Manic mornings begin

For parents and children alike, summer offers a respite from hectic school mornings. But after Labor Day, when children in the Long Beach School District head back to school, the manic mornings return.
“It’s borderline chaos,” Carolyn Ejnes, the mother of four daughters, said of her morning routine when classes begin again. While two of her girls, Jacquie and Tori, are in their teens and early 20s, the youngest, Dakota and Summer, 10 and 8, are West Elementary School student who still need help getting ready in the morning.
“Everybody has to be out before 9,” said Ejnes, who described her mornings as jam-packed with preparing breakfasts and lunches, signing permission slips and getting herself and her daughters out the door.
The start of school comes as a drastic change for Ejnes, a stay-at-home mom whose family’s summer mornings are filled with strolls on the beach searching for starfish and sea snails, surfing and boogieboarding. “I love summer and I love having the kids home,” she said, having heard that many parents are thrilled to send their children back to school. “I really enjoy them.”
A strict morning routine helps keep Kate Falvey and her daughter Annie from buckling under the pressure. “When Annie was in pre-school, I established guidelines that included going to bed early — for the both of us,” said Kate, an English professor at New York City College of Technology.
This week Annie, 11, is attending her first classes at Long Beach Middle School, which start an hour earlier than the elementary schools. Kate said that picking out her daughter’s clothes the night before, or having Annie choose them herself, helps ease the rush in the morning and allows both mother and daughter enough time to shower and get dressed before a quick breakfast.