When your child knows what to expect the next morning, it will be easier for the child as well. As much as possible, have a morning routine and try to stick to it.
Apart from all the norms that we already know to make our mornings more manageable, such as preparing/ironing what to wear and packing the bags/lunch box the night before, here are a few more suggestions to make your mornings better!
Look forward to the morning TOGETHER!
When your child knows what to expect the next morning, it will be easier for the child as well. As much as possible, have a morning routine and try to stick to it. The structure will help the child in moving from one activity to the other with certainty and confidence. Planning for the morning together will shift some of the responsibilities to the child, too. This is also a good life skill to build on.
You can decide on breakfast together by asking, “Would you like Food A or Food B?” Avoid asking, “What would you like for breakfast?” This may be daunting on the child as the choices are way too many and it can be daunting for the parents as well should the child choose a breakfast item that is difficult to prepare/you do not have the ingredients at home!
Go through the steps for the morning and rope in your child to ‘help’ you so that your child will feel important. You can say,
“Mama will need you to put on your uniform on your own tomorrow morning so that I can make breakfast for us faster, ok?”
“Tomorrow, can you put on your shoes on your own while Daddy go throw the rubbish?”
Practice packing bags/lunch boxes and placing them near the door together each night, so that the child knows where his items are and can be responsible for them as well.
Sleep Happy
Children who sleep happily, sleep better! When they sleep better, they will feel good when they wake up as they are rested.
Here are some ways we can help our children to sleep happily:
Read to them a book of their choice/of their favourite topic
Have a little conversation with them as you put them to bed, and speak of happy things! You can even make it a bedtime routine to share one thing that made each of you happy that day.
Sip on a cup of milk (perhaps tea for you!) before bed. A full tummy makes a happy child!
Give your child a BIG HUG and say “I love you”... this is the best!
Rise and SMILE
When a child wakes up in a good mood, he is bound to go through the day well.
Helping your child to wake up happily depends very much on each child.
Some children like to be woken up in the dark as the light startles them.
Some children like to be hugged and enjoy a few moments of quiet time in the parent’s embrace before getting out of bed.
Some children need some time to tumble around in bed before getting up.
Some children need structure/reminders in the morning. Parents can gently go through the steps for the child when waking up the child. Eg. “Let’s shower, ok? After that you will dress up on your own while Mama prepares breakfast. After we eat, Papa will send us to school ok? You have [insert an activity your child is looking forward to in school that day] today, right?”
When the children are calm and happy, it makes for good mornings! Here’s to happier days!
Research shows that beginning your days happily increases productivity and improves your overall health.
All parents want to be loved and do not want their child to feel negatively about them when being disciplined. Positive parenting emphasizes empathy, communication, and understanding to foster a healthy parent-child relationship and promote positive behavior. Here are some strategies for exercising positive parenting with your 2 to 6-year-olds:
It’s term break and our Little Ones may be staying at home more, to be with their older siblings. Here are some ideas for activities that are HUGE on FUN and do wonders for their development!
Parents are increasingly faced with the question of how much screen time they should allow their Little Ones to have. And lately, there have been more parents who are asking how they can limit the screen time for their children.
