My Great Idea: Back to School Breakfast

I love the summer months, when I am essentially worry-free about getting my kids dressed, fed, and out the door on time at an early hour. Although some days are an exception, the summer is a free-for-all where sometimes even Mom gets a few extra hours of sleep.

For years it was difficult to make the switch from summer vacation to the "early to bed, early to rise" school routine. The first day of school would always go great - my kids and I used the adrenaline we had from the excitement of the new school year to get us through. But a day or two later, we found ourselves already struggling. Seven in the morning is a far cry from nine, especially when you have three kids to get ready who aren't particularly keen on getting up.

Several years ago I was searching for ways to help beat the beginning-of-the-school-year blues when a neighbor told me about her idea for a neighborhood "back-to-school breakfast." Instead of starting off the school year on the first day by suddenly getting up early, she said we could all start the school year schedule a week early. I jumped at the chance!

When my kids first heard the idea, they cringed - I became the mom who was cutting out a week of precious summer sleeping. But once I explained to them that we were going to have great foods - like doughnuts, French toast, or cinnamon rolls - and that their friends would be there, too, they quickly jumped on board.

Here's how we did it: Beginning the Monday before school started, all the neighborhood kids (and their parents) woke up at 7 a.m. and got ready as if they were starting the day and heading out to school. We rotated the breakfast between houses so that no particular person was bearing the brunt of the expenses. In the years since we started, as the idea spread to the greater neighborhood, we limited each group of breakfast eaters to six houses (leaving Sunday for a family breakfast).

Providing a fun, early morning breakfast has given my kids a definite incentive to get up before their usual summertime schedule. Now, by the time school starts, my kids and I are accustomed to waking earlier, and many of the struggles from previous years have been eliminated - not to mention we're all well fed and energized!

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Celeste in Tallahassee, FL

I love this idea!! We don't have too many problems at our house because we have swim team at the crack of dawn, and the coach has the same idea -- lets start back a week early with the early morning swims at 5:30am!

Great Idea

Marjorie in Nauvoo

The Back to School Breakfast is a great idea, but why not include some healthy foods like fruit, bagels and scrambled eggs rather than doughnuts, French toast, or cinnamon rolls. The time to help our kids choose a healthy diet is when they're young!

Preparing For the School Year

Jean in Redmond, WA

In our family, we started talking about how we would practice getting up, getting dressed, and eating breakfast, as we would need to on regular school days. By talking about it, the kids were psychologically ready to begin our prep week. It definitely made a huge difference in that first week of school. By first day of school, it was simply part of our daily morning routine.

More than just breakfast

Heidi in Idaho Falls, ID.

I love the idea of yummy foods, but also healthy foods early in the morning a week before school starts! I am actually starting in the morning to get my kids up at school hours. They are excited because they get to chose whats for breakfast, and upon my approval, then make it for breakfast. After they get a little homework out of the way (wake up for the summer brain) we can chose something fun to do. They are way jazzed about this. I heard them talking about sausage, and egg breakfast burritos, and huckleberry pancakes for one of the breakfasts....

Thank You!!!!!

Talana in Utah

I have been wondering how to make the transition from summer to school for my younger children easier and this is perfect. Due to the nature of our family business my husband and I and our four teenaged children are up at 5:30 am all summer, but the four younger children get to sleep in and I knew from experience that this would be a problem when school started. I don't know that it would work well for me to do it with other people but I still think it would work great even with just my family. Thanks!!!!