Get into the groove

For now, however, here are a few tips to improve your children’s morning routines.

Dress rehearsal – Have the children practise putting on their school uniforms once or twice, especially if the uniforms have many different parts such as ties, socks and name tags.

Since most schools require students to change in and out of their physical education kit, children should be able to dress themselves in different conditions, including on wet floors or in cramped quarters.

Being on time – Get into a routine of having your children go to bed earlier and waking up by their own alarm clocks, even on weekends, for the next few weeks. This way, they do not depend on you to wake them up.

Be involved – Ask your children’s schools if there are mailing lists or Parent-Teacher Association chat groups and join them.

These chats could be just the thing for last-minute updates or emergency homework situations in future. They are also a great platform for you to get to know other parents.

Labelling – Label everything your child will bring to school, because something will inevitably go missing.

Anticipate their emergency needs Give each child a coin pouch and have them start collecting coins, for the numerous occasions they need a few sen for school donation drives or, depending on the school facilities, to use the payphone.

Start a planner – Put up a board in the kitchen or living room with a space drawn for each day of the week and write down each family member’s activities in different colours.

This helps you keep track of everyone and minimises the chances of you forgetting to pick someone up from football practice.

The night before

No matter how well you have planned the next day, there will always be rushed mornings. A few things done ahead of time here and there will make a world of difference to your morning routine and help keep everyone on time.

Prepare lunchboxes beforehand – Preparing your children’s lunchboxes or having them prepare their own lunchboxes on Sunday evenings gives all of you more time every morning during the week.

Sandwiches can be made, wrapped and frozen while snacks such as carrot sticks, grapes and raisins can be packed into individual plastic pots and refrigerated.

Take breakfast orders – Give your children options on what they want for breakfast the next day so you can have it ready as they get dressed.

Older children can get their own breakfast, but for younger children, especially ones just starting school, you may find it a good time-saver to know exactly what they want for breakfast. This way, you deal with indecisive eaters the night before instead of adding more stress to your morning.

Back-up alarm clock – Power cuts will inevitably happen and a plugged-in alarm clock would not be of any use during those times. A second, battery-operated alarm clock ensures your children still get up on time.

Every morning

Any parent would tell you that staying on track is the most challenging thing in the morning. In addition to getting your children used to their before-school schedule, here are a few more habits to adopt during the school year.

Set mini goals – Create little time slots for different tasks. For example, everyone is dressed by 6.15am, having breakfast by 6.25am, putting shoes on by 6.50am and out the door by 7am.

Setting a to-do list in small time segments ensures children are kept on track and on time for school.

Multitask – If you walk your children to school, have on-the-go breakfasts such as sandwiches, breakfast bars and muffins so you can walk and eat to cut down on sit-down breakfast time.

No last-minute dashes – Set an alarm for 10 minutes before you should be out the door, so the children know when they should start putting on their shoes and shouldering their bags, ready to leave.

Habits to maintain during the school term

Both children and parents are prone to forgetting something on any given day, and there will be a time when your child comes up to you on a Sunday night to tell you she needs something important to bring to school the next day.

Schools will usually distribute written notices for children to bring home, but children will not always remember to hand those notices to their parents.

Minimise occurrences like these with a few simple tweaks to your school day routines.

Snap and save – Take a photo of school notices with your phone as soon as your child hands them to you.

That way, you still have the copy on your phone to refer to amid the morning hustle and bustle and do not have to rely on your memory to tell you if your child needs her crayons that day.

Bring a piece of the office home – Have an in-and-out system by the front door. Once they are inside, the children are to empty their schoolbags of school notices and homework into the in-tray.

Later in the afternoon, check the in-tray and put everything needed for the next day in the out-tray so the children can fill their schoolbags on their way out the next morning.

Prepare for the worst – Have a worst-case scenario box at the ready. It should contain a second tie, spare socks, a second pair of school shoes, a spare uniform, envelopes, cash and assorted stationery bits that you can just grab in the morning and restock later.