Smooth Mornings with School Aged Children!

So my daughter Gwen is sooo not a morning person! I wonder where she gets it from? (wink wink) She use to cry every morning and then it would frustrate me, and that just aint cool with two non morning people. So I started evaluating where our problems started. She hated getting up early, she was being rushed, having to get her clothes out and then dressed... It was just too all over the place. So I decided for us to establish a routine. First of all kids need adequite sleep. The National Sleep Foundation says school aged children (5-12) need 10 -11 hours of sleep. That is crazy! I didn't know that I always thought 8 hours of sleep was what everyone needed. So we moved her bedtime to an earlier time. I did notice a big difference when doing this just to start off.

The preparation starts the night before when we get everything ready for the next day. That includes her uniforms, shoes and socks laid out, hair accessories, lunch made, and back pack by the door. This helped tremendously because she wasn't fummbling around half asleep in the mornings trying to find everything to get ready. Having everything stream lined I find is the best. The next part of her morning routine was we started with making her bed first before anything. This gives her a fresh clean start to her morning and is a good habit for her to get into for the rest of her life. I dunno bout you but if I walk into my room and the bed isn't made it distracts me and just makes me feel blah! The whole room could be spottless but that alone can make my day come crashing down. So next is brushing her teeth and getting dressed. She then comes to my room where I do her hair and then its down stairs we go. All of this takes her about 30 min. We wake up an hour before we have to leave for school. Giving her ample time to get ready is a very important thing that way she is not feeling rushed and then in turn does not get emotional.

Next is breakfast. Now since I am not a morning person niether I try to make my mornings as smooth as possible too. So the night before I have some preparations that I do to make my mornings go smoothly. I start with loading my keurig with a k-cup, water, and the mug placed underneath. Next some easy breakfast ideas I came up with was making a whole batch of mini pancakes and freezing them so that way I can just pop a few in the microwave for about 45 seconds tada breakfast is ready. I bought cereal bars as well and those are great along with a banana and orange juice. Gwen loves oatmeal so that is another quick microwave option to do on cold mornings with hot coco! She feels all grown up sipping on her coco while she watches her morning cartoons. One last breakfast that is easy and fast to make are smoothies! Just prepackage them in freezer bags and pop them out and toss some OJ in the blender and there you go! Here is a link to one of my smoothie recipes. So while she is eating next is my turn to go upstairs and put myself together.

I have about 20 minutes to do my hair and makeup and throw on something comfy but cute to take her to school. Now, my hair is down to my booty so it's a rare occasion when I actually wear it down and make it all purddy! But here are a couple ideas on how you can still look stylish and put together without having to blowdry, curl, or flatiron your hair.
1. Top knot bun
2. Side braid
3. Side swept low braided bun (Flower Bun)

Next is my go to makeup for the mornings. I have been a makeup artist for over 10 years now and having kids has definetly made me cut down on my face routine. So I use 6 things to do my makeup in the mornings and I keep them all together in a small makeup bag so that way I can easily grab it and not have to fumble through all of my makeup. You can imagine what kind of collection I have going on haha with 10 years of doing makeup! Here is a list of the basics and I will also give you the brands of things I like using.
1. Face primer (Baby Skin by Maybelline)
2. Foundation (Loreal True Match)
3. Concealer (Loreal True Match)
4. Blush/bronzer (ELF duo)
5. Eyebrow pencil (Avon brow pencil)
6. Mascara (Falsies by Maybelline)

Then my alarm for 7 am goes off and it's off for school!

In conclusion ROUTINE is the key here! Being prepared the night before, having a set routine and ample amount of time gives for a smooth morning with your cranky lil ones. Hope this has helped some of you be inspired to bring some routine into yours and your kid's life!
Much love mamasitas until next time!