Homeschooling, pandemic style

Taking care of kids at home is hard. Taking care of kids while working full time is harder. Taking care of kids when you can't go out or interact with anybody and have to work full time is absolutely ridiculous. But, we have really come a long ways in 2.5 months.

Here are some things we've learned to be helpful.

1) Restrict screen time. If we don't restrict it ends up being ultimately useless as the kids don't really pay serious attention to it. Also, our kids whine constantly so we had to implement a 'go to your room if you whine about it' policy which we now apply to lots of things.

2. Put the kids to bed as early as possible. Little L's daycare teachers are magical nap-inducing fairies. Not so much at home. And he became a chronic cranky bear when daycare ended. We moved the bedtime up by an hour and viola, things got SO MUCH better. Plus, then mom, dad and Big L get an extra hour of time away from the 3.5-yr old tornado.

3. NEVER do housework while the kids are sleeping. I was inspired by this post over at busytoddler.com (a GREAT resource). Alone time is SO PRECIOUS. And kids need to learn to help clean up anyway. I've gotten so good at this and at keeping kids busy that sometimes I can spend 2+ hrs on housework during my shift with the kids. The secret was...

4. Plan ahead for kid activities. On Sundays, I scroll through blogs and order a few supplies. I focus on different types of activities like crafting, education, cooking, house projects, and physical activity. I found great ideas at homeschool blogs like the one above and 123homeschool4me.com. It's best to keep a running list of new ideas and a bin full of old projects too. I'm also learning to keep EVERYTHING like toilet paper rolls and empty tin cans because you never know what might turn into a project!

5. Make the most of your work shift. Separate work into "high focus," "medium focus" and "low/no focus." For the high focus (aka 'deep work'), let the designated kid-care parent handle EVERYTHING (except a true emergency). For medium focus (aka a meeting you only participate in a little), either help out the other parent for a bit or do another medium or low focus task, like order groceries or email. Try to do low focus tasks entirely while on your kid shift (the Studly Hubby is GREAT at this).

We've tried obvious things like instituting quiet time and teaching Big L to watch Little L, but they weren't really all that effective. Maybe those things work for other people. We are kind of flying with whatever works for us, and continually adjusting. But, we do seem to be getting better, in tiny steps. Perhaps others will find this and post some great ideas we can try! And to any of you that do, my best to you - it is a crazy train.