How to keep your kids engaged, learning, and happy while stuck at home – And save your sanity!
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It’s official. I am to remain at home with my 3 kiddos for at least the next month! Has COVID-19 affected you in the same way? Stuck at home with a child or multiple children? Even for SAHMs who do this everyday, it is still a challenge to have the world shaken and our kids knocked out of their routines.
As things have quickly escalated with this Pandemic, our community has decided to close all schools for the rest of the school year!!! What are you to do if you find yourself in a position where you are not only expected to be home with your kids all day…but you are expected to actually teach them too! That is a lot of pressure to put on a parent who may, or may not, have a teaching background and has many other responsibilities to attend to. Thankfully for me, teaching is my career and something that I do daily with my own children. But, that’s not everyone – and it shouldn’t be!
I have heard so many concerns from parents who are not only trying to figure out the curriculum that their children are learning, but also what to do with them all day! I decided that it may be helpful to create a guide with tips and tricks on how to get through this challenging time without losing your mind! I’m not saying that being at home with your kiddos all day is easy. But, if we draw upon our strengths and share activities and ideas, we can get through this together!
Where Do You Begin?
One of the most challenging parts of taking on all parenting and teaching duties, is figuring out where to begin. It can be extremely overwhelming to go from your routine of school, work, and out-of-the-house-activities to a semi-permanent stay at home scenario. Just remember, it’s not only stressful for you. It’s a huge change for your kiddos as well and something that will take time to adjust to.
Create a Schedule
The honest-to-goodness best place to begin is creating a schedule. And I’m not just talking about a schoolwork schedule. I mean a daily schedule that lays everything out. Don’t panic! You don’t have to follow it minute by minute everyday. It is just a place to begin so you aren’t wandering around aimlessly all day, not accomplishing anything.
Take into account some of the following when creating your schedule:
- Wake up and Bedtime
- Schoolwork
- Meals
- Snacks
- Naps
- Free Play
- Structured Activities
- Outdoor Time
- Quiet/Reading Time
- Screen Time
Having a schedule posted is a complete game changer for your day. It not only helps you stay on track and ensure that you don’t forget something; but it also helps your kids know what to expect for the day. You can go as simple or elaborate as you want with your schedule. Grab a piece of paper and jot down how you see the day going. Post it somewhere visible…done! Or, type it up and laminate it. Then you can cross items off as they are completed and reuse it from day to day.
Want to take it one step further? Create a visual schedule for your day. Take photos of your typical activities and type them out. Print, laminate and add Velcro to the back. Attach them to a laminated piece of paper and you are ready to go! Now, your kiddos can move each activity as it is completed for an interactive schedule!
There are endless options when it comes to the schedule you decide to create for your family. Just do yourself a favor, and create one! Here is a sample of what your schedule may look like:
Sample Daily Schedule
- 7:00am – Wake Up
- 7:30am – Breakfast
- 8:00am – Free Play/Invitation to Play
- 9:00am – School Work
- 10:00am – Snack
- 10:30am – Sensory Bin/Free Play
- 12:00pm – Lunch
- 12:30pm – Reading Time
- 1:00pm – Nap/Sensory Bin
- 3:00pm – Snack
- 3:30pm – School Work
- 4:30pm – Outdoor Play
- 5:30pm – Dinner
- 6:00pm – Screen Time
- 6:30pm – Free Play/Invitation to Create
- 7:00pm – Snack
- 7:30pm – Reading Time
- 8:00pm – Bed Time
Now, my oldest is only in Preschool for two hours – two days a week, so I didn’t slot very much organized school time into this schedule. However, I always include my own enriching activities periodically throughout the day in the form of Invitations to Play and Structured Activities.
If your kiddo goes to school more than 2 days a week or his/her teacher has sent home quite a bit of material to cover, you may want to slot additional time for school work in your day. You could easily shorten free play periods or simply insert school work into the nap time slot. Mold this schedule to fit your family’s needs in whatever way works for you! And remember, if you deviate from the schedule…it’s ok! I modified our schedule daily for a week until we found the right balance. Truth be told, I still modify our schedule occasionally. And that is OK!
Aside from creating a schedule (that you try to stick to), here are a few more things you can do to help keep things manageable at home.
Contact the Teacher
Try as you may, there is just no way to truly mimic your child’s school day routine. At the very least, you should have gotten topics to focus on and books/videos/lessons to go over. If you’d like to take it one step further, contact your child’s teacher to find out more about their normal day. What does your child love most about the school day – Story time? A computer program? The block center? Free play with play dough? – Figure out what it is and try to incorporate it into your day at home.
