Getting children ready for school

Do you struggling in the morning to get your children ready for school? Are your mornings chaos with meltdowns and tantrums and lazy children who are distracted by TV or can't find their shoes (because they're not really looking)? Are you doing all the work making all the lunches, getting school clothes ready, packing bags, finding missing items? Do you spend your mornings feeling frazzled and yelling at your children?

One of the easiest things you can do to help your mornings run smoothly and to get your children to help out is to write a list of things that need to be done. Specifically the things your children need to do.

Maybe your child has just started school this year and is not use to the new routine and all the bits that go with getting ready for school (because it's much different to kinder). Make a basic list for them to follow:

1. Have breakfast
2. Brush teeth
3. Get dressed
4. Pack bag

In the early stages you'll still be doing the bulk of the work because your child is still young; making lunches, helping to pack bags and get your child ready for school. Yet there are certain steps for them to learn early on so they know how to get ready for school, get into a routine and take on some of the responsibility.

As they get older this list will grow and include things like them making their lunches, remembering their drink bottle, putting their school clothes in a certain spot so they know where to find them the next morning, making sure they've got their reader, school diary and homework packed.

Keep the list you make on the fridge and point to each step asking your child if they've each step. Eventually your child will know what is expected of them, know they things they have to do as apposed to the bits you're doing and you can work together to get ready, instead of you having to do it all and being overwhelmed.

And remember: do not let them watch TV before school!