Tuesday, August 30, 2011

First Day of School & How We Streamlined the Morning Routine!

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Kindergarten & First Grade

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Our proud Second Grader! I'll have to get a photo of him next to Grandma's fence for a height comparison.

So, The Girl started school about 2 weeks ago but The Boy just started yesterday. They don't go to the same schools. He attends a Catholic school and she goes to a public school with a program for special needs children. The Boy's school is about 7 minutes from our house in one direction and The Girl's school is about 15 minutes away from our house in the opposite direction.

What does this mean for me in the mornings?

It means we leave the house almost an hour before I have to get to work so I can drive them both to their respective morning care programs. The Boy is able to run inside by himself but I actually have to street park and get out of the car to sign The Girl in each morning. This calls for us to wake at *yawn* 5:45 am each morning. I'm already cringing at the thought of adding a baby to the mix early next year!

A few weeks ago I'd mentioned that I was going to start streamlining the morning routine to allow the kids more independence and the ability to do for themselves.

Source: amazon.com via Julie on Pinterest



#1 PROBLEM - A KID'S ALARM CLOCK
I wanted them to get used to waking with an alarm clock so I started using this to wake them for summer camp. I found this amazing dual-clock from Timex. I love it so much that I ended up buying one for myself too! I can set it for two different times, only to go off on weekdays, the time sets itself and it has a radio or buzzer (I hate being woken by a buzzer, so I love the radio feature!). Now they are totally used to the alarm clock and are not having any problems getting up by themselves.

#2 PROBLEM - GETTING THEIR OWN CLOTHES, UNDERPANTS & SOCKS OUT
Using the closet organizers we already have, I have their wardrobe lined up for the entire week. I move The Girls socks & matching hair bows downstairs on Sunday so those are ready for the week ahead (bows have a box that goes under the bathroom sink with her hairbrush and the socks go into the shoe storage bin).

The Boy always wears a uniform & white socks so he doesn't even have to think about it, he already knows what he's wearing. The Girl has been grabbing her clothes out of the closet and getting dressed fine on her own (though a few times the shirt has been on backwards!).

#3 PROBLEM - PREPARING THEIR OWN BREAKFASTS
I took these pictures on Monday morning so I did supervise them that day but today they did everything on their own.

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Fixing her own cereal (obviously, previous to brushing her hair!)

The Girl made her own bowl of cereal. I purchased plastic bowls from Target and have them in the dry food cabinet. I poured milk into a smaller bottle so she doesn't have to wield the full jug of milk. However I don't think she poured herself enough cereal today because she was done eating before The Boy and that never happens! I think I'll start portioning out the cereal into baggies and she can get her serving from there.

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Heating up water for oatmeal

The Boy loves oatmeal so I taught him how much water to put in the Pyrex measuring cup and which button to push on the microwave to heat it. The handle doesn't get hot so he's able to get it out by himself and pour the water into the bowl with the oatmeal. Right now we still have some Quaker Oat packets so he's using those but when those are gone, I'll be creating various oatmeal packs with dried fruit and brown sugar mixes of our own.

#4 PROBLEM - TRUSTING THEM ENOUGH TO PUT ON THEIR OWN TOOTHPASTE
They are now able to get their teeth brushed with minimal mess (The Girl did drop a big blob of pink toothpaste on my bath rug yesterday). I purchased them two different types of toothpaste so it's very easy for me to know exactly who made the mess and who didn't rinse out the sink after spitting!

I'll show you on other day how I tacked the remaining problem on my list, ALLOWING THE BOY TO MAKE HIS OWN LUNCHES.

I had the day off on Monday to be with The Boy on his first day so we actually dropped The Girl off first and then went to The Boy's school.

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Outside his classroom

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Playing a bean-bag toss question game with his new teacher

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These two sillies are seated next to each other in the classroom too...might not be the best idea, but I'm sure the teacher will figure that out soon enough!

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Happy First Day of Second Grade sweetheart!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Would you please be kind enough to make my day?