The Morning High-Five
NOTE: This is a system that we’ve been using over the last few summers and it’s worked really well. I know that most of us (and our kids) have been home for several weeks now and probably have some semblance of a routine going with school work. But I still feel that summer will require a reshuffling of routines and schedules AGAIN. Hopefully this helps you wrap your brain around what summer will look like for your family!
I have a love/hate relationship with summer. I love that we’re free to do what we want, but I strongly dislike that we always end up sitting around doing nothing. And there’s nothing more annoying to me than looking at a group of children, lounging in their pajamas, watching TV late in the morning.
In an attempt to get all of us off on the right foot in the morning over the last couple of summers, I’ve halfheartedly used a simple system called The Morning High Five. I first read about it over at Life as Mom, and have expanded it a bit to work for older kids.
I have renewed vigor right now as I am looking at 14 (long) weeks of summer on the schedule and I need to train these people to get themselves ready for the day without my involvement.
The Morning High Five
The Morning High Five (MH5) is a list of five tasks your children need to accomplish before a certain time in the morning. Ideally, these are tasks the child can do without your direction or assistance.
The goal with the MH5 is that after completion, the kids and the house is ready for whatever is on the schedule for the day.
My kids need to complete their MH5 before 8:30 am or within 15 minutes of getting up if they wake up late. This gives everyone a bit of time to lay around and watch TV but gets the basics finished before I come unhinged at the sight of their lazy butts.
Now usually I have to remind everyone to do their MH5 around 8:15, but that’s WAY better than giving multiple children individual instructions to get out of their pajamas and actually contribute something to this household.
You could get all crafty and trace each kid’s hand and have them write out their Morning High Five’s on the paper, or make one master Morning High Five chart that works for whole family and stick it somewhere prominent so no one can miss it.
The printable and editable Morning High Five template is included in the Child, It’s Time to Get Off Your Butt packet which is discussed below.
The MH5 consists of five tasks: four personal care tasks and one Morning Job.
Morning jobs are simple chores that can be completed without adult assistance or supervision (obviously after you’ve trained them on how to do the job correctly). They are also the things that keep your home running and dishes, garbage, and stuff from piling up.
The Morning Job is where the magic happens and is 100% outlined in my morning management system, Child, It’s Time to Get Off Your Butt.
Child, It’s Time… completely outlines how the Morning High Five and Morning Jobs work together to help all of you (you and your kids) have a peaceful and productive morning.
It’s the system I’ve been using for four years to get my kids ready and moving in the morning and keeping my home maintained. All without my participating. I told you it was magic.
You can Child, It’s Time to Get Off Your Butt for just $9 right now. Less than a couple of coffees at your local coffee shop to get your ENTIRE summer running more smoothly.
It includes a full explanation of the MH5, Morning Jobs, and the Make Ahead Breakfast Plan plus planning templates that you can use to implement this in your own home. Nine dollars gets you from frustration (today) to a productive household (tomorrow).
Go HERE to purchase and immediately download Child, It’s Time to Get Off Your Butt.
If you train them well at the beginning of the summer to do their Morning High Five every single day, you get the ultimate reward: Time to yourself to do what you want because your children are managing themselves! Glory!
More fun summer survival ideas from Frugal Living NW:
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I bought the packet but can’t seem to edit the hand printable
I just commented in Canva to you! If you copy and paste the link in there to a new tab, it should take you to an editable template.
Thanks for the idea! I started using this with my 6 and 5 year-old kids a few weeks ago, and I love it. It makes my morning much less stressful and more productive.
This is great, do you have one for during the school year also?
Would it be possible to get a version of the “Morning High Five” PDF for Evening?
Such a good idea! Now my wheels are turning!
These high fives r super easy to remember. I will teach my son and see how it goes. Thx for sharing.
I love this idea, but I am finicky enough that I would swap numbers to this order: 1, 4, 5, 3 and 2. Everyone goes out the door with unstained clothes, clean teeth and fresh breath! I also understand the point of this article is to make life easy during the summer, but this could be pushed back an hour or so and be the standard for every morning!
Absolutely!
I needed to implement this, like, yesterday!!! Thanks for this great tip!
This is great! I’ll definitely be using this with my daughter. ?
This is Awesome! My kids still have 3 weeks of school left so I am starting on this now!
Great idea! Thanks for sharing!