How to Organize Our Routines and School Work During Lockdown
Because of the current home confinement in many countries, as part of measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic, most children aren’t currently going to school. As parents, we need to organize our routines and theirs in order to avoid chaos at home.
Right now, as parents, we’ve really got our hands full. In addition to teleworking (where applicable) and doing housework, we also have to act as teachers for our children so that they don’t lose the rhythm of their school work.
All this means a lot of work for all of us, and the main thing now is that we plan our time well. How can we organize our routines to avoid chaos? Here are some ideas.
How can we organize our routines?
Given this difficult situation that we’re living in, it’s advisable to plan out every day that we’re going to be at home. We need to establish routines that will help us all feel more secure and make it easier for the children to adapt to these changes. Here’s some advice to help you get organized:
- Create a schedule for your routines.
- Make the schedule together with your children; they can also participate and make decisions with us.
- You can make this schedule on a piece of paper or card and let the children decorate it to make it colorful and fun.
- Place it somewhere visible so everyone can see it.
- You can organize things on a daily basis and choose all the different activities, depending on how many you want.
- Personalize the schedule depending on the family routine: times for getting up, eating, having a bath etc.
Ideas to help organize our routines
Getting the kids up and in bed at a reasonable hour
The fact that there’s no school shouldn’t mean that children spend the whole morning in bed and then go to bed very late. It’s important to keep to the schedule they had before the lockdown started. That way, when they have to go back to school, it won’t be so hard for them to get up early again.
Keep the same rules as before
It’s true that we’re all spending more time in the house together. You’ve probably already gone through stressful times, and there may still be more to come.
However, it’s important to make it clear what rules should govern our day-to-day lives at home, so that the children are clear about what they can and can’t do. For example, no excessive use of electronic devices every day – we must limit this.
Keep a check on school work and study together
Most parents will have received some guidelines from their children’s teachers to follow at home and work on together. This may either be material to work on or websites to use to find what the children need to study, in order to continue learning.
Set aside time every day to sit down with your children and help them study and review their material so they don’t get behind in their school work.
Set aside times for reading
Depending on your children’s level of education, you can provide them with some interesting books and, in the case of younger children, you can read to them yourself.
If your child is just starting to learn to read, then get them to practice reading simple stories adapted to their level.
Time for crafts and experiments
Crafts and experiments, besides being really fun, will also encourage their creativity. That’s why it’s important to set aside some time every day for these activities.
You can have a look on the internet for ideas – there are thousands of them. Just make sure to choose ones that are adapted to your child’s age. We’re sure that both you and your children will have great fun doing them!
Time to play
It’s important that we play with our children, as they still can’t play with their friends. Spend time with them playing board games or any other game they have in their room. You’ll have a great time!
Watching movies or videos
It’s also a great idea to have a home movie session from time to time. There are many beautiful films that convey really positive values to children. During the days of home confinement there’s a time for everything, and this is another great activity to do as a family.
All these activities don’t have to be carried out on the same day. It’s important to make out a schedule and organize our routines day by day. Your children can help you and you can distribute the activities throughout the week, and agree on when to do them. Of course, there has to be time set aside to do school work every day, as if they were still going to school.
During this time of lockdown, it’s important that we organize our routines and plan things well so that we don’t have a chaotic family life. In this way, everyone will be prepared to work together and come out of this time stronger.
