Disclosure: This post has been sponsored by Walmart.
I’m not a morning person in the slightest. Despite how much I try, I still love late evenings. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem except the fact that I’m a homeschooling mom. For the past few weeks, I’ve been running around like crazy trying to get everything ready and organized for our first day of school. This coming Monday is a our big day, whether we like it or not.
This is my fifth year of schooling my boys at home. And over the years, I’ve slowly figured out what works best for us. With each start of a new school year comes putting back into practice our easy morning routine. Despite being a night owl, I’ve found the best way to get through the mornings and into our homeschool studies is with a routine. Now that my children are a bit older (2nd and 4th grade) they have become a lot more independent when it comes to getting ready to study in the mornings. But there are some things that I like to do just to make our mornings run a little bit smoother. As a part of the Walmart Moms, I was asked to visit my local Walmart to pick up the things we needed for our morning routine.
Easy Breakfast Options: until my coffee kicks in I’m not much good, so breakfast in this household is all about simple. I’m so thankful for pre-made breakfast options that are easy to heat and eat. When shopping I typically look for items like Eggo Blueberry Waffles (family pack $4.58) that my oldest can easily cook in the toaster or Pancakes (De Wafelbakkers- $3.68) that only take a little bit of time in the microwave or french toast sticks (Great Value- $2.64) and biscuits (Mary B’s Southern Made- $3.82) that can be heated in large batches in the oven to feed the whole family. Just don’t forget the syrup (Country Kitchen- $2.50) or it won’t be a very happy morning. When purchasing pre-made breakfast options for my family, I always look for the large family value packs. With hungry boys in the house, we just go through the smaller packages way too quickly. I’m also thankful that Walmart carries such a wide variety of bagged cereal that we can easily store in our own cereal containers. My husband and boys can go through a ton of cereal as they eat it for not only morning breakfast but also for a snack at night. We prefer the bagged cereals because they taste, to us, just like the boxed brands and you get a lot more for your money. Which means fewer trips to the store for me.
Easy Personal Care Routine: each morning after breakfast I like to give my boys their multivitamins. Like their Mama, they can be quite the picky eaters so I like knowing they are still getting the daily recommended amount of vitamins by taking a multivitamin. With fun gummy shapes like Ultimate Spiderman ($9.78), I don’t have to fight with them to take them. Whoever invented gummy vitamins, I want to give you a huge thank you because they are the best! Along with vitamins, it’s also important to make sure the boys start the day with clean teeth and keep their hands clean throughout the day. In a household of all boys through craft and science projects we tend to need a lot of soap. I’ve found it’s easier for my boys to keep their hands clean when the soap is in an easy to dispense container versus bar soap. Lysol has a fun foam hand soap ($1.97) that gets the kids excited about keeping their hands clean. It’s antibacterial and smells great too!
Easy Suppers to finish the day: before running downstairs to start our day, I like to throw something in the slow cooker on particularly busy days to make supper a breeze that night and avoid the fast food line. If I’m not using the slow cooker that day, then I will just thaw out whatever meat we will be having that night for dinner. Either way, supper goes a lot smoother when I know and have prepared what to cook that morning versus scrambling at the end of an exhausting day.
Quick to Grab Snacks: after a long day of learning, the boys are ready to chill (and me too). This is typically the time between lunch and dinner, so they are a bit hungry but too soon for a meal. For this time, I like to keep a basket of ready to grab snacks for the boys to choose from. Pieces of fresh fruit, like bananas, are constantly in stock in our snack basket but we also have other goodies like my boys favorite PopTarts (family pack $3.68) for those times they want something a little different.
Despite not being a morning person, mornings can actually be doable if you take the time to plan ahead. Walmart carries a variety of easy options to help my mornings run a bit more smoothly. Homeschooling is a huge part of my week, so much so that I often don’t have the time or energy to be going to the store very often which is why I like that Walmart carries large family packs so that I can stock up on. Pair that with Walmart’s new Savings Catcher and I don’t have to worry about shopping multiple stores for the best deals in my area, I can go to Walmart (which is one of the closest stores to my house anyway) get everything that I need to cross shopping off of my to-do list for the week. By planning and stocking up on pre-made morning essentials, my boys and I are ready to tackle a week full of learning fun.
I have my homeschool schedule already prepared, I prepare on Sunday and print out an Excel spread sheet of our daily schedule.
I am so not a morning person and am all about easy morning here. Glad to know I’m in good company. :)
I’m not a homeschooling mom (yet), but I am a night owl. Mornings and I don’t get along so any tips are greatly appreciated. Thanks for a great post.
I am not a morning person either. My husband avoids me at all cost. Usually he throws a soda at me and runs lol.
I’m not a morning person either…your plan to get organized is very impressive! Good for you!
I don’t homeschool, but the kids are up pretty early. This weekend, I’ll be at the grocery store for some of the same items, Eggos, French Toast sticks, since the kids start school Monday!
I’m not a home school mom, regardless I think most mornings are hectic for all of us! I do my shopping mostly at Walmart and Aldi, but I do meal planning for all meals, and prefer to buy un-processed foods due to allergies and the nasty things they add to our foods! It’s easy to take a day and make up batches of pancakes and waffles to freeze, or our favorite, breakfast burritos. Once prepped all it takes is to pop it into the microwave!
When my oldest were younger I would place bowls of cereal covered with a napkin on the table and place a cup of milk in the fridge. They would wake up, eat get their milk out of the fridge, pour some on their cereal, eat their breakfast and brush their teeth. They would then start on their schoolwork. Between the time they were 4-7, while I was either pregnant or nursing my next two children, this worked wonders and let me get a little more sleep that I desperately needed while not delaying them from getting their work accomplished and moving on to free time.
This is an awesome idea for little ones! Thanks for sharing!!!
If I want any one on one time with my husband I have to stay up later than I would like. Add that to two wild boys who wake up with the sun and I am one tired momma. I’ve had a lot of outside guilt lately about all the premade foods I was feeding my family so I’m trying to use my time on the weekend to make some easy breakfast/lunch options that will freeze.
So far breakfast burritos (in a bowl without the tortilla for me) and frittatas pre sliced have been huge hit. We’ve also been experimenting with overnight oats.
Some days these just don’t work so it’s nice to see I’m not alone when I grab a quick premade option.
I know what you mean, Amanda. My routine has changed a lot since I first wrote this post (I really should write an updated homeschool routine). We are still homeschooling but now that my boys are in middle school and my husband works early morning shifts, our schedule has become a lot more structured. I’m like you, over the years I’ve slowly started cutting out pre-made items and prefer to stick with homemade. I feel like I’ve learned and grown a lot over the years since this post was written (I’m shocked it has already been 4 years) and truthfully that is the key to establishing a routine that works for you and your family…a lot of changing and shifting with each season of life.