Easy Morning Routine System – Self-Sufficient Kids

How many of you have a morning routine system for your family?

Maybe mornings at your home look similar to how mine did 6 months ago.  You know, the little creatures wake up and hang around in their pajamas until you lose your cool and start yelling.  Don’t you dare tell me that my kids are the only ones that have the propensity to go into super-slow mo while whining and complaining about getting ready?! Ha!

I was so sick of nagging the kids to get ready.  I needed a solution.

Look, if you have little people running around, (or laying around) not doing anything to get going, it gets frustrating fast.

Personally, I’d tell them multiple times to do something as simple as getting dressed or putting dirty laundry in the hamper.  For real, these are such simple tasks but my kiddos outnumber me.  And let’s face it, I’m busy trying to get my day underway too.  So I had to figure out a way to get them on board with a routine.   Scratch that, I needed to find a way to get them excited about getting everything done.  AND I had to remove the nag factor.

My very intelligent friend gave me a SUPER simple and effective tool that has been awesome for my kids!  My *almost* 11-year-old even gets into this and I’m no longer the nagging mom.  As a bonus…this is easy to throw together and basically no fuss. (like really you can write this on a blank piece of paper…so read on)

Here it is…

How the Morning Routine System works:

1. First, determine what time you need your children to have all their tasks completed. (for us this is 8 am)
2. On a piece of paper, list their names, routines, and any special jobs for each child.
3. Place the routine paper on the fridge or somewhere in a central location.
4. Gather reward stickers and the prize bucket.
5. Explain to your children how it all works, what’s expected, and the reward.
6. Remind them for a day or two, (especially for littles who can’t read) and watch them gain ownership of their morning.
7. At the designated time, check to see where your children are with their morning routine.  If they’ve accomplished everything, they get a sticker.
8. On the 4th day, they get a sticker and a prize from the prize bucket.

So what’s in this prize bucket??

Yes, balloons.  My kids LOVE balloons.  ($0.01/each)

Coloring books and activity pads ($1/each).

Candy!  Now’s a great time to steal back that Halloween candy for the prize box. (FREE)

Sticker sheets.  We just added Christmas stickers. ($0.18/each)

Dollar store toys. ($0.50 – $1/each)

Some more ideas…

Gum, quarters, a media pass (10 min. or more), sticker sheet, etc.  Make it inexpensive but something your kids will look forward to earning.

Introduction Phase

The first couple of days, my kids, (especially my 2 littlest) had a hard time getting the concept.  I gave them quite a few reminders but they still didn’t do their tasks.  They figured out pretty quickly when they didn’t get a sticker and that means no prize.  HALLELUJAH!!

*Disclaimer* This ONLY works if you enforce the routine and sticker chart.  You have to take 3 minutes to check what they did and assign the stickers.
(I realize this is a no-brainer but I found that I got a little relaxed and my kids reverted back to their old habits)

Customizable & Printable

Just to save you a couple of minutes, I’ve uploaded a customizable routine chart, (made in excel) for you to tweak to your heart’s content.

Customizable Routine Chart

All the boxes are there and the shading for the reward day, you just need to fill in the information to suit your needs.  (If you are curious about my font, I used  Archistico Bold for the bold font and Dawning of a New Day).

You can seriously take a blank piece of paper and draw out your routine if you don’t want to type anything (so don’t let that get in the way).

I’d love to hear if this is working for you, so please share if you implement this!

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