Healthy Routines for Your Child

It can be hard to get back into the school year routine when summer comes to a close. Your children may get used to the slower, more relaxed summer pace and need to get back into a productive one. Use these tips from our founder, Sandie Blackley to help you and your child shift your routines!

Morning Routines

• Develop a morning checklist for everyone in the family so everyone knows what they need to do without any nagging.  Post the checklists where they can not be missed, perhaps on the refrigerator or on a whiteboard in the kitchen.
• Get your child to help make their morning checklist. They’ll be more likely to be excited about using it if they helped make it.  Here are some ideas and products.

Evening Routines

• Plan to get homework done –or else set it aside if it’s not done–by one hour before bedtime. That last hour is precious and it is needed for more important things than more homework.
• If your child has an unreasonable of homework assigned ask to meet with your child’s teacher to discuss it.
• Bear in mind that there is no research showing that homework is effective for elementary school children and there is plenty of research showing the effectiveness of regular reading aloud to children and adequate sleep!
• Control media so it doesn’t control you (or your child)!  
• We recommend that children do not have a television screen in their bedroom.
• Because screen-time is incompatible with reading aloud and sleep we recommend no screen-time for anyone in the home in the last hour before the child’s bedtime. (Screens include TV, computers and smart phones!)
• Reserve the last 30 to 60 minutes of the evening before bedtime for what matters most–a family read-aloud time and conversation. Even for older students, no homework is more important than this!    

If you think your child may have a learning disability, visit our site and take our free screener.