Only one kid left in elementary school (he's 12). He gets up around 7:20 or 7:30, makes himself breakfast, brushes his teeth, dresses, packs his lunch, finishes any homework and is out the door by 8:50. He locks up the house for the day and sets the security system.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

DH is in charge of the mornings, and it has taken him a few years to accept my advice on having a routine, and putting the non-compressible items at the beginning. Now that DD brushes her hair and puts on her shoes before dawdling over breakfast, things go much smoother.

5:40 - run dogs, make lunch, hydrated, start coffee, shower...
6:50 - wake up DD, who gets dressed, hair brushed, shoes on
7:00 - DD makes and eats breakfast
7:25 - DD lets dogs out one final time, dons jacket and backpack
7:30 - DH and DD are out the door

Lay out clothes the night before, pack backpack the night before, and mostly pack lunch the night before.

3 kids - 1 in 1st grade, on in PreK, and the third is in preschool.

I wake up first and do what I need to do and finish packing lunches. Then I wake the kids up if they aren't already awake. They eat breakfast, then get dressed and brush teeth. 6 and 4 year old can dress themselves, so I just help the 2 year old.

If they're quick to get ready, it means they can have playtime until it is time to leave. But if they procrastinate, then they won't have time.

Our goal is to be out the door by 7:30. Normally we are successful.

I have always had to do mornings solo for our three kids because DH leaves for work before they're even up. I second all of the great advice above about prepping as much as possible the night before.

We don't do ANY screen time at all in the morning even if someone wakes up way early -- for us it makes it way worse in terms of keeping focus. I've had to learn and re-learn this the hard way several times before it became an iron-clad rule. If someone is awake early, they can read or play quietly but screen time is not an option. If they're that bored that they won't do either, they are more than welcome to go back to sleep.

One thing that helped us was morning to-do lists for the kids, put in plastic sheet protectors and posted prominently upstairs on a wardrobe next to the bathroom. For the non-reading, the tasks are visual -- a picture of a toothbrush for brush teeth, etc. We had morning, afternoon (home from school), and evening lists made. Because I am completely un-crafty, but I also wanted to customize the to-do lists to fit my kids' responsibilities, instead of buying pre-made lists I got a seller on Etsy to do custom printable graphics for me and it was pretty cheap. With the lists, that way I could point the kids towards their jobs without having to ride them every second.

We have a K and a 2yo.

Night before:

Kids pick out their own clothes and lay them out. Lunches are made and each container is labeled so I can easily put them in their bags in the morning. Backpacks are packed with anything we need to take to school, except a show and share item for the 2 yo, when that is needed. Kids head to bed at the same time every evening.

Morning:

6:00 - DH and I get up and start getting ready.
6:15 - I wake up the 2 yo and change her diaper. Then we get the K and head downstairs for breakfast/coffee.
6:45 - We head back upstairs to get dressed and brush teeth.
7:00 - My goal is to have them back downstairs by this point so I can do anything else I need to do to get ready. Gives me a buffer for days when the 2 yo is having meltdown after meltdown. We allow tv from time they are completely ready - hair brushed, socks and shoes located and on until the show ends.
7:20 - I put the ice packs and lunch containers in the lunch bags and pour my coffee to go.
7:26 - Their tv show ends and we put on jackets, etc.
7:30 - we head to the car so we can drop the K off at the bus stop. The bus comes at 7:41.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:pp -- forgot to mention brushing teeth after eating breakfast. We're still working in this (my kids protest) but we tie it to weekend screen time.

what possible connection is there between brushing teeth and watching television?

Mom.

I do what mom wants me to do every day after breakfast, without needing a reminder.
Mom lets me do what I want with the TV on the weekend. (Within limits.)

There's your connection! It's called "a reward".

Our routine with twin kindergarteners:

I wake up at 6:15, shower get work stuff ready, prep breakfast. At 7, I go into their room and sit and read a few bible verses or a few verses of poetry, while they wake up. Then we talk about anything special or unusual about that day (activity planned in class, afterschool lesson that day, Friday movie night), and I tell them what the weather is to be that day. They both get up and go to the bathroom, and I give each one their allergy meds, then we wash hands, brush teeth and carry pajamas to the hamper. They choose clothes for the day from their school shelf, and I brush/braid hair and apply bug spray and sunscreen to one while the other puts shoes and socks on, then swap.

Once both are ready (about 7:30), we sit down to breakfast. I eat fast, then apply my makeup while they finish eating/clear their plates. Then they usually have a few minutes to run around, I double-check backpacks and at 8:00, we head to the car.

I think I have the opposite problem for most of the PPs. I have a 4th grader who wakes every day @ 6am, and we live just a block away from his school, which doesn't start till 915am. That is more than 3 hrs to manage in the am. His younger sibling used to go to daycare but now is starting a preK program with a similar start time and an equally short commute. Both parents work, although we have a lot of flexibility so one of us can manage the AM drop offs. The problem is keeping the kids busy without leaving homework till the morning-of or letting them watch TV. Any suggestions?

Anonymous wrote:pp -- forgot to mention brushing teeth after eating breakfast. We're still working in this (my kids protest) but we tie it to weekend screen time.

what possible connection is there between brushing teeth and watching television?

Anonymous wrote:

Each kid now has a pocket shoe organizer hanging on a door or just nailed to the wall. Shoes get hung up on the right and we keep their socks in the left side pockets. This small thing has made a big difference for us. It is easy for me to spot if someone is out of socks and their is no argument about what sock to wear. If they are in the pocket next to the white PE sneaker then that is what you wear.

That's a good idea!

Wake up by 7:00. Get dressed and downstairs by 7:20. Breakfast done by 7:45. Kitchen cleaned and lunch made by 8:00. Backpack packed by 8:15. At school by 8:30. No prep night before.