My son loves the centers they do at school, so I asked his teacher for a description of each one to recreate them at home. Even though he won’t be going back, he can at least feel like he has a piece of his classroom at home. I also asked for their daily schedule so I can go through as many of the same activities as possible.
Staying in contact with your child’s teacher during this transitional learning period will allow you to gain helpful insight about the curriculum as well as save you some sanity!
Keep it Fresh!
Begin a TOY ROTATION! This is especially important for the younger crowd. I know my kiddos well, and if they have access to all of their toys everyday a few things happen.
1. They take EVERYTHING OUT, EVERYDAY!
2. The amount of toys overwhelms them and they end up playing with nothing.
3. They get bored more easily and begin displaying behaviors I’d rather not see, wink wink.
Toy rotations are everything in our home! I’m not saying that I deprive my children of their favorite toys or that I don’t allow them to play with certain things. I simply have a rotation of toys where I strategically put out enough toys to engage my kiddos, but not overwhelm them.
In our home, we have our staple toys that remain in the playroom always such as; the kitchen, animals, the train table, books, and a few smaller items. Then, there are our rotational toys. Right now (it will change as they get older and our set-up changes) we have containers of blocks, legos, magnetic tiles, musical instruments, puzzles, the train set, Paw Patrol, and a few others that rotate in and out. I typically rotate them daily since my kiddos are at home with me all day. And, my littles are always able to ask for a specific bin if they want to play with something different. I have specific reasons for rotating these items, but a different rotation may work better for your kids. The point is, don’t put all of the toys out at once or they will get bored and you may lose your mind a bit!
Change it up!
The one thing that is consistent about all of our days, is that when my littles start to lose it, I change it up! What I do depends on many factors like; the weather, if the baby is napping, what time it is, what we were doing, etc. But, without fail, I always change it up to redirect my kiddos. We may go outside, take a walk, pull out play dough, read a book, head to the sensory bin, or make a smoothie.
If there is one thing that I have learned from being a SAHM, it is that if the kids are going crazy, I will eventually lose it too. And nobody wants that! So, here are a couple ideas to try when your kiddos start to test your limits:
- Go outside
- Take a nature walk
- Pull out the play dough (this works every time for my kids!)
- Throw together a sensory bin
- Pull out a different activity (i.e. train set, magnetic tiles, blocks, legos, gears, small animals, cars, etc)
- Give them a cardboard box and some art supplies (stickers, markers, paper, glue, etc)
- Go on a ‘hunt’ (to do this, pull out a bucket and ask your kiddos to find a certain color, shape, or type of item and fill the bucket) i.e. – find all of the red toys and put them in this bucket!
- Make a smoothie – my kiddos are obsessed with them!
- Pull out a puzzle
- Sit down and start to play with their toys without them. i.e. – build a train set or a block tower – when they see you playing, they are bound to come over and join in!
- Have a quick yoga session to calm things down
- Start a dance party
- Or, try one of my activities here!
Awesome Apps and Sites
No matter how hard you try, sometimes you just need a little screen time. I call it a Mommy Break, wink wink. When we get to that point (which does happen!) I am very choosy about what I will let my kiddos watch and interact with. Here are some of the apps and sites that I will occasionally let my littles use for a limited amount of time, when I really need a Mommy Break.
- Star Fall – I used this site daily in my Kindergarten classroom! It’s such a fun way to learn letters and work on higher level skills too. They have activities for PreK – 3rd Grade, Check it out!
- ABC Mouse – Now that you are home with your kiddo all day, are you noticing that they could use a little extra practice with math? Spelling? Reading? Then this is your site!
- Sesame Street – Breathe Help your little learn how to calm down in a few easy steps.
- PBS Kids Video – Watch clips or full episodes of your favorite shows from PBS Kids to include things like Super Why, Word World, Dinosaur Train, Wild Kratts, Sesame Street, and so much more!
- Zoo Cams – Watch the animals live at zoos around the United States at Zoo With Us! Honestly, we’ve found it to be even better viewing than going in person since you can see more! They also have some great learning materials on their site
Bottom Line:
This transition from school and work to home isn’t easy for anyone. But, you can make the most of it by being prepared and keeping your kiddos engaged and enriched throughout the day. Set that schedule, stay in contact with the teacher, keep toys fresh and change it up when necessary! You WILL make it through this and you will (hopefully) have some fun along the way. You got this Mama!
For more activities and ideas to keep those little hands busy, check out our Top 12 Indoor Activities to Keep Toddlers Busy!
