Routines for students help them out of destructive cycles of stress, poor sleep, lousy diet, fatigue, and constant time crunches. All those consequences come from lack of routine, when stress drives us to make poor choices and allows problems to accumulate. A daily routine for students corrals all the facets of life and offers a sense of control that brings peace of mind to you and your child.
Habits You Can Build Into Your Daily Routine
Habits take time to develop. While some believe habit formation only requires a certain number of days, it’s actually a complex process. People develop routines at different paces, but all habits need patience, self-discipline, and dedication. Once you build a daily routine, self-care becomes easier. Kids move through healthy habits on autopilot, building important life skills for the future.
Healthy routines focus on physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing. If you want to build new daily behaviors for your child and need ideas, here are some beneficial health habits for your day:
- Consistent sleep times: Kids need sufficient and consistent sleep. School-aged children need between nine and 12 hours of sleep each night for healthy development. Going to sleep at the same time every night helps kids regulate their circadian rhythms. These patterns allow you to feel more tired at night and alert during the day. Encourage a bedtime that provides ample time to sleep, and reinforce it each night. A structured bedtime makes kids anticipate and value rest every day. Waking up at the same time each day has similar benefits.
- Regular mealtimes: Daily mealtimes with healthy foods are also essential for kids’ growth. Children who eat a healthy breakfast get better grades, have healthier weights, and have more fulfilling social experiences. Make sure your child’s breakfast bowl offers balanced nutrition — consider proteins and fruits, instead of sugary cereal. Lunch should also be healthy and prepared in advance. Lunch at the same time every day prevents hungry tummies from rumbling and distracting your child from schoolwork. And family dinners allow for safe communication and responsibility assignment, such as setting the table.
- School time: The typical school routine offers the advantage of predictability. If your child will be taking live, synchronous lessons, you know what time they need to be at the computer. Build in a few minutes before each class to prepare, allowing time for your child to think of questions, make sure all the materials needed are at hand, and settle in before the teacher calls class to order. Even students who take asynchronous classes benefit from routine — perhaps studying in the car on the way to tournaments, or choosing the same time every day to catch up on lessons missed due to dance class.
- Playtime: Play is essential for kids’ development. It allows them to explore interests, build social skills, and use their imaginations. Playtime should be a part of your child’s daily routine, whether after they finish classes or before a mealtime. It gives kids something to look forward to throughout the dayand also lets kids practice physical movement.
- Friends and family time: Spending time with family and friends helps with kids’ social development. Kids have many opportunities to interact with others, both at school and at home. They can see friends during class time, at club meetings, or scheduled playdates after school. Family meals and activities let kids spend quality time with family members. Incorporating friends and family time into a daily routine shows kids the value of social interaction. Kids can laugh, share stories about their day, ask questions, or receive support from their loved ones.
- Self-care time: Self-care is crucial for physical and mental wellbeing. Kids should develop healthy habits like brushing their teeth, washing their clothes, and bathing regularly. Other tasks like cleaning your room or picking out clothes for the next day teach kids responsibilities. They start to understand that these habits improve their daily wellbeing, even though they require additional effort.
3 Examples of Healthy Student Routines
A healthy routine can vary depending on a student’s schedule and preferences. Some students stay busy with extracurricular activities, while others prefer quiet nights at home. When building your child’s daily routine, consider their priorities. Remember to balance healthy sleep and eating schedules with other plans.
To take a closer look at how schedules can differ, here are 3 sample daily routines for students:
1. Families With Many After-school Activities
If your child engages in many after-school activities, they might have a busier schedule than other kids. Whether they play a sport, practice an instrument, participate in a club, or a combination of all of these, schedules can fill up quickly. Extracurricular activities have many benefits for kids, from social interaction to interest exploration. But it’s important to incorporate the other elements of healthy routines along with them.
These schedules might look like:
- Sleep schedules: No matter how busy they are, students should maintain a consistent sleep schedule. They might wake up a little earlier in the morning for extra time with homework or other responsibilities. Remember to plan for at least nine hours of sleep per night, with consistent waking and resting times.
- After-school time: After they complete classes, these students transition to their extracurricular activities. They might have plans on every school night or just a few each week. It’s best to plan in advance for these busy days. Lay out necessary materials the night before or prepare snacks to send to their activities. For instance, you might teach kids to lay out their instruments or sports gear. That way, kids can move between classes and other plans more smoothly.
- Playtime: On busy days, it might be more challenging to find periods for playtime. If you have a flexible course schedule, you can use break times to encourage play. You could also structure longer play periods during days without after-school activities or on weekends.
- Friends and family time: Kids can still find time for friends and family with bustling schedules. After-school activities have built-in socialization opportunities, letting kids interact with friends and peers. You can also share family meals at breakfast or dinner if time allows.
2. Families With Home-Based Schedules
Other families and kids prefer time at home over busy schedules. Slower-paced days encourage more relaxation and free time for kids. Routines are important for structuring free time and reminding kids of healthy habits.
Home-based schedules might follow structures like:
- Sleep schedules: Being at home makes it easier to get in bed at reasonable times. You can prepare night routines such as reading from a storybook or watching a beloved television program before bed. Kids might feel more relaxed after spending the afternoon at home, which helps them fall asleep faster.
