Living in a Quarantine World
Ok, so for many of you, you have been stuck at home with your kiddos in a “Shelter in Place” protocol; and I am sure many of you have a few more gray hairs and some years off your lives thanks to it.
Well, my family has been doing the same, and because of this, we have totally had to adjust our daily routine. While teaching virtually and trying to homeschool our 4-year-old at the same time, making a schedule was the key to keeping my family’s sanity. I wanted to share with yall, what I came up with in case you are looking for some daily structure, too. (P.S. there are all kinds of helpful schedules online too; I just found one I liked and adapted it to fit our needs.)
As an elementary teacher, and a student of child development/psychology, I know just how important a daily schedule can be for kids. Many believe that children on a daily routine perform better in school and in their daily lives in general. I know that for me personally, I THRIVE on a daily schedule. Knowing what I have for the day and what my expectations are, help me to attack the day in a positive manner. Knowing this, I believe that having our son on a daily schedule can only do positive things for him too. (But, just to keep it real, creating a daily schedule during this COVID situation was really more for mommy’s sanity than the 4-year-olds.)
I wanted to keep his and my schedule as close to normal as possible so that when we return to school and work, it will not be that big of a transition. I keep our wake-up time about the same as it was (only 1-1.5-hour difference) as well as bedtime (although this is harder with the husband and the sun setting later; he LOVES staying outside with Jordan and playing). Since my son is a toddler, I try to keep the actual “sitting down learning” to a short amount of time; just about 30-minute increments. I also change settings from working inside to working outside. This helps him to break up the time; he can get up and move around and is more likely to do some more “real learning”. For the afternoon academic time, I allowed him to do things on his phone, such as ABC Mouse or a puzzle app or listening to books on EPIC. See below for a breakdown of our daily routine. (Remember, this works well for us and you might need to adjust it some to fit your family.)
I hope that maybe this can help some of yall out there looking for a bit more daily structure. It can be hard at first to stick to it, and if you have never worked on a schedule before, your kiddos might really have a hard time adjusting; BUT, trust me, once you get it down and stick to it daily, you will love yourself, your kids, and your days more!
XOXO – Laurie