How to find a School Night Routine
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You’ve picked the kids up from school but now what right?
Getting a routine for a school routine that works for your family can be tough. Through trial and error you can find the perfect one for you and your kiddos.
After school kids are tired and worn out, school can be exhausting. So making a school routine that is relaxing and can move smoothly for you and your kids will benefit everyone.
Now the issue can be how to find the routine that works for you. You need to think about what you want out of the school night routines.
What is it that you want you evenings to look like.
There is plenty of things you can do in the evenings, here are some ideas on what to do after you get the kiddos home from school.
Homework:
I would say if your kids come home with homework knock it out first. Some teachers don’t send homework home, our school tries to get it all done in the class room so Lucy never has homework.
But when we get our nephews and niece in the afternoons I make them tackle the homework first.
This leaves the rest of the evening for more relaxing and fun. Get that nasty homework out of the way!
Snack time:
Having a small snack to hold them over until dinner time can help negate the whining of “Moooom I am hungry” and just some moodiness in general .
Kids play hard at school and are truly probably hungry after a long day.
Having a quick and easy snack right after school is always good to add into your routine.
Chores:
By giving your kids a chore that is age appropriate you start to teach them responsibilities. At 2-5 yrs old they should be capable of helping pick up their own toys.
Having a chore chart and a reward at the end of the week for them is a good motivational boost.
Looking at pinterest can give you tons of ideas for rewards and age appropriate chores.
Giving them a chore now can help them in the long run getting the importance of working hard and doing what you need done first.
Chores then fun and end the day doing something fun not taking out the trash.
Free time:
After coming home snack and homework, if your kids don’t have a daily chore letting them have some free play time is an excellent option.
Kids grow and thrive with a lot of play, so it’s great to schedule in some time for them to just be kids.
Playing is the best thing for kids really. I remember after doing chores, our mom let us have free play time and I would be elated.
Reading time:
After school is also a good time to give them, some reading time. Whether they read by themselves, or you sit down and read to them reading is a great activity for them.
Reading with your kids has huge benefits and is a great bonding experience. Reading is a nice relatively mess free activity for everyone.
Limit screen times:
There are a ton of studies that show a lot of it is not good for our kids development and brains.
Limiting screen time and allowing only minimal or no screen time at all on a school night is a solid idea.
We personally do not allow any screen time on a school night, Lucy does not have school on Fridays, so if she has a good week at school she may have a show Thursday night until dinner is done and then some screen time after her chores on Saturday and that is it.
If screens are apart of your evening routine, I would just try to keep it minimal or low stimulation.
Dinner:
Sit down to dinner as a family, take that time to talk to each other. It gives the family some built in time to share with each other.
Have some quick and simple staples for school nights since they are more hectic, but make a point to have dinner together as a family.
This gives a great opportunity to discuss the day. The highlights or lowlights of everyone’s day.
Clean up time:
Have a set time for them to clean up their toys before bed so you can start tomorrow with a clean/semi clean slate.
It can teach the kiddos that if we value our things we clean them up. I like to take this time to clean up dinner or finish any chores I started earlier.
If you also clean up when they do it shows them by example.
Bath/Jammies:
Let the kiddos pick out their jammies and also their clothes for the next day. This is a duh part of the routine but to be honest it’s one I skipped for the first little while, if the kids weren’t messy I would let them go to bed in their clothes, if they wanted.
Now we make a point to get pajamas on to really set the tone for getting ready for bed and to settle down.
We personally don’t do baths every night but on the nights we do bath after cleaning up and then putting on some clean Jammies.
Bedtime story/family time:
While bedtime and your nightly routine can feel monotonous but undoubtedly this sets the tone for so many memories.
Your kids will remember that your family prioritized time together.
Whether that is just sitting down and talking about your days or reading stories together, use sometime during your nightly routine to spend quality time with each other.
Reading a bedtime story is a great way to settle down and relax, there is also SO many benefits of reading to your children, win win.
Prayer:
Nothing more important you can do as a parent then teach your kids to pray. Stay strong and pray together as a family before the kids go to sleep.
Prayer will bring you to the Lord and also bring you closer to your family. Teach the kids how to pray and how important it is.
To spice it up make popsicle sticks filled with family and friends names. Let the kids pick one out a night and pray for that person and their family.
Teeth:
Cavities are everyone’s worst nightmare. Adding brushing your teeth to the nightly routine but at the same time it can be very easy to space when the busy day is coming to an end.
These may seem like a no brainer for bedtime but honestly it is easy to forget the simple things sometimes. And teeth brushing isn’t incredibly fun but there are ways to spice it up. We have the girls see how funny they can run to the bathroom and my husband does it with them.
Now it is one of the most loved parts of the nightly routine.
Bed:
Heading to bed will obviously be the end of the routine every time. The fun part is finding out what to do before bed. Do you guys do story last and while they’re lying in their beds, or do you do it before teeth?
There are endless combinations of an evening routine. Some combos will work, some will not. I would try one out for a week and if you can’t find a flow in there then try a different variety.
Example School night routine:
This is what our evening line up looks like, we have 4 kids ages 5,3,1, and 2 weeks and this is what we do after we get Lucy from school.
3:00 pm
Get Lucy from school
3:15 pm
Get home and have a snack
3:30pm
Free play time. This looks different every day, sometimes the girl’s color, go play outside, or go to our playroom and play. If I am sitting on the couch to nurse our son, I will offer to read to them. Most of the time one of the girls is glued to me for the entirety of this block of time.
4:00-4:30
I start dinner
5:00-5:20 ish
We eat dinner as a family. We discuss our days and it is the time my husband and I try to catch up. Once dinner is done we will let the kids have some sort of sweet treat for dessert.
6:00 pm
If it is a bath night (Monday and Wednesday are the only two school nights we give baths unless the girls are super dirty) after dessert is when the girls will get some more free time.
6:30 pm
Either after free time or bath time, this is our time that we clean up the house. I clean up the kitchen or my husband does (just depends who is holding the babe) while the kiddos clean up their toys.
7:00 pm
Bedtime story, scriptures, and prayer time. We read a chapter or two out of a chapter book every night, we also read this book (linked here) every night and we have since Lucy was roughly nine months old, then we read a passage/chapter out of the kids bible (we are currently reading this one linked here).
After we read the bible we say a prayer as a family. When the prayer is finished we go around and say the happiest part of our day.
7:15-7:30 pm
Teeth time! Bryton always brushes the girls teeth.
7:30-7:35 pm
To bed, we tuck the girls in, give them all a kiss and that’s it. Our kids for the most part sleep all night and stay in their rooms. We do have little people toys and books in the girls room. They are allowed to read all they want and play with the little people as long as they stay in their room and stay moderately quiet.
(I will link the girls favorite little people toys here)
And that is it. That is for the most part our school night routine, it is nothing glamours or complicated. Plenty of time spent together as a family just relaxing and winding down after the day.
Some nights are rougher and some are smooth as butter. That is life with kids, but this is the flow that we have found works best for us!
Good luck finding the best combination for your evening with your kids.
What is your favorite part of the bedtime routine?
Mine is reading bedtime stories.