- After-school time: Spending time at home allows for unstructured after-school time. However, keeping with a routine can help kids feel more grounded and remember their responsibilities. For instance, families might have an hour for homework or school-related preparation, an hour for dinner time with the family, and a few other hours for free time.
- Playtime: You can include playtime during kids’ after-school period. Because they’re already at home, parents might encourage playtime right after classes conclude. That way, kids can stretch their legs and move freely as they decompress from class. A successful student balances schoolwork with free time.
- Friends and family time: More time at home allows for increased family time. You can complete homework, prepare dinner or snacks, watch television or other programs, or do many other activities as a family. Kids can see their friends during class time or plan playdates for after school.
3. Families With Extra Community Involvement
Your family might be heavily involved in community activities, like volunteer services or lobbying. These experiences show kids the importance of community engagement and allow them to meet new people. You might engage in these activities after school time or on the weekends.
A sample schedule of community-involved families could look like:
- Sleep schedules: Some community service activities have early starts, so it’s important to establish healthy bedtimes. If they occur after school, make sure kids have enough time to complete homework and relax. It’s probably best to get a schedule of upcoming activities and plan ahead for bedtimes. For instance, you might know a Sunday community activity starts at 8 in the morning. Your family wants to wake up at 7 a.m. to be on time, so you plan your kids’ bedtime for 9 p.m. the night before. That way, they can still get a healthy amount of sleep.
- After-school time: Depending on how many community activities occur during the week, kids might be busy after school. They can get their necessary physical and social involvement during these periods. You might also plan for homework or other responsibilities afterward.
- Playtime: It’s important to incorporate playtime into kids’ schedules. If they’re too busy with a community activity one day, give them ample time to play the next day. You can also use the weekends as significant opportunities for playtime.
- Friends and family time: If your entire family engages in the community, you add many chances for family time. You can work through problems together and discuss what you learned afterward.
Learn How CCA’s Flexible Education Can Support Your Child’s Routine
The Benefits of Setting a Daily Routine
A healthy routine for students means more than habits that move your child from the morning alarm to bedtime. A daily morning routine starts the day with assurance. An evening routine sends us to bed confident that everything is taken care of, with fewer worries to keep us awake. Routine promotes your child’s success through these benefits:
- The brain uses less energy: Stress is tiring. Overthinking and anxiety impairs the brain. Routine keeps challenges to molehill size, before they grow into mountains that drain the brain’s resources. Routine releases stress and frees the mind to soar. The geniuses of history, from Ludwig van Beethoven to Ernest Hemingway, relied on routine to focus their brains on their creative pursuits, letting their unconscious minds unleash the brilliance and innovation lurking beneath the surface.
- Achieve more: Children — and adults — have things that they must do and things that they want to do. There never seems to be enough time for either, but routine assigns each to manageable slots every day. Chances are, your family’s days are filled with time puttered away, for no noticeable benefit. Routine banishes those empty-calorie moments to the sidelines, creating more time to accomplish the things that matter.
- Better mental and emotional health: When you take better care of yourself, the stress and anxiety of daily life shrink from outsized to manageable. Routine gives you and your child more time to relax and just think, which improves mental health. All children, including those with ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder, benefit from the predictability and sense of security that routine provides in their lives.
- Better sleep: Refreshing sleep, uninterrupted by qualms and fears, gives you more energy and focus. Improved sleep sharpens mental focus and performance, while it contributes to emotional well-being.
- Better physical health: Time for activity and exercise builds a stronger, more resilient body. Preparing healthy meals and snacks, instead of grabbing artery-clogging fast foods and packaged junk foods, gives you more energy and wards off illness.
- Academic success: Studies have shown that children who follow productive morning routines get higher grades, are likelier to graduate from high school, and have healthier relationships with their peers.
- Domestic bliss: Starting and ending each day with tussles over tasks and responsibilities accomplishes little more than building family friction. The framework of routine tells everyone what’s expected of them and the roles they play. The demands of daily life are managed in an automatic fashion, and children learn a crucial lesson — that doing the dishes is important, but the real priority in life is how they grow as people and citizens.
- Agility when change happens: Change is inevitable. Families move. Parents get new jobs. Babies are born. Just the act of being a child plunges kids into scary moments as their bodies and minds grow and mature. Routine gives children a stable foundation. When change comes their way, routine helps them hold on to the sense of mastery over their surroundings.
Create Healthy Family Routines With CCA Online Schooling
Once a routine is established, don’t be afraid to shake it up. Children will need less supervision as they grow, and their interests and activities will consume more and more of their time. Stick to all those good reasons for daily consistency in the first place, and routines can grow and change as your child does the same.
One of the best things about cyber school is its flexibility. Commonwealth Charter Academy families craft the school experience to suit their families’ lifestyles and interests. They don’t have to bend to meet arbitrary schedules imposed by brick-and-mortar schools. Daily routines help families take care of their responsibilities while they strive for bigger goals. Contact CCA for help creating a routine for your child that paves the way for school and lifetime success, or enroll online today.
