Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Works for Me Wednesday!!! August 9



I didn't get to play along last week, I had my family just come in for a visit and was busy with them, and even though they're still here, I do have some free time this morning so I decided it was now or never.

The tip I have for today is due to school starting soon. I find that if I don't organize things then I'm always running around struggling to get the kids out of bed and dressed etc.

I've found that what works for me is to have a plan. The night before, after bathtime and reading etc, we go through and pick the clothes that they want to wear the next morning, including shoes and a little sweater if it's chilly etc.
I purchased these colorful shelves that hang in their closets and then we labeled them with Monday-Friday.



That's where we place the clothes for that day and if there's something going on later that week, whether it's Hat day or Pajama day or whatever, we make sure to place those items in the right shelf as soon as we get the note from school.

After we have the clothes ready, we go through the backpack to make sure her homework is done and she has everything she needs, this way if something is missing we can search for it now instead of in the morning when we're rushing to get out of the house.



Next thing we do is plan breakfast, what does she want to eat. Now I know that sometimes in the morning she wants something but then changes her mind, so we usually go with two choices that she can have and that way I have both of them available or ready for her.

This may not seem like rocket science to many and I'm sure most moms do this, but I didn't for a long time and we had a lot of problems trying to get out of the house and make it to school on time. Works for Me.

If you want to play along or read other great tips, just head on over to Shannon's "Rocks in my Dryer".

6 comments:

Beck said...

Anything that you can do that makes school mornings easier is great! I like the little outfit - is it one of Jasmine's?

mom of 2 said...

We pick out clothes and shoes, too. It does make the morning go so much nicer. Emily makes her own breakfast in the morning (she chooses to do this because she is oh so independent) and gets her stuff ready. I help her to remember to get everything she needs, but she likes to be in charge of her own stuff. A routine is good though!!

Christina said...

I usually get ready the night before, but you know me, I also usually forget something. This is a great tip. One I don't think I could live without. I have seen those day of the week clothes things and I might buy one. My kids wear uniforms, but some days they have free dress, or hat day, or whatever. Here a lot of the public schools have uniforms so that is kind of easy for us. I'll tell you definately easy on the purse strings.

Christina said...

Great tip. I need to get one of those things with the days of the week even though my kids wear uniforms, for stuff like hat day you mentioned. Here in Hawaii most public schools wear uniforms so it makes it easy on us. It's really easy on the purse strings also.

someone else said...

Anything that makes the morning smoother and faster is a great idea! I remember my girls picking out what to wear the night before.

Barb said...

Setting tomorrow's school outfit out the night before saved me endless time and confusion on school mornings. It worked for me too. I'll bet a lot of moms out here try this.