No-Fuss Corona Virus Schedule

Kids are home due to the Covid-19 Virus. You’re feeling ALL out of wack because you’re not prepared or ready for ALL of this family time. How do you handle all of this while keeping your family happy (and your mind intact).

That’s right — I’m looking at you no playdates. This is going to be REALLY different for most families(psst, be sure to take care of yourself while surrounded with kids!).

I actually did a whole podcast about how I’m feeling about Corona and how we’re working to thrive even when things are hard. Listen to it here:

We all know that kids (and moms) thrive on routine — but how do you set one up that works for all of you? A lot of moms are going to need to fit in some work from home time (me too!) — what’s a gal to do?

Here are a few steps for setting-up a routine that works for YOU!!!

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BTW, if routine is something you’re lacking — I have a whole course on them (save 10% with code PC10 right now) — I also have a 100% free parenting course that just might help you keep your cool:

Creating a Schedule During the Covid-19 Break

Step 1: Write Down What you’d like to get done

For us, my list looked like this:

• Get-up do regular household jobs eat
• I am unsure what our homework situation would look like, but I need to make some time to grow their brains
• Spring CLEANING (extra hands is a bonus in this area)
• Computer time (because I don’t want a mutiny)
• Outside time (it’s beautiful here in AZ)
• Playing games as a family
• Doing art
• Gaming time (again, no mutiny — and this game still connects kids in a safe way, which I like)
• Lunch
• Dinner (with a fair amount of dinner prep, as I’d like to get the kids REALLY involved with all this extra time)

Keep in mind that my kids range from age 10-16 so, your schedule will likely be different with smaller people (but also similar because kids need some things no matter the age)

BTW, if getting kids to pitch in at your house is tough, I just did a podcast on making it happen! You can listen to it here:

Step 2: Open a spreadsheet

You could also open a google doc file or something.

I just like all the squares, it makes it easy. AND, I have mine available for you guys if you’d like a peek — I can send it to you:

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Step #3: Put all those items in their own boxes

For us, I wanted to just go with hourly time slots, so I put things that would take an hour all together (for example: Get-up, clean room, eat breakfast and do jobs all land in the first hour of the day)

Step #4: List your times on the left

For us, my kids are HUUUUGE sleeper-in’ers, so I decided 8 am would be the time we get up — this also gives me a couple of hours to work before I should get them going.

I made the choice NOT to let teenagers sleep the entire day away — that could be up to you.

So, I made hourly marks from 8am to 9 pm’ish

Step #5: Drag and Drop the tasks into the boxes

For us, we had too many items to drag into all the time slots, so I eliminated a reading time, figuring we could do that during the grow your brain time (also my kids are huge readers, so that’s not a big concern for me).

Step #6 for Big Kids: Family Meeting

I then called a family meeting to review what was happening. I asked the kids for input, and they conceded that 8 am was plenty late to wake up (it’s 2 hours later than their school wake-up time).

We all agreed that a schedule was important, and I reminded them that I would make myself available during certain time with this schedule, but I’d be less available at other times (as I need to get work done) and they understood.

We also agreed that depending on what the school gives as far as learning/homework it may have to adjust.

Step #7: Print it Out

I then printed each kid a copy, and a copy to put on the fridge. It was easy peasy. 🙂

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I find the keys are:

1. Finding your priorities first, vs as you plot the day
2. Making sure people are on the same page
3. Remembering that this CAN be a GREAT time for your family with togetherness, but you need to balance it with kids having their own time
4. Allowing input from members of the family
5. Giving them things they really want (note all the computer time on mine).

I hope you found this helpful — I’d love to share more about getting on a routine with my course Family Routines – it’s really about simplifying to the priorities that are important to you, and then organizing your family in a way that gets. stuff. done. Sound good?

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