Set a routine. It is important to establish consistency and keep kids on a structure like they are during a school day. For older children, have them collaborate with you as you create a schedule to allow for some influence on their day. It allows for predictability in the day, and children knowing what is expected of them is crucial to the well-being and peace of all in the family. Below is a schedule example. This can be used as a starting place for your family. Feel free to move things around or dedicate your time differently. What’s important is maintaining a routine that works for your family!
Example:
- 7:00 AM - Wake up, have breakfast
- 8:00 AM - Get dressed and start chores
- 9:00 AM - Begin work in designated workspace
- 10:15 AM - Snack break
- 10:30 AM - Daily prayer time
- 10:45 AM - Return to work in designated workspace
- 12:00 PM - Lunch as a family
- 1:00 PM - Exercise time outside (walk/bike ride, etc)
Focus on gratitude. With many feeling anxious and having to deal with a lot that is so unknown, having a grateful heart can mean a world of difference for your well-being and that of your family. Have your child write thank-you-notes to mail carriers, restaurant workers, grocery store employees, and members of the family. Or, start the day by finding 3 things to be grateful for, then end the day like that too. Talk about this with your child and share your gratitude with them.
- Ex. Parent: “Today I’m grateful for: breakfast, coffee, and hearing the birds chirping. What are you grateful for? Child: “Pajamas, the color yellow, and my dog Toby.”
Prayer. There is nothing more powerful than prayer, and prayer as a family is crucial during this time at home together. Make time. Take time. Add it to a daily routine. In addition to saying prayers you may know by rote, consider reading the Daily Readings from USCCB to read the Word together in prayer.
Play! For young children, older teens, and everyone in between, play is crucial. For older children that may mean down-time or free time to decompress, but for young children in elementary school this is so important for development. Playing together, but also playing independently helps support their creativity. As a parent, also take some time to think of ways you can “play”—not only with your children, but with your spouse or on your own. Make sure to come up with fun activities that are life-giving for you and your spouse: board games, a puzzle, baking, etc.
Pretend and make believe. “Boredom breeds creativity” I was once told, and I couldn’t agree more! When children are given a chance to imagine and pretend away from distractions and technology they will think up all kinds of incredible things. As a parent, you may need to guide or inspire some pretend or make-believe with prompts or guidelines until your kids seem ready to take-off on their own. Even giving your child a difficult or challenging task and saying, “figure it out” may help for older kids who need to problem-solve. But here are some ways to get started:
- (Independent time) Say, “Go pretend your room is a new planet and you need to build a spaceship to get back to Earth.”
- (Collaborative time) Say, “Let’s pretend the living room floor is lava and we have to get to your room and back.”
- (Collaborative time) Say, “We’re stranded on an island (the living room) for 4 hours, what do we need to bring with us to survive.”
- (Collaborative time) Say, “Let’s build a basketball arcade game from your bed. We’ll shoot basketballs, let them roll down, and keep shooting until the timer goes off - we’ll keep score!”
- (Independent time) Say, “Go make a puppet show with your stuffed animals about going to the circus or a day at the zoo.”
- (Independent time) Say, “Go build a rocketship/car/robot out of LEGO and without any sort of directions.”
Exercise. For children of all ages and adults too, exercise is so important. Although we must consider social distancing, getting outside and even just taking a walk is more crucial than ever as we are in our homes all day long. If you don’t have a yard to play in, try walking to the closest field or park to catch a ball or ride a bike around the neighborhood. If you cannot get outside, there is plenty to do inside. YouTube has workouts for children and adults, and there are workouts on Netflix and other streaming services to get you started.
Write letters. This is a nice thing to do at all ages and levels of writing abilities, young ones can draw pictures and write what they can, while older kids could tell someone all about their latest adventure at home. Write to grandparents, relatives, elderly folks in nursing homes, neighbors, and friends from school who are also at home. It’s amazing how good someone may feel receiving a note or letter, knowing your child was thinking of them.
Call someone, FaceTime, or video chat with someone. We are blessed in this digital age to have technology that can still keep us “together.” Calling friends, family, and loved ones, either on the phone or using a video chat application, maintains and strengthens our relationships with people we may not be able to see or visit right now.
Read a book. Have your child help you create a booklist of 50 or 100 books and see how many they can read, then have a fun prize like baking cookies together or extra down-time be the reward.
Activity pages made by teachers. For kids who are out of school altogether, look for materials online to keep kids up to speed on math skills, reading activities, and everything in between. With schools shut down, there is plenty out there to find!
Make your own studying tools. Don’t forget that anyone (including the student) can make flash cards for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division - as long as you have paper and something to write with! Some drills you could practice:
- Early grades: letter practice, fact practice, writing about something, make a journal, read picture books
- Middle grades: flash cards, creative writing stories, book reports, biography study, create a math game
- Upper grades: essays on current events, short stories, timeline projects of a period in history worth exploring/of interest
Fine motor development. Play with Play Doh (or make your own). Squeeze items with tweezers. Count and play with beads or buttons. Bake and roll out dough, ball up cookies, or knead pizza dough.
We are living in unprecedented times which can add to the stress level of family life. We invite you during this pandemic to see this as a blessed time to rekindle relationships within your families and communities through prayer, play, and creativity and hope these resources will prove fruitful for you as we continue to navigate this time.
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Krissy Pierno is a Pre-K teacher in the Archdiocese of Washington. She has a bachelor's degree from The Catholic University of America in Early Childhood Education and is certified by the District of Columbia to teach classes from Pre-K to 3rd grade.