Start the Morning Off Right: Tips and Tricks to Create a Smooth Before-School Routine

Has your family’s morning routine become a race to get out the door? With a consistent, peaceful morning routine, you can help ensure that your kids get to school on time and that they are prepared for their day mentally, physically and emotionally. Here are some tips and tricks you can try with your kids to help them start their day off right!

Prepare the Night Before

If your mornings tend to feel rushed, try creating a ‘night before’ organization checklist to tackle some of the to-dos before the busy morning even arrives. Some items your children can accomplish the evening before include: putting their homework and belongings into their backpack, packing their lunch, filling their water bottle and picking out their outfit. Not only does this allow your children to check items off their morning list, but it also reduces the stress of having so many morning to-dos.

Let a Little Light In

Building appropriate sleep and waking habits are instrumental to your kids’ wellbeing. With a good night’s sleep and sunlight cues, your children might wake naturally without the use of an alarm clock. This synchronizes the body’s biological clock and increases immunity and mood. Since it’s not always possible to wake with the morning sun, there are also really cool electronic tools, such as Hatch, that can illuminate a mock sunrise and even play peaceful morning sounds, like chimes or birds.

Set Clear Expectations

In particular for little ones, it is beneficial to create a morning routine checklist to set clear expectations for your children. This checklist can be hung in a central area of your home, like on the refrigerator in the kitchen, and can incorporate the use of choice items, such as stickers or dry erase markers. The list should be clear and concise, yet the level of detail can vary depending on your kids’ age and degree of independence. Younger kids frequently enjoy charts with visual cues. Older kids tend to do fine with a simpler format. It generally works best not to allow the use of electronics during the block of time before school so that your kids can stay focused on the tasks at hand.

Practice What You Preach

In order for your children to learn good habits, it is imperative that you, as the parent, model the behaviors you wish to see from them. Hopping out of bed, getting dressed and brushing your hair and teeth are behaviors your kids will expect to see from you before they follow suit. Sitting down for a balanced breakfast, whether it be a quick protein smoothie or a more elaborate oatmeal bar, is another important routine to have as a family. Kids look to their parents as role models, even when it comes to building their morning time management skills.

Use Fun Weekly Rewards

Offering your kids a weekly reward for leaving for school on time five days in a row might be just the extrinsic motivation your kids need while they are developing their good habits. Providing them the opportunity to earn a Friday afternoon hot cocoa or ice cream treat is a great way to increase their buy-in. You can keep a simple sticker chart in your vehicle for tracking and motivation purposes!

Written by Krista G.

Creating the Ultimate Calm Down Kit: Using the Five Senses to Reset and Regulate

What is a calm down kit you ask? Well, a calm down kit is a tool that can be used to help children self-regulate, center themselves, and reset. Building a calm down kit does not have to be expensive or complicated. You and your child can create a simple and effective calm down kit by focusing on items that engage with the five senses. So, grab a basket, box or bag and let’s begin to curate the ultimate calm down kit!

Below are some ideas for items or activities that your child might enjoy placing in their calm down kit that correlate with each of the five senses: Sight, Touch, Listen, Smell, and Taste.

Sight:

Items to add to your child’s calm down basket that will appeal to the visual senses might include:

-breathing exercise cards

-glitter jar or snow globe

-I Spy book

-family photo album

Touch

Below are some tools to help your child engage with the sense of touch:

-fidget toy, like a Pop-It

-palm or scalp massager

-putty or slime

-stress ball

-sensory bag or pillow

-Rubik’s cube

-soft and cozy blanket

-if younger, a favorite stuffed animal

Listen:

Items that will create a sense of calmness through listening might include:

-headphones to listen to a calming playlist

-rainstick

-sound machine

-music box

-chimes or gentle bells

Smell:

Aromatherapy is a great way to immediately trigger a sense of calm. Here are some objects you can add to your child’s calm kit to ignite the sense of smell:

-essential oils

-nature scents

-lotions

-scented markers

-scratch and sniff stickers

-candles

-diffusers

Taste:

It’s always nice for your child to have a little treat or something appealing to their sense of taste:

-dark chocolate

-mints or gum

-tea

-hard candy or lollipop

-favorite quick snack

Other Items to Include:

Some other items you may want to think about including in your child’s calm down basket might include:

-mindfulness coloring books

-yoga pose cards

-small puzzles or crossword books

-gratitude or regular journal

-bubbles

Depending on your child’s age and general self-regulation needs, invite them to select about 8-12 items to place in their calm basket to start. Objects can be swapped out monthly or seasonally. After selecting items for the kit, set some boundaries about when and how to use it. Your child should find a special place to put their calm down kit, ideally in a quiet and comfortable environment. A good time to use this kit is whenever they are feeling overwhelmed or frustrated or experiencing any other big emotion.

Calm down kits should be used for around 10-15 minutes per session as a quick brain and emotional reset. During this time your child should choose 2-3 items that they are drawn toward and that they feel will help them regulate their emotions and lift their mood.

A calm down kit is a simple and effective tool for social and emotional regulation that can be added to your house today! Here is an example of a calm basket shared on Peak’s Instagram account.

Written by Laine J.

Organization: Tips for Creating and Maintaining an Inviting Home Workspace

Did you know that having a clean and organized personal workspace can actually have psychological benefits? Studies show that having a well organized and clean workspace can increase persistence by as much as 84 % and help sustain attention longer than a messy one. With summer vacation coming to an end, now is the perfect time to begin getting organized and work with your child to create their own personal workspace for the upcoming academic year. Providing your child with a dedicated home work space is a wonderful way to instill responsibility over personal space and develop an organizational foundation. Here are a few ideas to create a winning workspace!

Encourage Use of This Space with Personalized Details

Find fun ways to personalize the desk or work area and tailor it to your child’s specific interests! For younger kids this might be a little framed photo of their pet or family or some fun posters! For older kids this might be adding some twinkle lights or small plants! Adding some inviting elements to make the space peaceful and cozy help invite your child to want to spend more time in their workspace. You could also give it a name like “Katie’s Home Office” or “Jeff’s Work Cave” to make it extra special to them.

Design the Ideal Workspace

An ideal workspace for your child will have a desk with plenty of space to write and draw on and perhaps a few cubbies, drawers or shelves nearby. It is best if the space is quiet and removed from extra stimuli as much as possible (not by a TV or right in the middle of the living room). Keep only the most necessary items present on the desk space so that it isn’t cluttered. Use shelves and drawers to store papers, folders, books, writing utensils etc. It can be helpful to label specific spots for things so that everything has its designated space.

Make an “All Tidy” Reference Photo

When you first set up this workspace, take a clear photo of how everything looks and where each item is. Print the photo out and tape it to the desk or a clipboard. This serves as a wonderful visual cue for how to maintain organization and cleanliness in the space from day to day.

Create a Routine to Keep It Clean

At the end of each work session, your child should do a quick 5 minute tidy up of their space. You could even make them a little written check list with items like “throw away any trash”, “put away extra papers”, “pack homework into back pack” “tuck in chair” etc. They can use their “all tidy” reference photo to try to make sure they leave their space looking the same way each day. Once a month, do a de-clutter session to pack away papers, books and other items not needed anymore. An incentive for keeping their space clean and tidy might be getting to buy new decorations or special office supplies for their desk every once in awhile!

Written by Laine J.