Command Centre: Routines

Do you often find yourself getting overwhelmed before or after school?  Are there arguments on the way out the door?  Do you wish you could have a more peaceful start to the day?

There is always a certain amount of stress or anxiety that accompanies transitions, and the shift from home to school and back again can be somewhat unsettling for kids (and for us!).  But you can reduce that by following routines.  Not eliminate, but at least reduce.

Kids thrive on routines.  It helps them know what is coming next.  When things are more predictable, they feel safe and comfortable.

Parents like routines too.  Even those who aren’t particularly organized still likely have some patterns they follow.  It just makes everything run smoother.

Today, I’m going to share our before and after school routines from when my kids were younger.  They’ve been a key part of our kitchen command centre for years.

This is the third post in this series.  If you haven’t seen the first two parts, go ahead and check out Wall Files for Papers and School Gear.

Our Routines

This picture shows our routines (in the black frames) beside the folders and above the bins for the kids’ backpacks.  

Here’s my daughter’s routine page.

And this is my son’s routine page.

The pictures were taken on the first day of school. They were so cute when they were little.

The two pages were pretty similar to each other at that point.  As they got older some of their chores varied more as well as the times when they were at different schools.  They liked having their own separate pages though, even when they were almost identical.

I discussed the school-related tasks on these routine pages in the school gear post. The rest are basically dressing and hygiene activities. I also included a few chores. The kids helped with other things around the house too but I only included the ones that happened before and after school.

Where the times are given in a range, they could do those things any time during that range, but they had to complete them by the end time in order for us to get out the door on time. I also built in a bit of a buffer around everything to allow for unexpected things. They often did everything early so they could watch TV for a few minutes before we left for school.

The kids helped me decide what should go on these pages and when they should do which things in order to get everything done.  Then I prettied them up by adding fun fonts, different colours, and their pictures. They liked the finished product!

I just put them in dollar store document frames and hung them up above their backpack bins.

When I first put them up, the kids referred to them every day to make sure they were remembering everything.  It was so nice not to have to remind them to brush their teeth or unpack their lunch bags! Over time the tasks became routine for the most part.

I revised these routine pages about once a year, as the kids grew, or situations changed in our lives, or even just to update their pictures. Overall, they were a huge help!

Tips for setting up routines:

• Keep it simple
• Involve your kids so they have more ownership 
• Build in a buffer zone
• Stick with it!  Habits can take awhile to establish

So now you’ve seen the whole middle section of my kitchen command centre.

Stay tuned for posts about our calendar, monthly goals page, weekly plans, and, my favourite part, our storage for the kids’ school work and art work that we keep!

In the meantime, if you’re looking for more ideas for a command centre, you can check out the command centres post I wrote as part of the 31 Days of Organizing Tips series or my Entryways, Drop Zones & Command Centres board on Pinterest.

What routines do you follow before and after school?  How do you keep everyone on schedule?  Please share your ideas in the comments so we can all be inspired by you!

If you need help decluttering or organizing, contact me for in-person organizing services in the Mississauga area, or virtual organizing services anywhere else.

Happy organizing!