Avoid Bad School Habits

A month (or more) into the new school year and the excitement of a different grade, different classroom, and different teachers is wearing off, and families everywhere are settling into a school routine.

It’s important to be aware of your family’s actions during the early days of the school year. Routines form quickly as we go about living our lives—it’s just as easy to develop good routines as it is to absently-mindedly fall back into bad ones.

Here are some of the common bad habits that can make an otherwise smooth school routine become a bumpy road:

1. Oversleeping (or not getting enough sleep)
2. Skipping breakfast
3. Turning on the TV immediately after school
4. Leaving homework or chores until the last minute

Luckily, these problems can easily be avoided with a little planning.

Sit down as a family and have a discussion about what the morning and after school routines in your house will look like. Involve all family members in the decision-making. The earlier your family agrees on and establishes a schedule in your household, the sooner that plan will become part of your family’s daily routine.

Consider hot-button topics such as:

1. Morning schedules
2. After school chores
3. Homework
4. Bed times

The sooner that your family can get together and agree on a schedule that works for everyone, the easier that developing positive routines and good habits becomes.