As everyone transitions to working from home we’re all adjusting our schedules. Amazing resources are being offered from almost every area of expertise and majority are free. It’s heartwarming to see people supporting each other during this weirdness. It’s also overwhelming. I homeschool and regularly review curriculum, activities, and resources for teaching. I don’t know how anyone can sift through all that is available right now.
I’ve had a couple of friends ask for tips on homeschooling. What I think people really need is somewhere to start.
Here is my framework for next week to get things moving forward. There are a few free resources that will be anchors for the day*. These are great times to schedule conference calls and virtual meetings because the kiddos will have an instructor keeping their attention rather than self-led activities. The schedule is for live streams on eastern time.
I’ve created an activity to cover 8:00am-5:00pm. This is insane and not what homeschooling looks like…but it is what most employers require so the kiddos need something to keep them occupied. Many of the pieces can be moved around throughout the day to best align with your needs and schedule. Some activities fill the entire hour and others the kids will zip through. Just be flexible and do your best. When you have extra time choose a walk if possible or just time outside. I am 100% a ‘let them be bored mom.’ If you can do that, and not lose your mind, then let it happen. They will create something on their own to entertain themselves.
For now your mantra is “we’re doing the best we can, with what we have, at this moment in time.” Here is how I prioritize entertaining the kids…first choice would always be to send them outside and let them explore, second would be brain building activities, and third would be “educational” screen time. But I also like to binge watch my own TV shows so I try to be realistic with expectations on the dreaded ‘screen time’ front.
While homeschool families may be a little more comfortable with this new reality we are also managing a lot of change. I average about 25 hours away from home with the kids per week and the average elementary student is at school 35 hours a week. We’re all in the same chaos boat.
This framework has a lot of ‘movement’ time allocated to try to make up for missing organized sports. We generally spend two hours a night at the baseball field or soccer field. While one brother is practicing the other two brothers are running around on the playground and/or playing games with other kiddos. That is a lot of exercise I don’t want them missing out on. Even with these movement activities scheduled during the day I’d try to throw in an evening walk after dinner to burn a little more energy before bed.
7:00-9:00am: Morning Routine and Learning Centers:
Everyone has some sort of morning routine in place. If it’s working then stick with what ya got, if you feel hurried and frazzled on school day mornings now is the time to change that. There is no rush to get the kids to campus on time. Start adjusting now and you’ll have a routine you’re happy with when things return to normal.
For our house I am a hard NO on screens in the morning. It is a huge distraction and it always causes conflict. Also, I am not a morning person. This self imposed rule is torture for me. I’d really like to plop them in front of the TV while I drink coffee for a loooooong time. To combat this I’ve designated center time first thing in the morning. These are activities that keep all three boys busy and require zero oversight from me. It’s a must for this household.
I recommend everyone does a short yoga sequence by themselves when they wake up. Yoga encompasses anything resembling yoga, as long as its quiet, gets the blood flowing, and doesn’t wake up any other member of the family. After that they can choose what they want to do from our centers until we start our first lesson. You can create centers from anything the kiddos have in the house already. Here are a few of our favorites with links to helpful activities.
- Yoga
- Legos
- Memory
- Play Doh
- Bible Study and/or Gratitude Journal
9am: Core Subjects
Core subjects will look differently for everyone based on what materials have been provided by each school district. I have included links to free resources and activities. These are not perfect for every situation but it’s a place to start. Take what you like, leave what you don’t. Our priority, must happen everyday, subjects are Math and English. I would start with these in the morning and do science and history in the afternoon. You know the needs of your kiddo so choose what’s best for them.
Audible just announced that they are offering free children’s books while schools are closed. This is a great opportunity to take advantage of especially right now with libraries being closed and shopping limited. Here’s how this will look for us. I’ll let one of my little angels choose a book that looks interesting to them. They’ll listen to the book and take notes so they can give me a synopsis. They will also write down any words that are new, they’re familiar with but can’t define, or they find cool sounding. I’ll review vocabulary and correct spelling. They’ll look up the definition of the words they noted and either write the definition or use the word in a sentence. They’ll also rewrite the words they misspelled three times. (One way to make this more fun is to use colored pencils or markers) Now you can check Reading, Spelling, and Vocabulary off you list from this one activity!
Friendly letters will be our writing assignment. This should be a breeze for the kiddos. They have plenty to share considering they just had a week off of school. Great way to ease back into the swing of things. If possible send a letter to a family member or friend who may feel isolated by social distancing.
I have the Smithsonian as a resource for both history and science this week. The Smithsonian History Explorer can be filtered by grade and then you can let the kiddos choose a lesson they like. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is geared for older elementary. If this doesn’t work for you give this Animal Classification Unit a try.
The most parent friendly math option is Khan Academy. It is free, allows you to choose by grade level then by topic, and has an instructor walk your kiddo through the lesson.
10am: Movement* and Snack Each sport is linked to a tutorial that can be done at home.
11am: Art
Noon: Lunch and Personal Interest Enjoy lunch and let the kiddos have some free time.
1pm: Core Subjects Use the links above for the subjects you didn’t get to this morning.
- Reading
- Writing
- History
- Science
- Math
- Spelling
- Vocabulary
2pm: Dance Party and Snack These are silly and fun.
3pm: Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden*
This is live and they have suggestions for crafts/activities to complete after the tour. I have the boys follow the same process as with Audible books. So we cover more spelling and vocabulary words. We also research the animal classifications and document them here.
4:00pm: Movement
- Victory Martial Arts (Mondays)
- Soccer
- Baseball
- Gymnastics
- Tennis
- Golf
5:00pm: Boom! You survived. Rest Up for tomorrow.
Let me know how you’re doing!!
