School Mornings!

Do you ever just want to quit and crawl back into bed? Yea, I have those days too. Usually when one or more of my beautiful children decides to be difficult. Right now, I never have problems with the 13 year old, he likes school. My 10 year old is awesome in the mornings before school! Ahh, but my 9,6, and 4 years old are a completely different story. Some days they could not care less if they make it on the bus. This is getting old very quickly and I have a lot of years of sending kiddos to school yet.

Starting with Nicholas (4), the least argumentative of the three difficult children. It is not that he doesn't get ready, it is that he has an attention span of a two year old. This means that most mornings I have to devote 10-15 minutes just on getting him ready to go out the door. He also has a hint of hyperactivity which can be distracting for the other children trying to get ready for school in the morning. I have found that if I can get to Nick before he actually gets out of bed in the morning and focus only on him, I can have him heading down for breakfast in 5 minutes. Once he is having breakfast, I can turn my attentions to the other kids.

Then we have sweet Brookelyn (6), the most physical of the difficult children. She is like a roller coaster ride through a dark tunnel, you never know what kind of mood to expect when she opens her eyes in the morning. There are mornings when she is up, dressed, and on her way to get breakfast before I can even get upstairs. We treasure those days because most of the time she is not a happy person in the morning. She literally scares her siblings with the extreme nature of her outbursts over the smallest of things in the morning. All they have to do is look at her for two seconds too long and she will scream, kick, hit, and throw anything she can get her hands on.  

Last but definitely not least, Miss Kaylee (9), who just really has a hard time waking up in the morning. At least with Kaylee I do not have to worry about the physical outbursts. Most mornings she will sit up in her bed for 10 minutes, and then sit and pick out clothes for 10 minutes. And if she cannot find a piece of clothing, the whole process is on hold until that one piece is found (even socks). I think you get the point, so I spend all morning reminding her to keep moving. Sometimes she will just sit and stare at whatever it is she is supposed to be doing.

If anyone has any ideas for me, I am so open to suggestions. I just recently started a new tactic with the girls. Instead of saying, 'Hurry, Come on, move it'; I say, 'Not my fault, miss the bus and you have consequences'.  Being punished 8 hours after the situation really makes them think about how their actions affect them directly in other aspects of their lives.