1. Wake up before your children. Getting a head start on your day works wonders. You don’t necessarily have to get up at 5:00 AM, but arising at least one hour before your children do has many advantages. This early morning time can be used for personal thought, personal grooming, laundry, exercise, computer time, cooking breakfast, planning your day, and gathering any necessary supplies for your school day.
2. Have a meal plan each day. Know what you will be serving as soon as breakfast is over. You may like to plan your menus one week, two weeks, or even a month at a time, but just make sure that you plan. List your nightly meals. Each morning check to see if there is something you need to thaw, chop, or prepare early in the day. Having a plan prevents kitchen chaos at 5:00 PM, and shopping sales makes the planning easier.
3. Create a routine. Doing the same things in the same order each day gives both you and your children a sense of security. The more tasks that are routine, the less you have to stress about. In our home, our school day routine flows like this: breakfast, free time, morning meeting, reading with older child, while younger child completes independent activity, reading with younger child as older child works independently, math cooperatively, lunch, nap and rest time with independent reading, flexible activity. Even if you don’t create specific time slots for each aspect of your day, you can create an orderly routine to follow.
4. Tidy your school area each day. When the day’s schoolwork is done, take some time to prepare for the next school day. Have your children gather all of their schoolbooks and various supplies and store them in a specific spot. Erase your whiteboard. Tidy the work spaces (tables, floors, etc.). Put away all games, puzzles, and other activities that your younger children played.
5. Tell your children the “Plan for the Day”. As part of our morning routine, I tell my children our plan for the day. This simply means that I remind them of any routine appointments like karate or play-dates, and the time we will have to leave for these appointments. I mention any visitors we may be expecting, any errands we need to run, and any extra chores or activities I may have for them that day. When we know the plan for the day, we can make the necessary adjustments to our normal routine if needed.
6. Avoid answering the telephone and email. During school hours, I do not answer my phone unless it is my husband, or something super important. Phone calls usually take more time than you intend them to, and children usually get off task when Mama is on the phone. I check email, read blogs, and blog before school begins, and I avoid getting back online until all of our schoolwork is done. I use my answering machine, and I return phone calls after our schoolwork is complete during nap time.
7. Have your children’s schoolwork planned. Spending time in the summer, once a month, once a week, or whatever works for you, to plan your child’s schoolwork has numerous benefits. Trying to tell multiple children at once what to do while the toddler is dumping out the contents of the kitchen cabinets can make for a stressful day. I make checklists for my children four weeks at a time. I used to plan out an entire semester in one sitting, but then the plans would get all messed up when someone got sick, or we had an unexpected outing. I usually spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon about once a month to create plans for my children.
8. Serve snacks daily. Eating a mid-morning snack (and a mid-afternoon snack) makes everyone feel better. My children LIVE for snacks and it also gives me a moment to clean something or set up the next activity.
9. Allow for structure. Too much structure will not be a good thing, so be flexible too.
10. Smile. Hug your children and smile at them often. A happy, loving attitude will make every school day flow more smoothly!
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