I had an ah ha parenting moment not so long ago that has made mornings easier for our middle child (and therefore the rest of the family). This one simple trick will make mornings easier for your kids too, especially if they are not a morning person.
This ah ha moment came after weeks of struggling to get our middle child to kindergarten on time. We followed the same routines with him as we did his older brother, but they were not working.
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Our oldest was getting up first and then our kindergarten was getting out of bed with just enough time to get dressed and eat breakfast, but it was all fast paced. I felt like we were running a marathon in the mornings. Our morning routine was not working.
Our kindergartner could not make the transition from sleeping to busy day that quickly and fought back, making him late for school many days.
I’m kind of with him on the transition. I don’t know about you, but I need time in the morning to get moving. I’m not one who can jump out of bed with a smile on face ready to take on the world and neither is he. He needs time to just be up before jumping into the busyness of the day. With his current bedtime, he was not getting up early enough to get that time.
Bedtime at our house was 8pm. The reality was that by the time they were actually in their beds with hugs and kisses and settled down, we were way past 8pm.
Our oldest falls asleep almost immediately, but our middle child needs lots of time to unwind and settle down before falling asleep once in bed.
Our simple trick to make mornings easier was to move bedtime back 30 minutes. By the time 8pm rolls around, they are in bed, lights out and starting to fall asleep.
They wake up earlier in the morning giving our kindergartner time to come alive before taking on kindergarten.
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