The School Morning Rush

How do you make your school morning run more smoothly? Waking up, feeding, dressing, packing lunches & snacks & water bottles, not to mention library books on library day and sneakers on PE days, etc. sometimes makes my head spin.

One thing that makes our morning less chaotic (and decreases my nagging which I'm always in favor of) is this chart:

I made a list in Excel of all the things the girls need to do to before heading out the door to school and added a picture with clipart since they can't read everything yet. I made a checkbox before each item and had it laminated (they each get their own with a dry erase marker). At the top I typed, "Good Morning! This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24"

Another thing that works wonders is playing an upbeat praise CD.  I have noticed that on days that I've forgotten to turn on the music, our moods can be quite sour.  Amazing how praising the Lord lifts your spirits even early in the morning when we'd rather all be in bed!