Morning Routine for Kids Printable

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Originally published August 2, 2017, updated June 30, 2019 and June 8, 2021.

The start of a new school year is a great time to set goals with your children and this morning routine for kids printable is a key to establishing routines. A big part of going back to school is establishing a morning routine that works for your family and also encourages responsibility and independence in your children. These morning routine printables are free and key to helping meet your back-to-school and parenting goals this year.

As the mother of three and a parent educator, I’m a big believer in teaching children to set goals and practice the steps required to achieve the goals. I’m also a big believer in raising responsible future adults. Using a Morning Routine Chart accomplishes both of those parenting goals. 

How to do you set a morning routine for kids?

• Determine your must-make times and then plan the morning backwards from those times.
  • Must leave for the school bus
  • Must leave to drive kids to school
  • Must leave for work
• List all tasks that must be accomplished with approximate length of time each one takes
• Look for tasks that can be accomplished the night before or the weekend before for the entire week

• Determine the most efficient order to accomplish tasks
• Discuss the morning routine plan with your child, get feedback and explain how it will work
• Create morning routine chore charts, like the free printable options below
• Place analog clocks throughout the house so children can watch the time
• Set alarms on the phone to remind children about each task

• Set reminders for yourself to check up on children and encourage them with their routine
• Make sure children are getting enough sleep so they aren’t exhausted in the morning
• Practice, practice, practice until the morning routine for your kids becomes a habit

Back-to-School Morning Routine Printables

Why Write Down a Morning Routine for School

• Get set for Success, go beyond the basics. Taking the time to plan your goals and steps needed to accomplish them is key to success.
• You and your child think about, discuss and establish the goals together.
• You both understand the goals and the steps to accomplish them.
• You and your child are more likely to actually do the to-do’s and kids are less likely to “forget” a task.
• There’s less confusion over what should be done and when.
• You and your child can measure goal achievement.
• Written goals are 42% more likely to stick. *Matthews, G (2007) The Impart of Commitment, Accountability, and Written Goals on Goal Achievement. Paper presented at the 87th Convention of Western Psychological Association, Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

How to Make a Morning Routine for Kids Chart

Supplies

• Printer Paper or thicker card stock paper
• Morning Routine Checklists, one with images and one with blank boxes – Get your free copy immediately when you sign up for our free newsletter.
• Washi Tape
• Scotch™ Thermal Laminator (similar)
• Scotch™ Letter Size Thermal Lamination Pouches
• Scissors, if needed

Expert Tips for Printables

How do I access the free morning routine checklists?

Fill in the form above. When you submit the form, you will immediately be sent an email with the printable pdf. If you can’t find the welcome email after 3-4 minutes, check your spam folder. If you have any difficulty, you can email me and I’ll help you resolve any problems.

How do I print the pdf file?

The pdf usually opens right up when you tap on the pdf in the email. When that happens, simply right tap on the document and either print or save the document to your device.

If the pdf does not pop up for you, you’ll most likely find it in your computer’s Downloads folder. You can also select “Downloads” in your browser menu to see a list of your downloads, then select “Show in folder” below the file name to see where it is located on your computer.

I’m worried about wasting printer ink – what can I do?

Most printers offer you the option to print in greyscale which is in black and white.

You can also look for the option to print in draft or economy mode. This usually means that the sheet is printed out with less ink. It still looks great and is a good way to print in color but use less ink.

How can I use the printable (what restrictions are there on use)?

You can print these pdf files as many times as you’d like for your personal or classroom use. Please do not share the file with family, friends or coworkers. Please do share the link to this post so they can access their own copy of the printable. All printables are copyrighted.

Steps to Create a Morning Routine for Kids

1. Discuss individual and specific independence and responsibility goals with your child.
2. Establish an agreed upon morning routine and a sequence that makes sense for your family.
3. Print out and fill in a Morning Routine Chart for each child.
4. Use washi tape to decorate and personalize a Morning Routine Chart for each child. This is a great chance to get your child involved by having him or her decorate the sheet.
5. Go over the morning routine sheet with your child to make sure he understands the morning tasks and goals.

