our morning routine.

Being a homeschooling family has been so wonderful, but it also comes with built-in "traps". Right now I'm on summer hiatus from most of my regularly scheduled morning shifts, which equals more mornings at home, which equals more opportunities to be lazy. 

Good morning routines have always been a struggle for me to get into place, especially over the last few years. With my work schedule, a tough pregnancy, a newborn, and now a 10 month old that has decided to pick up a newborn's nighttime sleep habits, it just hasn't been top priority. But now with things slowing down, at least on one front, I feel like it's a great time to get back into our morning groove. So last week, after we got back from vacation, I made a short list for myself and each of the big kids of things that need to be done first thing in the morning. Our lists are short and sweet, and are top priority.

Audrey's Daily 6

1. Get dressed

2. Brush teeth/hair

3. Vitamins

4. Drink water

5. Hamsters' water/food

6. Empty Dishwasher

Lawson's Daily 5

1. Get dressed

2. Brush teeth

3. Pajamas in hamper

4. Vitamins

5. Rikki's water/food

Jen's Daily 6

1. Get dressed (down to shoes)

2. Brush teeth

3. Vitamins

4. Drink water

5. Make bed

6. Start a load of laundry

Some of the items are super simple and quite the given, but if you have no where to be, and the kids know that you have no where to be, it's quite shocking how long each day everyone can stay in their pajamas! All of our basic lists can be done in 10-15 minutes, or less. So whether we are at home for the day, or not, they can be easily accomplished. 

I have the kids' lists posted in their bedroom (hanging on clipboards), and mine is in my room. Audrey, of course, can read hers, and Lawson, though he isn't a reader yet, is sounding out the first letters and remembering what he needs to do. With them easily accessible, and simple in the nature of the tasks, I'm not constantly hollering after the kids to get things done. All I have to do is say, "it's time for morning routines!", and they can get to it. Of course there can be a few sidetracked moments, but I digress, they're kids after all!

In choosing the chores that are on each list, I tried to come up with both the simplest, most basic tasks, and the ones that I feel give us the most bang for our buck.

All of the animals need attention daily, so I divided that between Audrey and Lawson. The chores for the dog are a bit simpler, so I gave them to Lawson.

Audrey has been in charge of emptying the dishwasher for awhile now, but adding it to her morning routine helps us in two ways -- 1. it ensures that I'm being diligent in loading and running the dishwasher every evening, and 2. it's emptied first thing, so all of our dishes during the day, starting with breakfast, can be loaded as we go, making evening clean up easier.

Making my bed and doing laundry are on my list of priority chores (along with dishes), because those three things drive me crazy. If my laundry and dishes are under control, and my bed is made, I feel much more productive and ready to accomplish other things. If they are out of control, I feel out of control and stressed out.

Oh, and on my list where it says, "get dressed", I added "down to shoes" because being fully dressed, with shoes on, does some amazing things for my productivity level. That's yet another tip I picked up from FlyLady!

So far we're doing GREAT with our new routines, and the mornings have been running more smoothly. I'm looking forward to keeping this up, and slowly adding in more good habits over the summer for us all.