A newly improved school year

So any parent can describe to you the goings on in the morning as everyone is preparing for school, work etc. For some it may be pretty, for others like myself, it can be rather traumatic.  I mean who enjoys listening to, "Have you done this? Have you got that? Why are you sitting with only pants and 1 sock on, we leave in 5 minutes!! Have you brushed your hair? Teeth? Arghhh you've got breakfast spilled all down you! I can only find one shoe! Has anyone seen my homework folder?" times this by 4! I'm exhausted just even thinking about it.

Welcome to our home for the last school year.  I decided I wasn't wanting a repeat this year.  I am often asked how I manage working full time, 4 kids, church responsibilities and everything else life throws at you.  Quite frankly, it can be stressful and often things don't get done.  I didn't want that anymore, so we sat down as a family and decided what we were going to do. Here are some of the ideas we came up with:

1. Daily routines chart

We made a daily routines chart that the children came up with (us adults guided them a little). I have found that my children, particularly my boys perform better when they know what is expected of them and can be reminded of it. So they each have the chart displayed in their bedrooms.  So far, it has worked a treat and they are reminding me at certain times what we should be doing next.  With 4 children and both parents working, there is a lot to fit in each day.  This has helped us all in being more constructive with our time.

2. Daily storage drawer

So we used this last year, it worked in as much that I was prepared with the washing and ironing.  The idea is that each school day has a drawer.  In the drawer, I would put underwear and school clothes in and any sports equipment they needed for that day. It works brilliantly when I am organised.  I don't know about anyone else, but doing laundry and ironing is fine, it's the putting away! I hate it, often I would encourage the children to put their clothes away after I've stood for 3-4 hours ironing, but it would end up crumpled anyway. Complete bug bear of mine. Asking the hubby to do it wasn't any better (he is brilliant at other household chores though so we don't give him too hard a time.) So each child has a set of plastic drawers like these:

3. Symbols

So like I said above, I hate putting the laundry away.  I am also one for having the children take responsibility and giving them some chores to do.  It's teaching life skills.  So I decided that we would label the drawers.  The children were on board with this completely.  They got to design and colour each garment and label it.  Once completed, I then allowed them to use the laminator (this is really exciting stuff for my kids! Who doesn't love laminating things?)  They then chose which drawers would be used for each item of clothing.  I loved doing this with them, encouraging their creativity, using problem solving skills and for my youngest child who has just started school, she is beginning to associate words to pictures (letter recognition skills). 

So I know I won't be alone in experiencing stress in the mornings, but I wanted to share what I have found to work (for the moment) in making it a more pleasant experience.  I know when my kids leave in the morning, I amen't full of regret wishing I had just been that bit more patient, or less vocal. It just takes a bit more organisation on my part to change the whole atmosphere of our home. I hope this gives someone some ideas to help make their home a happier place.

Any questions, fire away :-)