It’s day 5 of the “self-quarentine” life and I saw a post on social media that was spot-on…..basically it pointed out that we homeschoolers have definitely had a slightly smoother transition in the “school work” department- our kids are suffering socially this week too.
Homeschool is EXTREMELY social, and mobile, and ever-changing, and this past few days has been an adjustment for all of us.
Before schools closed, my kids attended school on campus 2 days a week, our program is hybrid- so they went to school from 9-3, twice a week and participated in project based learning. We’ve been spotting the things that are the same as before and the things that are different- and that chat this morning is what inspired this post tonight.
Here are 5 things that totally work at school AND at home! Adding these to your routine may help welcome some more ease into your day!
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Backpack and pencil box. I didn’t do this my first year of homeschooling, or my second, but here in year 3, I decided to utilize their backpacks more on homeschool days and it’s been a game changer!! Now that we are here, at home, all day every day, it’s still helpful. In Pre-COVID-shut-in days it was rad because we were ready to bounce out to learn on the go with out spending 20 minutes gathering all our bits, and now that we don’t bounce out, it still takes less time, prep and organization. Which means more time for games, fun and art stuff! Before bedtime we double check that everything we need for the next day is in their backpacks, so when it’s time to start in the morning, they grab their bags and we school it up! Then everything goes back in at the end. Helps with the clean up big time and makes a whole lot less "I don't know where my.....is"!
Here’s what my kindergartner and my second grader each have in their backpack at all times:
A pencil box with 3 regular pencils, an eraser, scissors, a glue stick, a set of colored pencils and a pencil sharpener. My son (the second grader) also has a mini-stapler, his request, haha.
A clipboard- this is a non-negotiable over here because I can load the worksheets we are gonna do onto their boards the night before, and the work can stay the clipboards all day so I don’t loose track of what they did! I have one for myself too! Also if someone is looking at someone too much they can take their work to the couch or back yard, no problemo! Their clip boards also always have blank and lined paper on them, ready to ROCK!
A book they like to read, at their level- so we can stop-drop-and have quiet reading time, any time! If your kiddo isn’t quite reading yet it can be a picture book, an alphabet book to practice letter recognition/sounds or a copy of a favorite book like Go Dog Go that they can flip through and scout for any sight words they recognize!
A Workbook- if you also happen to have ANOTHER job outside of parenting and running the household (and now teaching!), having grade/skill level appropriate workbooks are super helpful too! My kindergartner also likes to keep "find the hidden picture" books like THESE handy for times when mommy is working and or needs a wee break.
Packing lunches... or if not packing at least planning/prepping. If your kids were going to school on campus daily, I promise their teachers were not making them snacks every 3-15 minutes. Getting your snack and lunch prep done the night before is a huge sanity saver. For real, if they are old enough, you can even have them pack a snack or two and their lunch the night before or every morning so there are no questions when lunchtime rolls around. Plus, by doing it ahead, you not only manage expectations, but you also aren’t taking time to prep and clean up as much!! It may even mean you get to sit and eat YOUR lunch and let your mind relax a hot second too (just don’t turn on the news, k?) You can also do cute counter top baskets with everyone’s name on it like my amazing friend Sarah did here:
Wheel in the Video tower!! (JK, but seriously for those of you my age and older you know what I’m talkin about, right?? Remember how stoked you’d be when you walked in to see that massive TV and VCR on the wheelie tower?)
Use the materials your teacher provided but know they are PROFESSIONALS so if you don’t get to everything you plan to in one day, that’s OK!! Honestly, we needed a bit of a “mental health” break today- so we talked about it being the first day of Spring and made some super cool spring art and that was about it. Keep in mind, at school they aren’t in desks grinding out work for 6 hours/5 days a week, so that’s not a reasonable expectation at home either! They have days where they watch movies, they play games, there are body breaks. There is a lot to be said about reading, playing games and having discussion time together- let them lead, have your kiddo pick a topic, a song, a piece of art, something and learn more about it together by watching videos! Homeschool mom hack: when googling for research I always have the computer facing me only and I include “for kids” or “for ___(age/grade) students” in my search key words.
Plan ahead and have a schedule. Mine is a week view on an excel sheet- the far left column is stuff I want to cover, ideas I have, links to use etc...then each day M-F has it’s own column, if we don’t get to something I can just scoot it over to the next day! I make tabs/pages for each week so if I think of something for future reference I can click and pop it in there. I don’t really put time frames on the items, but it makes a WORLD of difference to have a schedule. We usually aim to start around 930 and end around 230, but some days we get a slow start, some days everyone is ready to rock at 8 etc. Believe me, no traditional school teacher alive shows up and "wings it", planning creates ease, even if you don't get to half of it, the plans your teacher provided and plans you make are there to guide you. If your kiddos are used to attending traditional school having some form of schedule loosely based on how that day runs will be helpful for them too. Also, if you are working from home on top of all of this, creating a schedule and blocking in down time is a great way to sync up your own work time or down time with theirs.
Morning meeting and end of day meeting- this is a favorite and helps kids transition from their wake up routine to learning mode and at the end of the day it signals that school is over! For little ones this is often called “circle time” or “rug time” totally something you can do at home! Everyone sit on the floor in the living room- sing a song, check in with everyone’s feelings, give everyone a chance to share something do a guided meditation, practice mindfulness etc. I also love taking this as an opportunity to start our learning day- what’s the date? What’s the season? What’s the weather? I also suggest grabbing a small white board like THIS one and some colorful dry erase markers. Something my daughter’s teacher does at school that we’ve been doing at home is writing a “morning message” with intentional errors. I do one for my kindergartner and one for my 2nd grader, at their reading level. Intentionally misspell things, leave out punctuation, capitalize words that should not be capitalized and vice versa (for my older kiddo we also get into incorrect verb tense etc) and they have to find the mistakes and correct the message! For some reason KIDS LOVE DRY ERASE BOARDS AND MARKERS so I have one for me and each of the kids have one, we use these daily.
Give these a try and let me know how it goes!! Also, remember to give them breaks and grace- this is not normal for ANY of us. Everyone is under different emotional strain and I’ve definitely shed some anxiety tears more than once this week.
I have SO much more I want share with all of you, and will be doing so asap. I have been really mindful to be as present as possible for my kids this week during their waking hours and as restful and caring to myself as possible as soon as they go to bed!
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