How To Stay Productive As A Working Mom While Homeschooling Kids During Quarantine
How To Stay Productive As A Working Mom While Homeschooling Kids During Quarantine:
Give yourselves a pat on the back, we made it this far! 🙂 As we head into week 4 or 5 (I think) of surviving life during our self-quarantine. If you feel like a newborn baby deer whose just learning how to wobble its way through life, you’re not alone!
We are finally just getting the hang of some this homeschooling routine happening within our family too. Though I have to admit, it is not an easy thing to do for any one of us to do right now much less try wrapping our minds around at this time. Staying productive with work while being stuck at home with your kids right now when there is a lot of fear and uncertainty in our futures can be such a tall order some days. But we are all trying our best to duck and dive and just roll with it right into our new normalcy anyway. And for that, I am proud of you. 😉
Here is a quick glimpse of how our family is learning to adapt to our new social-distancing while homeschooling lifestyle:
*If you are struggling with productivity too and need some sort of routine in your day with kids at home, here is a Free Printable Daily Routine For Your Kids to help all of you stay sane and stay on task to keep your day running more smoothly. Download your freebie here:
7AM: Get up, head to the bathroom, & answer nature’s call. Scrub & wash my hands & then my face. Floss, brush my teeth, & gurgle with mouthwash. Take my daily pill & vitamins. Apply facial moisturizer onto my forehead, ears, throat, & hands. Become one with Mrs. Potato Head and put on my game face aka apply the brows, lashes, lips. Get dressed in my favorite MOM uniform: leggings & comfy tunic because that’s how I roll. Then I tackle the birdnest & brush out my hair. And finally, the moment of truth, check my weight. I cross my fingers, push the on button with my big toe, give it a quick pep talk, step onto the scale with eyes closed. Hold my breath, slowly open my eyes to reveal the numbers on the scale and… Yes!
7:30AM: *Make a mental note to record my food, water, & movements via the free LoseIt! App throughout the day. Check my daily docket & planner to see what is on the agenda for the day. Prioritize must do, should do, & could do lists. Purged the unimportant, and delegate common tasks that I normally do for kids & hubby to help me do too.
Do a 15 minute workout (usually I prefer to watch a couple of Lucy Wyndham-Read/Tabata/HIIT/Yoga because they are short and sweet and they do not overwhelm me with lots of strenuous contortions).
*But since the kids are home now too, they would rather choose something that is a little more fun for them to do like: Cosmic Kids Yoga, PE with Joe, or The Avengers Workout videos on YouTube.
8AM: Start a load of laundry in the washer.
Prep breakfast for the kids, give kids chewy vitamins, & feed them (cereal, milk, & fruit/fruit & yogurt granola parfait)
Eat breakfast: 1 glass of water, 1 cup of hazelnut coffee with 1 tablespoon of Snickers Creamer, 1 handful of almonds, & 1 cup of mixed berries. (Add to the free LoseIt! App)
8:30AM: Switch load of laundry to dryer & start another load in the washer. Ask kids to help unload clean dishes from the dishwasher & put them away.
Get Kids started on their Distance-Learning Assignments:
Son: (Log into school’s online class platform for daily teacher’s updates, assignments, & class communications) Need to complete 2 Khan Academy Common Core Math Blitz Assignments, Critical Thinking Reading & Writing Worksheets, BrainPop Science Project: Building A Park, Social Studies Worksheet, Opinion Writing Assignment, 30 minutes of independent reading “The Unwanteds” + 30-minute audiobook via TumbleBooks.
Daughter: (Log into school’s online class platform for daily teacher’s updates, assignments, & class communications.) Need to complete 2 worksheets daily from this week’s packet of double-digit addition & subtraction problems, Daily Creative Writing Assignment Prompt, BrainPop Science Worksheet, Social Studies Worksheet, Khan Academy Math Assignments, GoNoodle Reading Assignments, 30 -minute independent reading via BookFlix. Watch & listen to her teacher read 1 chapter each day. Today’s reading will be Ch. 10 from Land of Stories Book 4.
9:30AM: Check in with extended family & friends to see how everyone is doing on food, supplies, health, meds, etc. My hubby’s grandma loves peanut butter but she cannot make it to the grocery store. So, I decided to make some care packages for her and some other family members who are stuck at home too. Thankfully, we still had quite a few supplies left from our monthly supplies or groceries online via Amazon Subscribe and Save that I keep in storage just in case of a storm here and there. Boy, am I glad I did because that come in handy! I grab a few cardboard boxes of various sizes to load up with wipes, sprays, cleaners, toilet paper, paper towels, hand sanitizers, shelf-stable foods: granola bars, snacks, dried fruit, crackers, nuts, chips, etc. Packed, weighed, & ordered shipping labels to be dropped off at USPS ground shipping.
10AM: Take the first load of laundry out of the dryer & into a laundry basket. Switch second load laundry from washer to dryer.
Checked in on kids to make sure they are on task. One child has headphones on to follow along with the digital assignments while the other child is working on a worksheet.
