Okay. So Stress-Free might be pushing it a little bit.
Every crisis seem to have a knack of happening 5 minutes before you are meant to leave to make it to the school gates on time.
But with a little bit of planning and a bit of a morning and evening routine in place, you can take back control of your mornings instead of your mornings controlling you.
How rushed and chaotic your morning is, has an impact all day on how your day goes. Nobody feels good after rushing around in a panic from the moment they open their eyes. Plus, the more rushed you are in the mornings the more inevitable it is that you are going to forget some essential thing and end up doing the school run an extra time to drop that packed lunch or P.E Kit off.
SO, WHAT IS THE SECRET TO A STRESS-FREE SCHOOL MORNING?
The evening before.
Seriously. That is your secret weapon.
Rushing around in the morning as soon as you open your eyes is the worst thing ever. Imagine how nice it would be to wake up knowing that other than the bits that literally cannot be done until the morning, everything is good to go?
The more you are able to get done in the evening, the less you have to do in the morning.
THINGS TO DO IN THE EVENING TO MAKE YOUR SCHOOL MORNING EASIER.
GET SCHOOL UNIFORM READY THE NIGHT BEFORE.
There is NOTHING worse than telling everyone to get dressed and realising that there are no clean school jumpers. When you lay clothes out ready the night before (or get your kids to do it for themselves) you’ll be able to see if you need to throw something quickly in the washing machine.
It makes the school morning so much smoother too. The clothes are right there, all the kids need to do it put them on.
(I actually do this every day – but it’s a life saver on school mornings).
I also suggest choosing your clothes the night before – you don’t have to lay them out ready, but just checking the weather and knowing what you are going to wear in the morning saves so much time in the morning. I’m not an accessories person – but choose them too if you are.
MAKE PACKED LUNCH THE NIGHT BEFORE.
My favourite night of the week is a Friday night because I don’t have to make packed lunch. It takes minutes to prepare packed lunch the night before, but in my head it takes about 5 hours!
I make sandwiches, anything that needs to be put into little pots I do (e.g grated cheese or grapes etc) and they get stored in the fridge. Then in the actual lunch bags I will put anything in that doesn’t need to be stored in the fridge – so in the morning it is just a case of adding in the chilled items, making drinks and off they go.
The same as with the clothes, it’s a chance for you to notice if you’ve run out of bread or some other packed lunch essential.
PACK BAGS THE NIGHT BEFORE
The same principle as packed lunches!
Anything that needs to be in their school bags for school can be added the night before, like sports kids or pencil cases or homework.
The night before is also a good time to make sure any forms that need to be returned are done and put in the bag safe – and any homework that needs to be done is done!
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE TIMING.
I feel slightly like I have been doing the school run for the last 300 years, so it means that we have got the school run timing down to a fine art.
I know that if I wake up later than 6am – we are going to be rushing around like crazy. If Anest’s breakfast isn’t put on by 7.05am at the latest – her breakfast won’t be finished in time for her to get dressed etc for school (that happens at 7.50am – like I say, a fine art).
Work out what best works for your family,.
GET YOURSELF READY THE NIGHT BEFORE
We tend to make sure our kids and ready and then sort ourselves as a last minute thing.
Check your calendar, look at what you have on the next day. If you are leaving the house or going straight to the shops after dropping the kids off in school, make sure your handbag has everything you need in there.
MAKE A TO-DO LIST
Write a todo list for the next day, I try and do this every evening – it’s so much easier to plan what you need to do the next day when you are bit calmer than frantically trying to multi-task in the morning.
Writing things down means you are more likely to do them.
I hope you find this helpful!
Let me know in the comments if you have any tips that you would add in!
Beth x