I’ve been a blogger for five years and I’ve never seen parents panic more than I’ve seen in the last few weeks.
School closures have parents on edge and entrepreneurs are biting their nails waiting for normalcy and praying that their savings can sustain them during this pandemic.
Parents have been thrust into teaching their kids via home school during the quarantine. While anxiety is at an all-time high, it’s hard to see day by day when your vision is clouded by fear. Here are a few ways to help you cope and take a deep breath:
Start your own garden
When you grow your own food, you can have confidence in knowing where your food came from. How it was grown, what was used to grow it, and who handled it.
You don’t have to worry about braving the stores for fruits and veggies when you grow your own. And if you’re an outdoorsy person, you get a dose of Vitamin D while you do something you love!
Stay in touch with family and friends
Apps like Marco Polo and Zoom allow you to still see the people you love while you are practicing social distancing. If you’re an extrovert, it can be difficult to be shut off from daily interactions with people.
Limit your social media time
People are losing it online. They are sharing information without fact-checking. They are waving anxiety around in a desperate attempt to cope.
Being online can be a place that causes more anxiety if you are already experiencing anxiety due to the current state of affairs.
It’s okay to log off and give yourself time to breathe.
Take advantage of all the free entertainment available online
Home school during the quarantine doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun!
Instead of checking your Facebook account for updates that may not be accurate, use the Internet to access free group fitness, concerts, museum & zoo tours, and so much more!!
Let your tv or computer screen take you where you can’t go for now.
Use the resources your school/district is offering
By now, I’m sure you’ve seen a plethora of resources to help you navigate homeschooling with your child.
If you aren’t an educator, it can be overwhelming to know where to begin, even if your school is providing links and packages. Most teachers have provided a way to contact them, as well as offering office hours if you have questions.
Teachers entered the teaching profession to TEACH!
Don’t feel like you are bothering them by asking questions. They are concerned about their students and want to see them succeed, even if they are having to learn via distance learning.
Get creative with homeschool work
Is your kindergartener learning how to write their name? Get outside and have them write their name in dirt with a stick or in some chalk on the sidewalk.
Is your third grader struggling with multiplication? Use pretzel sticks to make groups to create a fun edible lesson.
Sitting at the kitchen table doing worksheets is boring. And if it’s not your thing, it makes the homeschooling last even more overwhelming.
Think back to some of the things your favorite teachers did in school. They use creativity and kept your attention. Learning doesn’t have to happen indoors and it doesn’t have to last all day. Think outside of the box! Home school during the quarantine doesn’t have to be labor-intensive and boring!
Catch up on housework
If you work outside of the home, balancing work, family, and home can be tricky. Sometimes it can be overwhelming juggling it all. Use this opportunity to catch up on some household projects that you were waiting on spring break to do.
Turn on some music and have a folding party. Get your little ones to learn to match and have them help match their socks. Housework doesn’t have to be boring. My kids love it when I blast music and dance around while doing things around the house. It makes a house feel like a home.
I work in an elementary school, so I make a practice of keeping up with laundry and wiping down surfaces. In my house, we try to keep toxic products out of our home, so I only need 1 product to clean every single surface, Thieves!! It helps our family stay above the wellness line.
Learn more about long term wellness
Wellness isn’t a choice you make once, rather a lifestyle.
When my husband became a farmer, his goal was to provide healthy, sustainable options for our local community. I remember him saying that he wanted to ensure that no matter what happened in the world, our family would never go hungry.
I admired his tenacity but scoffed a little at his thoughts about if something happened. His mission doesn’t seem so crazy anymore.
Wash yo hands
Listen, all the ‘rona’ talk has us paranoid about how long the virus can live on surfaces.
Now is the perfect opportunity to teach (and reteach) your kids how to wash their hands.
When our kids graduate from toddler years to adolescence, we assume that they’ve learned the basic skill of handwashing, but now is a good as time as any to reiterate it to your ENTIRE FAMILY.
Give yourself some grace
Home school during the quarantine is new for all of us. I’m a school counselor and preparing lessons for my kids was a little overwhelming for me too.
I’ve been in the field for over 12 years, but the new dynamic of our world makes homeschooling seem a bit daunting.
You won’t stick to the same schedule every day and that’s okay.
It’s okay to sleep in some days.
It’s okay that your kids miss their teacher.
It’s okay to miss work even though you are feeling guilty about not enjoying every second with your kids.
We have been thrust into quarantine, loss of some of our basic needs (i.e. toilet paper) and homeschooling all at once. Understand that defining your new normal won’t happen overnight.
And that’s okay too.
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