10:30AM: Fold first load of laundry. Checked in on kids to make sure they are on task. Switch off kid on headphones & Chromebook & put them on a worksheet assignment. Check over worksheets for mistakes. Explain any mistakes and ask kid to correct mistakes.
11AM: Checked in on kids to make sure they are on task. Sit with one kid to make sure they understand the assignment. Explain the task, provide an example, ask kid to show me their work. Practiced a few problems to make sure the lesson is understood.
11:30AM: Take second load of laundry out of dryer and into laundry basket. Checked in on kids to make sure they are on task. Sit with the other child to make sure they understand the assignment. Ask kid to retell a story in their own words, explain their thought process, and write it legibly in their school journal.
12PM: Fold second load of laundry. Lunch Time, put away school work, wash hands, prep lunch. We are keeping it super simple with PB & J sandwiches, side salad, sliced apples, & water.
12:30PM: Clean up kitchen and dining area, wipe down kitchen table, wash hands. Email teachers with feedback & survey, answered a call for community donations. Ask kids to put away 2 loads of clean laundry.
1PM: Head to post office to drop off online orders & also care packages to family members. Drop off packages at post office & head straight home.
1:30PM: Came home, check mailbox, wiped down door handles with spray cleaner & paper towel, make everyone wash hands with soap & water. Thawed out ground turkey for tonight’s dinner. Wash hands again with soap & water.
2PM: Quickly check email & tried to reply back to urgent requests. I figure this would be a fun way for us to start the week off right on a bright note with a sweet & cheerful treat. Have kids help bake & decorate vanilla confetti cupcakes with rainbow sprinkles for tonight’s dessert. Sat down with kids to finish up the rest of today’s assignments. Created a to-do plan for tomorrow’s agenda & assignments.
2:30PM: Hubby comes home from work. Yay! 🙂 Strips off hospital clothes, throws clothes into hamper in the laundry room, showers and changes to new clothes before entering the house. I decided to give him a much-needed haircut because it’s no accident that I call him my Yeti. (see pic below and it will become clear 🙂
3PM: Compare notes, lament & talk about our day. Answer kids’ questions about Corona Virus and how we are dealing with it together as a family, as a community, as a nation. Tell them about what is happening around the world and what they are learning about it in their school work. Assure them that, just like the song goes, it really is a small world afterall. Although there is a lot of craziness, confusion, & doom and gloom going around, we are indeed, all united in our fight against an invisible yet common enemy to all of humanity. So long as everyone keeps a positive attitude, be extra kind to all that we meet, and not give in to hate, we can get through this together.
3:30PM: Created, completed, & submitted a grocery shopping list online via Kroger. There is currently a 4-5 day delay to pick up groceries curbside.
4PM: Hang out as a family together and play a board game: Life. Our family’s favorite board game is usually Monopoly, but we have been playing it so much lately that it’s becoming repetitive. So we decided to give the game of Life a chance too (no pun intended).
4:30PM: Let kids run around and play outside to burn off some energy in the backyard within the fence line.
5PM: Grab another quick 15 minute workout round for Hubby & I (Tabata, HIIT, core, arms, or legs) just to decompress from the stresses of the day.
5:30PM: Gather everyone up to wash hands & get them all ready for dinner.
Prep dinner: 30 minutes
6PM: Dinner Time: We are keeping it super simple tonight as usual because I do not enjoy cooking complicated meals during busy weekdays. So tonight’s dinner is my Hubby’s Chili Mac Supreme, one of our family’s favorites.
7PM: Everyone helps with clean up: load the dishwasher with pots and pans, dishwasher safe items, wipe down table & chairs, sweep & mop floors. I handwash all the plastics and coffee mugs from earlier in the day that cannot go into the dishwasher and set them all aside to be air dried.
7:30PM: The kids have both earned 30 minutes each of screen time on their ipads for completing today’s chores & finished up today’s homework assignments. But only because they’ve done so without griping about it or making weird faces at us. We are usually pretty stern about this but we have both decided as parents to be extra sensitive right now since we are all in the same boat during this weird season. So this is how we have decided on spending our 30 minutes:
Son: MineCraft Game
Daughter: BrainChild show on Netflix
Hubby: Bang out on the drums
Me: Sales Training Course/Training Meeting, play catch up on work assignments. And for the record, these normally take way longer than 30 minutes for me. Since I was exhausted from the stress of all that’s been happening lately and homeschooling during the day, I totally lacked the energy and the focus that I would normally have during the day, by this time.
8PM: Baths & Shower Time & brush teeth for kids
8:30PM: Story Time for kids via storylinesonline.com
9PM: Bed Time for kids, Pick out clothes for tomorrow, have kids write down tomorrow’s plan/To-Do’s etc.
9:30PM: Baths & Shower Time for the Hubby & I, Pick out clothes for tomorrow, write down tomorrow’s agenda/To-Do’s etc.
10PM: Netflix & Chill with the Hubby over a glass of Peach Bellini & red wine while watching this week’s series: Mr. Robot
11PM-midnight: Bed Time
