Ways to plan your children’s day during a pandemic

Planning your children’s day during a pandemic to include enjoyment and learning.

It can be done.

Never did I really think I would be teaching my children at home. Like I think when you go through the school selection process in the beginning, sometimes home school might go through your brain. Briefly. In my mind, it was very brief. I am under the impression that why teachers are teachers is that they have been trained in the area and age groups they are teaching. That was not me. I was a pediatric physical therapist, so I sent my children to sent.

Never would I have thought that I would have to plan a day of learning and fun for my children during a pandemic. Never was that a thought or a goal of mine.

However it happened for a whole year! 

And still is continuing. 

Growing up many children think they want to be teachers. We play school. We assign each other work. It is fun and exciting to be in charge. Tell our friends what to do. Be the one with all the answers.

As we get older, we realize there is a lot more to it than we originally thought. Then we get to 2020 and many of us were at home with out children and attempting to support their learning. Some had the support of a school. Others used that time to completely go the home school route. Everyone had to figure it out no matter the path that was chosen.

Now, many are returning to face to face instruction. Some of our friends have already returned or did not leave at all. But my family left structured instruction at school in March of 2020 and did not look back. Well, we looked back a little. Well, maybe a lot.

Change is not always easy and when it involves people other than just yourself, it can be very difficult. What can be done to ease everyone’s anxiety with life changes? 

Planning! I will return to planning over and over as this can be a life saver for you in all aspects of your professional and home life. In order to find your flourish, you have to take control of the minutes of your day.

First, start with you. What is your daily plan? How do you plan to accomplish those tasks on your to do list for the day? What has to get done by the end of the week?

Then add your husband in. What is his schedule like for the day? What about for the week? How much will he be able to assist with the children? Meals? Other chores? Does he need you to complete any tasks for him? The answers to these questions may vary based on the day so it is important to check in every week and not assume. This Friday could be completely different from last Friday and it usually is.

Then what do your children have to do this week? What would they like to do? How do you have to assist them in accomplishing these tasks? 

During a pandemic, you may have even more tasks on your daily routine to complete because you have to keep the house running while working from home at times while assisting the children with their learning. We already know that the majority of women in professional fields had to stop going to work daily and figure it out with children at home from school. Is that fair? Nothing about a pandemic is fair. But everything about a pandemic is what you make it. I discovered that early.

So when planning your children’s day, make it about them. Yes, learning is necessary no matter their age, but what else can be done after all the work is done or in between the work getting done.

Here is a sample schedule that I used many days during the pandemic:

7:30 Me time- devotion, resting, news reading, work updates

8:30 Wake children

9:00 Prayer

9:15 Begin school work; schedule which subjects at what time for children to help the optimize their abilities

10:15 Breakfast break; some screen time if desired

11:00 Continue school work

12:30 Lunch

1:00 Outdoor activities

2:00 Nap for smaller children; older children continue work

3:00 Goal to be finished with work; varied completion time depending on grade level

4:00 Screen time

5:00 Reading or family activity

5:30 Bathing

6:30 Dinner

7:30 Family time

8:15 Bed time for smaller children

8:30 Older children some free time

10:00 Bed time

This schedule can be used even when the children return to school with some alterations. Or used on the weekends with more fun activities scheduled in. Also you can adjust some of the times based on your family dynamic as well as the age of your children. Having home school allowed us to really capitalize on what times each child learned best and also helped me be able to divide my time between them on more difficult subjects. 

Yes, it is a long day but it is worth it.

Throughout the day, there are times when we all come together to work as a unit or help one another with something that was hard. Another positive of home schooling. Everyone is so involved in each other’s learning and using a schedule helps children understand how to help you get your professional tasks accomplished as well.

The fun part comes in when you are scheduling in the specific learning components for the time blocks. Remember those playing school times when your were growing up. This is that moment except it is in real life now. What are the activities that will be used? How much can you assist with a subject based on what you already know? Will outside help be needed?

In between all those times and during those times, I plan Telehealth appointments, meetings, classes. Planning is essential!

You may not have a planner, but you have the means to create one if you have paper and a pen. You can even use your phone. It can be very basic like my schedule above on a piece of paper with a timeline on it. It can revised. And recycled for each day.

My husband has opinions of how days should run. Yes, I take his suggestions into consideration but I also have to make it work for me. I am here. Hearing what the children are dealing with daily. Seeing what is most difficult for them. Seeing what they enjoy. I am trying to get them to understand why they can’t binge watch some television series even if they finish work early. Some days there was some binge watching going on I admit it. Those were my self care days. I needed a break and it wasn’t the weekend. I could not keep driving the ship. 

Do this. Check that. Turn that in. 

I had to relax and let them do as they pleased within reason. They still learned. They did not fall behind. And I was more present during those more structured days.

A schedule allows your children to know what you expect of them and allows them to reach towards a standard you have set. It gives them something to strive for. I used sticky notes, calendars, planners, and dry erase boards to provide my children with visual schedules. Just like me, they enjoyed checking off their tasks. That sense of accomplishment is unmatched.

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Post a comment below with the word PLANNER if you are interested in a post about how to discover what type of planner you are and how to use your planner type to aid you in accomplishing all you have to do professionally and personally.

Also let me know if you already use a planner daily.