You Don’t Have To Be A Homeschooler Right Now

My kids are off from school due to the Coronavirus through at least March 29th.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being longer than that.

For at least the next 15 days, we are unexpectedly off from school.

That’s a long time when you weren’t prepared. At all.

A lot of people are a little stressed out by this.

You may have seen this post (I have not been able to locate the source) circulating around Facebook, meant to ease peoples’ stress and provide them with a plan for the next couple weeks:

In theory, this is great.

It provides tons of structure and direction.

But here is what many people don’t realize.

This schedule is a lot of work for anyone who wants to follow it.

A LOT OF WORK.

If your kids are used to snow days and vacations that are relatively unstructured, then this will be a pretty big deviation from standard procedure for them.

And that means you are going to have to be “on” for the entire day.

If you have never done anything like this in the past and you think you are going to start on Monday and your kids are just gonna sign on and 100% buy into this, I think you are going to be really disappointed.

Even if you are, or were, a teacher.

There will probably be some initial excitement over this.

That will last approximately one day.

Just like your New Year’s Day resolutions, once the novelty wears off, so will the desire to follow this schedule.

Then you’ll very likely find yourself in a policing and nagging scenario all day long.

Going for a walk for an hour each morning is a pretty big departure from the normal routine at most houses.

I don’t know many grown ups who are willing to walk for an hour every morning.

I think it’s a great idea and definitely something to work toward, but I coach women every day who are trying to establish exercise as a habit, and just about zero of them start out with an hour walk every day. 

And they definitely don’t do it with their kids.

Do I think exercise is great? Yes. Do I think an hour a morning without major protest is realistic?

Not really.

Next is an hour of academic time. Without electronics.

That’s a large block of time.

Even for a fifth grader.

That will require all your attention. Or most of it.

If you are prepared to give it, that’s great. But if you think you are going to have a free hour to get shit done while your kids blissfully work on flashcards and Sudoku books, I think you are going to be disappointed again.

One hour of creative time is also a pretty big block of time.

If you are planning to have activities prepared for each day, then yes, a daily craft hour is great. But most kids kids aren’t going to occupy themselves with a craft for a full hour for the next 10 weekdays.

Let’s skip to chore time.

Chore time is great if your kids are regularly doing chores.

If your kids are not regularly doing chores, then this block of time will require training so the kids know what to do.

Also, by this time of day, after an hour of exercise and an hour of academic time and an hour of creative time, and zero technology, your kids are going to be a little bit worn out.

So are you.

And when it’s time for them to do chores, for an hour, there will be protests.

I’m not saying your kids shouldn’t be expected to do chores. 

I mean, I have an entire online course that teaches you how to get your kids to be more helpful without totally losing your fucking mind. I’m all about requiring your kids to contribute at home.

But that takes training and time and patience.

Which means you are a part of that process and time block.

Next is 90 minutes of quiet time.

90 minutes of quiet time sounds wonderful.

It also sounds a little unreasonable.

By 2:30 your kids will have put in pretty much an entire school day and they will have used technology for zero minutes.

That would be amazing. And awesome.

But I think for most people it’s unrealstic.

Unless you normally have a no technology rule in effect on weekends and vacations and days off from school.

This amount of quiet time will require lots of direction and guidance by you.

You will not get 90 minutes of uninterrupted quiet time. Not by that time of day.

Unless your kids still take a nap. Then you are probably in luck.

Then there is more afternoon fresh air time which is great but will very likely require considerable direction, at least initially, and then you get to…

Dinner!

When will you be making this dinner?

During quiet time?

During outdoor afternoon fresh air time?

That is a pretty imperative detail you need to know.

And that is a full and busy day.

A really full day. 

That requires lots of time, energy, and focus on your end.

If you are prepared to give it, I think it’s great!

But if you think you’re gonna write this down for your kids and just tell them what the new activity is at the top of every hour and then they transition and get right to the task at hand, I think you are gonna be a little frustrated.

Also, you don’t have to do this.

It’s okay to let your kids decompress a little bit. 

For us, it’s been a long winter with no snow days. So those breaks we usually get sporadically throughout the winter haven’t happened.

And this past week has been pretty fucked up, hasn’t it?

It’s okay to just want to chill.

I do think some structure will be helpful over the next couple weeks.

But maybe instead of imposing a regimented schedule on your kids, a schedule that will require quite a bit of work from you, maybe you work on some of that stuff you don’t get to focus on when the kids are in school.

Maybe you just pick one thing.

Maybe you schedule an hour or an afternoon or a whole day of one-on-one time with each of your kids over the next two weeks and you commit to that schedule.

Maybe you just focus on making sure you spend more time outdoors together as a family.

Maybe you try to establish exercise as a habit with your kids.

Maybe you pick a room in the house that’s a total disaster and work on decluttering and organizing it together as a family.

Maybe you teach your kids how to cook a couple meals.

Maybe you teach them how to sew or how to use the washer/dryer/dishwasher/lawnmower/whatever if they don’t already know how to do it.

The things I want to do?

I want to read some chapter books with my kids. I want to schedule read aloud time every day.

I also want to reorganize the upstairs playroom with them. 

I want to get garden beds prepped outside.

I have an unopened jigsaw puzzle I’d love for all of us to work on. And complete.

There are a whole bunch of card games I really want to teach my kids how to play.

I’d like to have a designated technology/screen-free time every day.

I’d love to have each kid be responsible for making breakfast or lunch or dinner at least once over the next two weeks.

The garage needs to be reorganized. We could do that.

I have tons of pictures to organize and get into albums, both actual photo albums and digital ones.

Will we get to all of those things?

I don’t think so.

But I hope to get to some of them.

There will be some structure over the next two weeks. 

But there won’t be an hourly schedule.

I don’t need that pressure. Or that work.

And I really don’t think that’s what my kids need, either.