The Meal Makeover Moms have a couple of tips for starting each day off on the right foot and building a strong family:

Plan ahead:

• After dinner have one child clear the table and help with dishes as you (or another child) prep the table for breakfast. Have him set the table with placemats, napkins, bowls, spoons and cereal boxes as part of your dinner wrap-up routine. When the alarm sounds in the morning, add milk and fruit to have a nutritious start to the day.

 

• Check the weather and have kids choose their wardrobe for the next day and lay it out. Apart from sleeping in, this is the part of the morning routine that can be time consuming. It’s a great habit to start early in life.

 

• Check your schedule and gather up an items that are required for special events such as library day, sports practice, band practice, etc.

 

• Put non-chilled food items in their lunch boxes – and while you’re at it, prepare any food for breakfast that can be made in advance and heated too.

Establish a “Morning Zone”:

• Putting all critical items into an established “morning zone” can eliminate a lot of headaches during the morning rush.

 

• Use a hanging shoe organizer with pockets to keep essentials and accessories by the door such as dried mittens & hats ready for another day. If they have their MP3 players and cellphones in here there’s no rush to find them in the morning & you’ll know they aren’t using them while they’re in bed.

 

• Motivate and track time with an “up and at ’em” music playlist that suits the ages of your children. Everything is more fun and moves more quickly with tunes, and you can track how much time has passed. If you use the same sound track every day, they’ll know that by such-and-such a song they should be this-far in their morning routine. No more nagging from mom!

 

• Change the morning sound track on birthdays and special holidays to add excitement to the day.

 

• When the “Zone” is clear, your family is cleared for take-off.

Getting kids off to school and adults to work on time can be one of the biggest challenges of the day. I hope these ideas help you have a stress free morning – and also puts a little play in your day with dancing to your morning playlist.