Wait! While you’ve created an extremely useful and attractive Morning Routine Chart, look what happens after just one day of sitting on the table. See how the edges are curling up? Can you imagine what it will look like after the first week of school? Think spilled milk, splashed water and toothpaste, footprints, crumpled corners, well, you know how it goes with kiddos. 

We want to create a morning routine for kids that will hold up to real life with kids. But no worries. Simply laminate the Morning Routine Chart to keep it in beautiful working condition all school year. 

Plus, it’s so cool to use the thermal laminator. After watching the Morning Routine Chart go through the laminator, your child will be so excited she will be hooked on using it. I’m so excited, that I’m looking for even more reasons to make task reminder sheets just so that I can laminate them!

The Morning Routine Chart is meant to help your child accomplish routine morning tasks with minimal supervision. However, sometimes you need to add a temporary task to the morning routine, like taking medicine. Simply write the temporary task down on a sticky note and add it to your child’s task reminder sheet. Once that task no longer needs to be accomplished, remove the note and return to the normal morning routine sequence. 

Rotating Responsibilities and Tasks 

In our family each person has an assigned color, whether for cups, mittens, or sticky notes. I use the color of Post-it® Notes that match our family color-coding for responsibilities that rotate, like feeding the dog, walking the dog, emptying the dishwasher or taking out the trash. I write the task on a Post-it® Note in the color for each child that is responsible for the task. I laminate the notes to make them  last all year long. 

Each day, I place the appropriate color-coded task card with the morning routine sheet of that child. It’s crystal clear who has to do which tasks each morning. And it’s clear to everyone in the family since we all know each other’s colors. No more confusion (or pretending not to know). 

Activity Tasks

I know I’m not the only mom that has driven her child to soccer practice to find out that the child forgot her cleats or soccer ball. Really?! How in the world do they forget their cleats? Did they expect to tiptoe around the soccer field? And forget the soccer ball? Umm, we’re going to soccer practice. Soccer ball. Soccer practice. Even though it’s happened to me more than once, I still don’t understand how it happens. 

That’s where the Activity Tasks sheets come in. These are task reminders that are not daily tasks, but occur more often than temporary tasks. I find that writing them down and laminating them makes a world of difference in our success rate in getting to a sport or activity with all the necessary equipment. Using washi tape or color-coded paper works well with these Activity Task sheets too. 

More Morning Routine Tips

• Morning Routine for School – 18 tips for establishing a morning routine for school that makes your mornings run more smoothly and teach your child life skills and independence.
• My Daily Routine – My daily routine and the tips I use to make it work for me. A routine should be tailored to your unique needs and should work with your lifestyle.
• Healthy Morning Routine – More than 15 ideas and tips to help you create a healthy morning routine that will work for you and your lifestyle.
• Daily Routine Tips from 10+ Professional Organizers – How do you get everything done each day & have time for what’s important to you? With these daily routine tips from 10+ professional organizers.
• Create a Good Morning Routine – Create a good morning routine for your unique needs to make your morning and entire day run more smoothly and stress-free.
• Morning Routine Chart – With more than 10 free printable morning routine chart options, there are choices for children of all ages, abilities and special needs.

More Back-to-School Tips & Ideas

• Simple Back-to-School Ideas – All my best back-to-school tips, recipes and organizing ideas.
• 7 Tips for Back-to-School Organization – Easy tips for back-to-school organizing to set your child up for success with homework. From a mom of 3 and parent educator.
• Organizing Kids’ Clothing for Back-to-School – Taking a few minutes each week to get organized for the school and activities will make the mornings run smoothly and encourage your child’s independence.
• First Day of School Scavenger Hunt – This free printable first day of school scavenger hunt is an easy way for moms & teachers to distract nervous children and make the first day fun.

Are you as ready as I am to establish and encourage the goals of responsibility and independence for the new school year? These morning routine for kids printables will set you well on your way to success.