How to Start Your School Day Off Right

My oldest child has no problem getting up for school each morning.

My youngest, on the other hand, is a completely different story.

It doesn’t seem to matter what I do to try to wake him up, he never budges until the absolute last minute. Inevitably, we end up rushing through our morning routine, shoving some cereal in a cup for the road and barely making it to school on time.

This is not exactly the way I envision my child starting his day off in the Lord.

But then something surprising happened a few months ago.

Our family wanted to find a way to workout together, so we started training for a 1/2 marathon (technically it was a Family 5K during a Disney marathon weekend, but they kept calling it a marathon, so we went with it).

The only way I knew we would get our training in consistently would be to wake up before school to walk and run. At first I doubted that kids would be up to the challenge, but they assured me they were ready to begin training. I knew my daughter, the older sibling, would hold up her end of the deal, but I didn’t have high hopes for my son.

But then the unexpected happened… The first morning the alarm clock went off at 5:00 am he literally popped out of bed! No joke – he sprung up, walked out of the room and got ready on his own. I didn’t have to say or do a thing.

Our whole morning went better after that.

We exercised, showered, got dressed, had devotions and ate – all before my son typically got out of bed!

I’d become so accustomed to letting him roll out of bed at the last minute that I’d stolen the joy and possibility that came with each new morning.

I’d failed to cast a vision and worse than that, I was holding myself to a different standard than I was holding them theirs.

Our kids are capable. Give them something to look forward to. Challenge them. Allow them the opportunity to rise above the mundane of the everyday and see a glimpse of the extraordinary God designed for us!

You too can experience the very same with your children, especially in the New Year. Just follow these simple steps:

How to Start Your School Day Off Right

1. Lay out your priorities

Determine what it is you want to accomplish each morning before school and how much time you’ll need to do it.

2. Develop a schedule

Leave enough time to accomplish each priority, taking into account unexpected mishaps like spilled milk or carpool traffic.

3. Set their minds

There’s nothing worse than having “hurry up” be the last thing your kids hear from you in the morning; instead, make sure they hear from you that they are loved! We’ve discovered the newly released Every Day a Blessing that offers different devotions for each weekday to set their minds in the right place before they go off to school.

4. Communicate your expectations

The best laid plans won’t matter if they’re not communicated and agreed upon by the whole family.

So what do you have to lose, except a morning routine that probably isn’t working very well to begin with? Before you start this new semester, why not take time to sit down and script out how you can start our family’s school day off right!

Your Turn

What is your most helpful piece of advice for how to start your kids’ school day off right in your home?