By Karey McCann
Do you want to take charge of your school mornings? Start your day doing things in the same order. This helps prevent upsets like forgetting your lunch or something you need for class. It’s easy to forget things when you are in a hurry!
Talk with your parents. See what they think would help make school mornings easier. How about things that can be taken care of the night before? For example, put what you need for class in your backpack, and put it in a special spot. For instance, your parents might decide on a spot by the front door or on a counter.
Figure out what you are going to wear the next day. Put those clothes (including socks and underwear!) on a chair or hang them up on your closet door handle. Also, think about taking your bath or shower the night before.
Speaking of night before, it’s important to go to bed at pretty much the same time on school nights. You want to get eight or nine hours of sleep. You need it! You are learning so many new things each day, and that takes a lot of brain energy!
It helps to get up at the same time in the morning, perhaps even 10 or 15 minutes early. You never know when something unexpected might happen: Maybe you break a shoelace and have to find another one. Maybe the cat spills your juice on your backpack, and you have to clean it up. Maybe you find a frog in your shoe … this once happened to me! For real!
Getting up that little bit earlier gives you time to deal with anything unexpected, and you won’t have to worry about missing the bus or being late for school.
Stay away from video games, TV or anything on the internet in the morning. All this does distract you from the important task at hand. You morning job is to get up, eat breakfast, get dressed, brush your hair and teeth, and put your lunch bag in your already packed backpack.
As you get older, your parents will give you more responsibilities, such as packing your lunch the night before or taking care of special laundry needs, like washing your baseball uniform or gym clothes. Yes, more stuff to learn that will help you in life.
In the meantime, have a happy wake up in the morning! You are in the ready zone and will get to school on time!