How to Set Up a Fun and Productive Morning Routine for Your Kids

Just like a morning routine gets your day started right, I am going to show you how to set up a fun and productive morning routine for your kids! There are a few components to put together that make for a really great morning routine for your kids. Then you get to customize them for your family!

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Elements of a Fun and Productive Morning Routine

We are going to walk through each of these areas together and you can think about things like your children’s personalities, your family culture, and the demands of your daily routine. It is important to remember that what works in one household may not work in yours. You take what you read, what inspires you, and then apply it to your home and family. And then you may need to tweak it! Kids get older, routines change…you just adapt and move forward. Ready?!

• Personal Hygiene
• Personal Space
• Nourishing Food
• Movement
• Contributing to the Household
• Nourishing Ideas

Let’s look at how to set up a fun and productive morning routine for your kids!

Every Morning Routine Starts with Personal Hygiene

This is a habit that you develop very early with your kids. This part of your kids’ morning routine can be bare-bones basic with just brushing teeth and using the restroom. Or may be more involved as your kids are older. For example, our teenager and our youngest have learned that they like to wake up in the morning with a shower. It helps them wake up and get ready for the day.

Our kids are expected to wake up and brush their teeth pretty much first thing in the morning. After a night of sleeping, our mouths harbor a lot of extra bacteria. By brushing your teeth first thing, you safely remove the harmful bacteria. And then your good bacteria are ready to work for the day. There is so much incredible information available today to dial in our oral healthcare at home.

Other things your kids may do during the personal hygiene part of the day is washing their face, using deodorant, combing their hair, and getting dressed for the day. It can be tempting to forgo some of these elements when you are a homeschool family and don’t have any plans to leave the house most days. However, teaching our kids to get dressed to ready instills good life habits. And it helps them be more focused and ready for their lessons for the day. Plus, you are ready for an impromptu outing if the mood strikes!

A Fun and Productive Morning Routine Involves Their Personal Space

The next area to turn your kids’ attention to are back in their rooms. This is where they make their beds and take care of their pajamas or any other dirty laundry. We also open the windows for a short while to let fresh air in. And then perhaps feed their room pet (we have reptiles that dwell in their bedrooms).

Depending on the kind of personality your kids have this is where you can add an element of fun. It’s time to play some uplifting worship music, or other fun songs you enjoy as a family. Perhaps you are learning a hymn together. Practice singing it while the kids reset their rooms. Let the joy of the truths you sing lift their hearts and minds to their Creator.

Serve Nourishing Food for a Productive Morning Routine

This is 100% an area of personal preference and conviction, but I encourage you to think critically about this area. I’m an 80’s kid who grew up on cold cereal and pop tarts. We had to get out the door and laborious breakfasts were not part of our routine. But if you think about it, these foods are not nourishing. They are highly processed and filled with added sugar.

If you are new to thinking more critically about your family’s food choices, be patient with yourself! Don’t try to go the other extreme, or you will overwhelm yourself and throw in the towel. Break it into small goals and easy swaps.

Instead of boxed cereal for breakfast, prepare some easy oatmeal bars the night before that you can throw in the oven and bake up really quickly.

Set a goal for a hot protein breakfast 3 days a week and allow the convenient foods the other days. Then gradually increase the mornings you cook and decrease the convenient food options until they are gone.

I think it is also important for YOU to define your nourishing foods. Some families are all protein, while others enjoy fermented grains like sourdough and fermented oats. Don’t be afraid to try new things and experiment with what fuels your family best! We are not all the same. But, I can confidently say that our aim should be real ingredients and whole foods. Food is fuel and our bodies are made to run on God-created food, not lab-formulated variations.

Check out this post about a no meal plan way to feed your family that can help you transition into an ingredients household and avoid highly-processed foods.

Movement is Crucial for a Fun and Productive Morning Routine for Kids

Just like I encouraged you to get outside and go for a short walk in the morning, the same is true for kids. They need fresh air and sunshine just the same as us. Whether it is some morning stretches on the front porch or some big jumps on the trampoline outside for a spell.

If the morning allows for it, go for a walk together. Around the neighborhood, around your yard, or up and down the driveway. Just move! Breathe! Wake your body with refreshment! When you set up a fun and productive morning routine for kids it must have movement!

If the weather is stormy or freezing, then crank up the music for a little dance party. Let the laughter carry through your house and delight in the smiles on your children’s faces. If dancing isn’t your thing, perhaps some pushups or a plank competition. Challenge them to some squats or lunges, who can stand on one leg the longest. Or how long can they draw circles in the air with their arms? Make it fun!

A Fun and Productive Morning Routine Had Kids Contributing to the Household

From an early age kids should learn how to help take care of the home. Not only should they care for their bedrooms, but there are age-appropriate tasks that your kids can help with. You can absolutely use a chore chart if that is your thing. But we have a different approach. Our kids have ownership chores that they do, and then each day a room in the house gets focused attention from us as a team. Working alongside each other allows me to coach them and builds family unity.

We are raising adults. Kids should be given responsibilities to learn to manage their time with. And, one day they will be living on their own and should know how to run a house. Even boys! I like to think my future daughters-in-law will appreciate having husbands who can cook and clean and keep a house as well. My husband is that way and I adore my mother-in-law for it.

Part of the fun and productive morning routine for our kids doing their ownership chore. For us, the younger two alternate unloading the dishwasher and resetting their bathroom. Our oldest takes over the laundry that I started in my morning routine and sees it through the rest of the day. These are quick chores they can take care of in just a few minutes.

Nourishing Ideas for a Fun and Productive Morning Routine

As a homeschool family we spend our whole mornings together. If you are not a homeschool family this will look a little different for you and what your time allows.

At minimum, it is important to nourish your kids’ minds with the truths of scripture. Whether that is a morning devotion time together, practicing memorizing scripture together, learning a hymn, or reading Bible stories. Base this time off your children’s ages and then have fun making it a special time for your kids’ day.

You may even re-arrange the order in which you line out this morning routine for them. Give them these nourishing ideas while you are serving up that nourishing breakfast! Maybe use some variety. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are morning devotions with the Bible. Then Tuesday and Thursday you practice your memory verses and sing a hymn together.

Our Fun and Productive Morning Routine for Our Kids

Now that we have covered how to set up a fun and productive morning routine for kids, I will share what our kids’ routine looks like. It may not be perfectly executed every day, but just the same, this is what prepares them best for a fun and productive day.

• Wake up and brush teeth / shower / wash face
• Get dressed for day
• Make bed and reset bedroom
• Feed pets
• Ownership chore
• Benediction Table and Breakfast: World Watch News, Hymn, Folk Song, Scripture Reading, Copywork, Missionary Story
• Tidy up from breakfast
• Movement: the kids play or go outside while I set our their lessons for the day

Then we start our morning lessons!

Typically they are running through their routine while I prepare breakfast. Then we all come together to our Benediction Table and share that time all together. This makes for a special time in our day because our oldest works so independently in his lessons, our middle son is mostly independent, and then the youngest and I are working together. This gives us a time spent together to talk and laugh, discuss ideas, and just connect in the first half of our day.

Remember, this is adaptable. And you will likely have to change it up frequently as your kids grow and seasons of life change. Make those changes as you need to!

What part of the mornings with your kids is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below!