How to create a morning routine for kids that will help you start the day in a positive way

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my whole disclosure here.

Sharing is caring!

Inside: Creating an effective morning routine will help you have more peaceful mornings and get your child’s cooperation without nagging or getting angry. Download the morning checklist for kids and create the best morning routine for your family!

If you have a young child, I’m sure you know those chaotic mornings when nothing seems to work, and you start your day with endless power struggles.

I’ve gone through this over and over again, especially when my oldest son was a toddler, and we needed to get out of the house on time for me to get to work. He always had other plans in the morning, and we ended up being late almost every day!

One day I felt so overwhelmed that I started searching for tips about creating a morning routine for kids, and I made a list of ideas that could work for us.

I started implementing some of the tips, and in a couple of weeks, I already felt the difference: our mornings were more peaceful, and we even started to enjoy them!

How to create an stress-free morning routine for kids

I want to share with you all the ideas that helped us transform our mornings, and I hope they will help you as much as they helped us!

At the end of the article, you will also find a printable morning checklist to download and use for your kids. This checklist was one of the ideas that worked best for us and made our mornings a lot easier to handle!

From our experience, the key to having peaceful mornings with kids is to allow them to have a little time to do the things they like every morning and to set a routine that you consistently follow every day.

---

1. Prepare as much as you can the night before

This will allow you to have fewer things to do in the morning and be able to focus more on the kids.

Here are some things you can prepare in advance:

• choosing your clothes for the next day
• choosing your child’s clothes
• planning what you’ll have for breakfast (and even prepare something in advance, if possible)
• getting your kids’ backpacks ready (and prepare part of the lunch boxes in advance, if possible).

---

2. Before bedtime, tell the kids about the schedule for the next morning

This will help them feel more prepared for the next day.

When we first implemented the morning checklist, I used to talk to my son the night before about each task on the list. This was really helpful because, in the morning, he already knew what he had to do.

---

3. Make sure that you and your child get enough sleep during the night

A child who hasn’t slept enough will be in a bad mood in the morning, so it’s important to get to bed on time every night.

Getting enough sleep as a mother of young kids is much more complicated, but at least you can let go of some of the tasks you do after the child falls asleep to be able to get more rest.

---

4. Get up before your child

I used to be very lazy in the morning. I wanted to take advantage of every minute of sleep I could get. But when I started getting up before the kids, I realized that it is a great change!

Getting up before your child allows you to have some quiet time in the morning, drink your coffee without interruptions, and have a good start of the day!

---

5. Plan some time for play and connection

We usually tend to hurry the children in the morning to be sure we get things done on time. The problem is that this makes them feel disconnected from us and less willing to cooperate when we ask something.

Spending a few minutes every morning connecting with the kids after they wake up is a wonderful way to start the day! And your kids will be a lot more willing to follow the morning routine if they feel connected with you!

Here are some ways to include more play and connection into your mornings:

• Play a song every morning before starting the morning routine and dance together in the living room.
• During breakfast, invite every family member to share one thing they are looking forward to doing that day.
• If your kids wake up early and you can include 20-30 minutes of play in the morning routine, create a special Morning Play Box with toys or games the kids can only use in the morning (and change them from time to time). This box will make the play time more fun for the kids and allow you to have some quiet time during the morning routine.
• Another idea is to prepare every evening a tray with an “invitation to play” for the kids and leave it on the breakfast table for them to discover in the morning. This will encourage kids to get creative and play after they wake up, while you prepare the breakfast or take care of other tasks.

---

6. Ask your child for help

Given a lot of instructions all morning long is probably not the best way to make your kids follow the schedule. They will feel bossed around and angry, and this will only lead to power struggles.

Instead, if you ask the kids for help and explain to them that you need them to do something quickly to be able to get out of the house on time, they will probably be a lot more willing to help!

Another helpful tip is to use a timer and challenge the kids to finish a task (or a set of tasks) before the timer ends. This playful approach is a great way to get kids motivated without constantly reminding them what they have to do.

---

7. Remain calm and take a break when things don’t work well

For me, it was really hard to remain calm when I was late. But I realized that taking a break and reconnecting with my son when he was not willing to follow the schedule was much more effective than constantly hurrying him.

So, when things don’t go as planned, I just take a moment to sit down with the kids and discuss what’s happening (or just hug them), and after this break, things run much more smoothly for the rest of the morning.

---

8. Create a morning checklist and display it in your house

This idea really helped us! A morning checklist allows the kids to see what tasks they have to do in the morning and make the schedule more predictable and easier to handle for them.

The morning checklist for kids is a list of the main tasks your child needs to complete in the morning (for young kids, it’s better to use pictures that allow them to visualize the tasks).

You just need to display the list in the house and to guide your child to follow it every morning.

In time, you can encourage your child to take ownership of the tasks.

This way, they will gain more independence, and you will be able to focus more on the tasks you need to complete in the morning.

Having a morning checklist for kids really makes a difference, and I recommend you to try it!

You will no longer need to remind your kids what they have to do, and your mornings will be much more peaceful!

I hope these ideas will help you create a peaceful morning routine for you and your kids!

Sharing is caring!