cover
• Notebook 48 sheets in a cage for theory

Geometry

• 15 checkered notebooks with margins 12 sheets with cover
• Compasses, protractor

English

• 10 checkered notebooks with margins 12 sheets with cover
• Checkered notebook 48 sheets (maintained from the previous class)
• Folder A4 appropriate size (with zipper)

French

• Checkered notebook 48 sheets

History

• Checkered notebook 48 sheets

Biology

• Checkered notebook 48 sheets
• Stencil (triangle) with round holes of different sizes

Geography

• Checkered notebook 48 sheets

Physics

• Checkered notebook 48 sheets
• 2 checkered notebooks 12 sheets for labs and tests

Ethics

• Checkered notebook 48 sheets (maintained from the previous class)

Music history

• Checkered notebook 48 sheets (maintained from the previous class)

Art History

• Checkered notebook 48 sheets (maintained from the previous year)
• Folder on the subject of A4 format of the corresponding size

Gymnastics

• Sports trousers black (without patch pockets, patches, applications)
• lyceum t-shirt,
• socks,
• light sneakers or tennis shoes with white (light) soles, but not shoes

Winter street sports uniform AVAILABILITY STRICTLY MANDATORY (!) (see general announcements)

Choir

• Folder with 20 A4 files

Choreography
For boys:

• T-shirt (whether zei),
• black tight-fitting bike shorts;
• STRICTLY BLACK socks,
• black ballet shoes

For girls Kits required:

- black

• Black long sleeve gymnastic leotard,
• translucent short skirt (15 cm above the knee),
• white socks,
• black ballet shoes
• on the head is a bun tied with a black mesh

back

selection of 8 schools in Russia with a license and accreditation for remote study of a child

From a legal point of view, online schools occupy an intermediate position: such classes can be formalized as distance learning or as a family. The difference in certifications: the schedule of part-time students' tests is monitored by the school to which they are attached, and if the child is in family education, the parents.

Polina Kalmykova

knows how to study without leaving home

Author profile

Assessments for schoolchildren in family education usually take place in person at the school chosen by the parents. But for part-time students, options are possible: some online schools offer to take exams in person at partner schools, but most conduct tests remotely - with the exception of the OGE and the Unified State Examination and the diagnostics of the Moscow Center for the Quality of Education. nine0003

This article contains 10 online schools that can become an alternative to a regular school. All schools have licenses and accreditations for conducting educational activities - this means that they will help you pass the certification for transfer to the next class.

Briefly: a conservative alternative to regular school
Age of students: Grades 1-11
How much: from 950 R per month, the first week is free

Lessons are held in accordance with the usual school curriculum: teachers set and check homework, conduct tests and grade. You can also officially attach to an Internet school, and not switch to family education - then the school, not parents, will monitor the state certification.

A student may not go to online lessons, but listen to them in a recording, the main thing is to do homework on time. And even more of the material, schoolchildren go through faster - simply because teachers do not spend lesson time checking attendance and do not call anyone to the board. nine0003

/prava/homeschooling/

Homeschooling rights

There are three ways to learn online. The cheapest thing is self-study: for 950-1200 R per month, the student gets access to textbooks and video recordings of lessons and does only what he needs to pull up. For 3500-4000 R per month, a student communicates with teachers online, receives grades and comments on homework. A full-fledged education costs 6800-7500 R per month: all documents can be processed remotely and even a child without Russian citizenship can be enrolled in school. nine0003

Briefly: design school
Age of students: Grades 1-11
How much it costs: from 1650 to 44 000 R per month

, Foxford will help to prepare documents for the transition to family education and monitor the passage of certifications in partner schools, select a comfortable school for writing all-Russian test papers if parents do not want to take the child's personal file from the school. And for children who continue to go to a regular school, but do not cope with individual subjects, additional courses will be offered. nine0003

At Foxford, you can choose from a basic or individual study program. Basic - these are lessons like in a regular school, only at an accelerated pace due to the fact that teachers are not distracted by organizational issues. And the individual program additionally includes in-depth courses for which students prepare for the Olympiads: you can study according to one of the six ready-made educational routes or create your own.

Classes at Foxford are held according to the schedule: each student has an individual one, but all lessons start no earlier than 10 am and take place in the first half of the day. At the same time, at Foxford, several streams study the same program, but with different teachers - if the pace or method of presenting the material does not suit the child, you can change the teacher. nine0003

/guide/benefits-of-university/

University admission benefits

A class teacher or personal tutor monitors the child's progress. The services of a mentor are more expensive, but he will help you get involved in a new format of study, draw up a schedule of suitable Olympiads and teach you how to plan time and classes.

Additionally, you can get advice from a tutor and a psychologist. The tutor will conduct career guidance testing and help create an individual educational route. A psychologist will teach you how to cope with fears and stress due to study and adapt to home schooling. nine0003

Briefly: study groups with special specifics
Age of students: from 3 years old to grade 11
Classes at the Bit training center are not limited to school subjects. Toddlers from the age of three are offered developing programs, preschoolers are offered preparation for entering the first grade, children with disabilities are offered a separate program in general subjects, and foreigners are offered methods for mastering the Russian language. nine0003

For those who are looking for an alternative to regular school, Bit offers several study options. If a student can cope with the program on textbooks on his own, open access to tests and a knowledge base is suitable for him - you can choose a tariff with a monthly consultation of teachers, or you can do without them.