Ease Your Family Into a School Morning Routine with These Four Tips

School started for us this week, and we really need a school morning routine to help us have a smooth start each day. Gone will be our mornings of sleeping in, eating breakfast when we are hungry, and moving at our own paces….ummm….wait a second…this sounds like us on school mornings as well, so who am I kidding?! I am on a mission this school year to start off our school day mornings with as little drama, tears, yelling, and rushing as possible. I thought about what worked for us in the past, and what triggers  those tears (sometimes mine), and that yelling (sometimes the kiddos'), and have come up with these four tips.

Ease Your Family Into a School Morning Routine with These Four Tips

1. Start the day off in good health. 

Back to school also means back to coughs, snot, fevers….Make sure your kiddos are getting the nutrients and vitamins they need to fight the nasty germs they are exposed to at school. My kiddos love a Volo Vitamins VoloKids Stickpak added to their morning orange juice.  Volo Vitamins VoloKids are sugar free, gluten free, and pediatrician recommended. I make sure to add Volo Vitamins Wellness + Immunity to my orange juice, because whatever sickness the kiddos bring home, I am sure to catch as well!

2. Make breakfast ahead of time.

Who has time to cook a healthy breakfast in the morning while trying to get the kiddos AND ones self ready for the day?? Umm, not me. I make double batches of whatever I cook for breakfast on the weekend, and freeze the extras to use during the week. My kiddos LOVE pancakes and I take advantage of this and make my pancakes as vitamin and protein packed as possible.  Pumpkin Pancakes, using Bob Red Mill American made products, are always devoured by my kiddos. This recipe can be used by those following a Paleo, low carb diet. I just like it  because these pancakes are packed with vitamins and nutrients. They are even great cold/warm and have been known to be eaten on the way to the bus stop. 

Pumpkin Pancakes  {Paleo, Low-Carb}

3/4 cups Bob's Red Mill Almond Meal/Flour
1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Flaxseed Meal
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp Redmond Real Salt (salt from an ancient sea bed in Utah)
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 tbs local honey (or brown sugar if non paleo)
2 tbs coconut oil, melted
coconut oil for cooking

In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients. In a small mix eggs (beaten), pumpkin, and honey. Add contents of small bowl to dry ingredients. Mix well. Add melted coconut oil. Heat skillet over low heat and coat with coconut oil. Pour about 1/4 cup scoops of batter onto skillet. Cook until brown, flip with spatula.

These will be denser than ‘regular' pancakes. They take longer to cook on each side, but watch for burning!

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4. Be Organized!

The absolute best way to make morning go smoothly for EVERYONE is to be organized! For me, this takes a dry erase board on my kitchen wall to keep track of the kiddos special classes (library, gym, music) schedule, after school activities, project due dates….if the kiddos can see that it is their gym class day, they know to have their sneakers on, if it's library day, they make sure the library books are in their back pack. If it's on the board that I have a meeting that evening, it means early dinner and my son knows not to make a play date with his BFF after school. I looked EVERYWHERE for an American made dry erase board and finally found one at The Container Store. 

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Disclosure: This is a sponsored post which USA Love List is proud to share with you because, sponsored or not, we only share stuff we love.