Back To School

This is sponsored content by BlogHer and Kelloggs.

It’s not uncommon during this time of year to hear kids say how much they are not excited to be going back to school, while their moms quietly whisper how excited they are for their kids to be back to their school routine.  No matter which side of the matter you’re on, the fact is that it has happened: our children are back in school and we’ve got a new routine to manage.  While I’m certain there are moms out there who are cool, calm and collected about their new routine, I, for one, am not one of them!  In fact, during the beginning of the school year, as I’m adapting to my new routine, I’m feeling a LOT like this:

It seems, in my house, that no matter how prepared we feel for the start of the school year, there’s still a lot of last minute, “Oh No!” sort of moments when we realize that we’ve forgotten to do something rather important!  Unfortunately, sometimes that important thing is allowing ourselves enough time to eat breakfast.  You see, my children start the day off at different times, as the middle school starts an hour earlier than the elementary, so Claire and Iain are off on the bus an hour and fifteen minutes before Ellis gets on; on top of that, Colin doesn’t go to preschool until the afternoon, so my focus is to keep everybody quiet so he can get a little bit of extra sleep during those early morning hours.  Due to this mayhem in our schedule, there are some mornings where breakfast is an extremely easy thing, and some mornings where we’re grabbing something on the go and shoveling it in our mouths as quickly as possible! 

In the midst of making sure everybody has their homework, band instruments, books, hats/gloves/scarves, lunches and the kitchen sink whatever else they may have forgotten, breakfast is typically one of the things that the kids take care of themselves.  It’s no secret that we all love our sleep, which means that we may have hit our snooze buttons a few too many times in the morning, causing a rush in our schedule.  This rush makes breakfast sometimes feel a little busy and overwhelming, but thankfully we are able to manage through it!  Like most days, cereal is one of our best friends in the morning and, due to the size of our family, we always have a LOT of it on hand!  We all enjoy a large variety in our breakfast choices, so it’s not uncommon that there are five or six different cereals in our pantry to choose from, whether it be Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, Corn Flakes, Crispix or one of the other great cereals we love!  It’s no secret that cereal is one of those great things that can be enjoyed while you’re still “zombified” in the morning and you’re still trying to wake up! 

The catch, as I previously mentioned, is that we don’t always allow ourselves the time that we need to sit down and enjoy our breakfast.  Some mornings truly are more chaotic than others; these are the mornings that I throw an apple in the kids’ backpacks and toast a couple of Pop Tarts or Eggo Waffles with chocolate chips for them to munch on while they’re waiting at the bus stop.  While I would never make rushing through breakfast a regular part of our routine, I think my kids secretly love this day because they get to have something new and they don’t have to be sitting at our dining room table to enjoy it! 

Indeed, the start of the school year has our family in a bit of chaos, but I know that the chaos will slow down and we will find a regular routine to follow.  Do you have a routine that you follow, or a trick that works well for you to make your morning a bit easier?  Let me know!

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Mom's Breakfast Club was started to help educate moms and families about kids' cereal and share the scoop on their nutritional benefits and ingredients.  To learn more about the program, visit www.loveyourcereal.com.