Last week I began getting emails from just about everyone regarding their new policies with regards to the virus and what measures they were taking to keep everyone safe and healthy. Anything from my pediatrician's office to the place my son gets his hair cut to Old Navy. Yep, even Old Navy sent me an email about it. Honestly, that one just made me laugh.
On Wednesday I had stocked up on groceries for the Mr. and younger two kids because I was set to head to Orlando on Thursday for a cheer competition at Disney World. With all of the growing concerns about the spread of this virus we were notified on Wednesday that our gym was still going. Thursday morning we had another email saying the gym had pulled all of the teams from the competition and that was the news I got to wake my daughter up with.
"Good morning, honey...instead of going to Disney with your friends and teammates to compete, you get to go to school."
She was crushed, mad, disappointed, confused, and annoyed about life at the moment, but I knew it was the right decision. Later that day our schools were cancelled, baseball was cancelled, soccer was cancelled, basically our entire life was put on hold.
The reality started to sink in a little bit and we all tried to make sense of what this was going to mean for us. "Digital learning" is the new catch phrase as far as their schooling goes and that is one of the biggest unknowns. They all went to school on Friday to get final assignments, directions, and guidance for how to navigate these next few weeks and I have a feeling the majority of my day is going to be helping each of my 3 with their online work and assignments. Just the logistics of logging into different programs, who gets to use the laptop, who is going to work where, etc. has me a little nervous, but we are going to make it work! I've set up a small workstation for each of them in different parts of the house so they can hopefully concentrate and focus during their digital learning times.
I know my kids view this as a "break" from school, but I have a feeling that they are all going to be eager and begging to go back to school as soon as they can. That is the hard part though. We have NO IDEA when they will be heading back. Just like schools all over the country, we would hope to go back in 2 weeks, but my guess is the likelihood of that actually happening is very slim. I've read articles and reports with recommendations that could have us out the rest of the year. I'm praying that isn't the case, but if it is, we better get used to this new normal.
I'm obviously no expert, but thought I would share what I'm going to be doing to try to keep my kids entertained, engaged and off of their phones/ipads all day long. I think one of the biggest things to help us all get through these next few weeks is to create a schedule. I have to admit this made me laugh though:
There have been a ton of these ideas floating around. Some seem great if you could really make them happen:
Others that I'm sure my kids were hoping for:
My guess is ours will end up somewhere in-between those two. I know ours will be flexible and we will probably have to adjust what we do by the end of the week, but at least it gives us a starting point. My kids are 8, 10 and 12 and my goal is for them to have an idea of what our days at home will look like while still keeping a little structure. This is the one I made and what I'm aiming for:
Sports play a HUGE part of my kids' lives so along with keeping their school going I also hope to keep their sports going. I figure if I can be their teacher while they are at home I can also be their coach! We will be practicing drills, hitting off the tee, stretching, throwing, juggling, tumbling, conditioning and anything else we can think of. I can't imagine them going back to school having done nothing over these next few weeks and I feel the same about them going back to their sports having done nothing.
I also wanted to share a few ideas that the kids and I came up with for ways to stay entertained while they aren't working on their school work or sports practices. We're going to keep adding to this list as we think of new ideas!
make bead bracelets
science kits
learn calligraphy
learn to sew
clean out their closets
organize playroom
clean out old toys/books
chores to earn money
watch movies
silly string
jump on trampoline
paint
learn to do laundry
baking
family walks
How are you planning to survive these next few weeks (or longer) at home with your kids???
How are you planning to survive these next few weeks (or longer) at home with your kids???
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