Getting the kids out of the house in the morning isn’t easy—especially at the beginning of the school year. They have to adjust to an early wake-up time, generally rush to get ready, and become reacquainted with all the regulating skills needed for a successful day in the classroom. That’s a lot for anyone, but particularly for little people with tons of energy and constant distractions. If you’re looking for easy morning routine ideas to calm your kids and help them focus, you’ve come to the right place.
Lauren Cantrell, a mom and occupational therapist, took to Instagram to share the back-to-school calming routine she uses on her kids to great effect. Here are the seven simple things she does:
1. Wakes her kids with sunlight and music.
First, she opens the curtains instead of barging in and turning on the light. This way, her kids can wake up to natural sunlight, which supports their circadian rhythms. Then she’ll put on fun music so they can greet the day with tunes, which is always a mood-booster.
2. Inverts their head for 30 seconds, increasing blood flow to their brains.
While this might look a little silly, turning your kids upside down wakes up their bodies and minds, improving the focus they’ll need to start their morning routine.
3. Serves crunchy foods and lets them use crazy straws during breakfast.
This calming morning routine idea allows oral motor heavy work to organize the nervous system. What does this mean? According to Amy Hathaway, founder of Develop Learn Grow, “The sensory receptors in the mouth and hands take up large amounts of space in the brain, considering their size in relation to the rest of the body. Crunchy foods or cold water can quickly wake the brain and increase alertness, focus, and attention.”
4. Lets her kids play with suction cups while brushing their hair.
This is a genius way of providing sensory distraction and allowing proprioceptive input to calm the nervous system. Related to heavy work, Occupational Therapy Helping Children explains proprioceptive input as “ the sense that tells the body where it is in space. It’s very important to the brain, as it plays a large role in self-regulation, coordination, posture, body awareness, the ability to focus, and speech.”
5. She has them do five toe touches and 10 jump high-fives.
These simple morning routine activities front-load the nervous system with vestibular proprioceptive input, increase agility, and help regulate emotions, according to Cantrell. What is the vestibular system? Located in the inner ear, it provides the brain with information about head movement. Simply put, it’s how we maintain our balance and equilibrium.
6. She pulls them into a 10-second “kid sandwich” or big bear hug.
Besides sounding adorable, sweeping your kids into a deep hug offers calming deep pressure, Cantrell says. She also explains that affectionate contact releases oxytocin (aka feed-good hormones) that relaxes kids and helps to decrease anxiety. And we can all agree a big hug before school is one of the best morning routine ideas ever.
7. They play The Floor Is Lava or have a long jump competition on the way to the car.
To ensure her kids have gotten all their wiggles out and are ready to concentrate all day, they bounce their way to the car for a final dose of regulating movement.
These morning routine ideas are simple and can be fun and effective for kids heading to the classroom. Do you have to do them all? Of course not. Start with one or two and see how it goes. If it makes your morning go smoothly (and who doesn’t want that?), you can add more as you go along.
