My girls have loved being with their mama, but boy do they miss their teachers, friends, school and activities. They miss their everyday lives. Everything they have come to know has been pulled out from under them quickly and without warning. Our children are looking to us for stability during this unstable time.

I hope all of you are staying healthy and doing well. We are settling in to our new “normal”. Week one of homeschooling went quite well, we quickly found a nice routine that works for us. The teacher in me is coming out in full force and my girls certainly love to learn and love school.

Let’s take a moment and chat about this new role many of us unexpectedly took on this past week, homeschool teacher. I must admit for me it feels nice to be back teaching, even if it’s not in the traditional sense. However, I know for many of you this is foreign territory and may be a little scary. So, I thought I would share with you what we are doing to make homeschooling a little less demanding.

I’m not sure about you, but I have seen many posts portraying everyones homeschool schedules and I must admit it was quite intimidating, until I decided that’s just not for us. So, I came up with a plan and routine that would make us happy and help us thrive. Having a set schedule was just not something that I wanted to implement during this time, it’s not how we work best. I prefer to be able to give my girls choices or options, yet still get all of their work completed. Low and behold our homeschool checklists were created.

Each girl has a checklist (that we put into a plastic sleeve, so we could use dry erase markers) that they need to complete each day. They also have a weekly calendar of everything that needs to get finished my the end of the week. We put both of these together to figure out daily checklists.

Each morning we plan out what needs to be accomplished by the end of the day. We then formulate a plan that will work for everyone. This enables me to be able to help each daughter individually.

McKayla and McKenzie informed me I need to make sure I read with each of them by themselves and ask them questions about what they read. They told me their teacher does this and I must do it too. Oh my!!

We have found starting our day with science is best. It typically takes us the longest. This week we have been enjoying Mystery Science, this site has video to watch first then takes the kids through an activity with worksheets. There are different worksheets for their different grade levels.

Throughout the day the girls may or may not be working on the same subject, it all depends on who needs the computer and who needs my help. When you have multiple children this becomes a big factor. My older girls do love to help their younger sisters too.

All in all find what works best for you and your children. Everyone’s homeschooling day is going to be different, every child learns differently and every parent teaches differently. Own your style and live confidently. You know your child best!

Don’t forget you can learn a lot from playing games. Try to make learning fun as often as possible. Mimi came over and taught the girls Cribbage, so much math takes place during this game. It was a great way to play and learn. Thank you Mimi, we love you.

In addition to simply using our district’s virtual learning resources I have purchased workbooks for each child, per their request. Yes, my girls asked for new workbooks, so I bought each of them one in their next year grade level. We also like to utilize websites and apps. The girls love technology and it’s a great way to use it as a learning tool.

Some of our favorite websites:

• Mystery Science (Master Doug)
• Rivet Reading
• abcya.com
• abcmouse.com
• Epic
• YouTube
• GoNoodle

Adding in breaks throughout the day is so important.

My girls definitely love joining me during my Pure Barre workouts and I love to share my passion for health and fitness with them, it brings me so much joy.

We love adding in movement throughout our day. Since the weather has been fairly mild this past week we have been able to get outside a couple times each day which is always helpful to get the most out of our day. I also love to add in a yoga session as well as a quick cardio workout, this gives our minds and bodies a much needed break. This week the girls requested to do a couple kickboxing videos on YouTube, which was fun to do together.

We also make sure to incorporate brain breaks too. We do this by adding in puzzle manias, word searches, puzzles, etc.

Remember don’t overthink this process. Simply enjoy your kids and teach them a few things each and everyday. Try to keep your days lighthearted and fun. Once our children feel overwhelmed they will checkout which will make it much more difficult to get them to focus. Remember this is a scary time for them as well as us. The unknown is frightening, especially to our children. Let’s do out best to be our children’s safe place, their rock.

We are all adjusting. My goal is to make this as smooth as possible for my girls.

Yes, it’s been pajama day at school each and every day this week. No judging, please. Pj’s make us happy!

Ask me anything! I’m here to help.