How to Motivate Your Children While Maintaining Your Cool.
We don’t know how you start your day, but for me, the morning is always the most challenging portion. I feel as like I’m competing against the clock, since I’m always yelling “hurry up! hurry up!” and urging the coffee maker to prepare the coffee more quickly.
In spite of everyone’s best efforts, there always appears to be at least one person who can’t locate their shoes. Even though there is a shoe basket in the mudroom, and even though they are aware that they are meant to put their shoes in the basket every time they enter into the house!
Naturally, I am not a morning person at all. I don’t get out of bed each morning feeling happy and energized, ready to take on the world. My typical morning begins with a moan followed by a hit of the snooze button on the alarm clock.
Having said that, as the years have gone by, I have picked up a few pointers that have made the process of assisting children in getting ready for the day a great deal simpler. The first three are activities that you carry out far before the morning has even begun.
Because, as they say in sports and combat (and sometimes my mornings seem like a struggle! ), the greatest defense is a solid offensive. This is especially true in the morning.
Get everything in order the night before. Find any school paperwork that has to be signed, any special color or costume that needs to be worn for spirit week, any show-and-tell item that needs to be brought, and do it the night before the event, either by laying it out or packing it in the bag.
If you prepare lunches, you should do it the night before and store them in the refrigerator. Because it was causing all of us so much anxiety first thing in the morning, I’ve taken to having my children do the same thing with their shoes and socks.
At the end of the day, I have them look for their shoes and socks and place them next to the door so that I never have to hear “Mo-om!” again. “I can’t seem to locate my shoes!” There are just thirty seconds left till we are expected to be on our way.
Get some enough shut-eye each night. Getting a good night’s sleep is really one of the most important things you can give your kids. I know it’s so hard to get home from activities like sports or dance or piano lessons, get dinner on the table, and still have time for homework, baths, and family devotions without staying up wayyyyyyy too late, but it’s really one of the most important things. During sleep, children’s bodies and minds develop at a rapid rate.
Not only does getting enough sleep help children feel more awake and alert, but it also helps prevent hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), fights germs, infections, and illnesses, improves their ability to learn, and is beneficial to their heart and stress levels (hint: children who suffer from anxiety or ADHD require even more sleep! I It will be a lot less difficult for you to pull your children out of bed in the morning if you make sure that they go to bed at a reasonable hour.
Prepare a healthy yet uncomplicated breakfast.
(And Don’t Forget to Get Ready the Night Before!) The mornings before school are not the time to prepare an extravagant meal at home. Put it off till the weekend. In addition, this will make Saturday mornings seem even more cherished and unique. You will be able to zip through your morning routine like the Flash if you plan ahead and make the necessary preparations for breakfast the night before.
You can find a lot of fantastic ideas online for quick and nutritious breakfast alternatives that you can cook on the weekend and then reheat in the microwave on those hectic weekday mornings.
Find a fast and nutritious cold alternative that works well, such as Greek yogurt, fruit, and granola, and serve it chilled. The most important thing is to choose something that requires the least amount of time to prepare so that you can devote more of your attention to getting the children ready rather than channeling your inner Julia Child.
Get Up First.
It will make a lot of a difference if you get up and get dressed before you wake the kids up, whether you need to get ready for work or can remain in your pajamas in the drop-off line. It doesn’t have to be hours before, but even just enough time to get yourself ready, have a cup of coffee, and say a centering prayer for a pleasant mood before you walk in to wake them can transform the way you feel about mornings.
If you start the morning in a hurried and frantic manner, your children will also start their mornings in a hurried and frantic manner. Everything will go off without a hitch if you just give yourself a few additional minutes to feel focused and quiet before you begin.
Maintain a Positive Atmosphere and Calm During Wake-Up Time
Even if you are already running late, you should fight the urge to rouse the children by shouting “get up, get up, we’re late!” even if you think it could work. The manner in which you wake someone may have a significant impact on how they go with the remainder of their day.
In addition, if you are overly harried and stressed out, it can often backfire, and the children will go much more slowly. Or you might just completely lose it and end up being late anyhow.
There’s a chance that each of your children wakes up in a distinct manner. While some people could be eager to go as soon as they open their eyes, others might want a few moments of rest before getting out of bed.
Some people like to be gently roused from sleep with a peck on the cheek or a little touch on the back, while others prefer to have a song or some gentle music play in the background. Invest the time necessary to determine the specific requirements of each child, then act appropriately.
If there is one child who needs a few more minutes to get up, get her up first, then go wake the other children, and then come back to the child who needs assistance to make sure she is getting out of bed.
Whatever you do, the most important thing is to have a cheerful and peaceful attitude throughout wakeups. In all seriousness, they are wonderful mantra words throughout the whole of morning process; keep your mood upbeat and your tone serene.
Create a chart detailing your morning rituals.
The sooner we can assist our children in being self-reliant to the point where they can make themselves ready, the better it will be for them in the long term. We are not rearing children; rather, we are preparing young people to become adults.
Make a checklist for all of the things that they need to do each morning,
including taking a shower, brushing their teeth and their hair, getting dressed (for some kids, you might want to add changing their socks and underwear!), putting their dirty clothes in the hamper, eating breakfast, putting on shoes, getting their backpacks, and so on.
For younger children, you can use pictures instead of words to make the checklist; however, you should still make the checklist. You might even have the checklist laminated and let them use a dry-erase marker to check off each item as they complete it as they go down the list. When kids have been doing this for some time, they won’t need the chart anymore.
Set Multiple Alarms.
There’s a chance it’s just me, but I often get confused about the time in the mornings. If I’m not paying attention, even if we’ve had a peaceful morning up to this point, all of a sudden I’ll glance at the clock and think, “Oh, man!
We were meant to leave three minutes ago!” and then the frantic yelling of “hurry up, hurry up, hurry up” begins all over again.
The first alarm goes off when it’s time for me to wake up, the second goes off when it’s time for my kid to take his medication, and the third goes off five minutes before it’s time for us to go.
Pray. (Also Multiple Times). In the morning, just as I set several alarms for myself, I also pray many times. When I first get up in the morning, before I wake the kids, I pray to God to help me retain a peaceful and encouraging tone in my words and tone of voice. I am praying to God that He would help me avoid being hurried or stressed out.
In the mornings, I pray to God, “Fill me with Your miraculous joy and serenity so that I may be who You created me to be,” since I am well aware that I do not naturally possess such qualities. During breakfast, we say our prayers.
When I feel myself becoming frazzled or frustrated, I try to calm myself by silently whispering prayers to myself. After that, when we get in line to drop off our children at school, we all say a prayer together.
If the children want to have a pleasant day, they should learn a lot, pay attention to what their instructors have to say, and be kind to anybody who may be feeling down or suffering. We may pray for a teacher’s kid who has been ill or for a student who is being bullied in their class to feel appreciated.
They are able to regain their composure and begin their day off to a positive start by praying, and it does not matter what type of morning we had, whether I did everything correctly or lost my temper.
When I put all of these suggestions into practice, I don’t find that I’m yelling “hurry up, hurry up, let’s go” as often as I normally do.
There is no sense of urgency or pressure on me. Instead of concentrating all of my attention on trying to beat the clock, I am able to take the time and have the right frame of mind to concentrate on the cute little things that kids say and do in the morning.
It is possible to discover a successful morning routine; all it needs is a little bit of preparation in advance and a lot of prayers.
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