Tips for Teaching @ Home + Our Learning Schedule
I’m sharing our home learning schedule for the next few weeks and a few general tips on this post to help you plan for your family during this time of quarantine. For my children specifically, I know that they thrive on structure. Starting the week without a plan is not an option for us, so I threw together what was in my head and I’ll try it this week. If/when I make changes, I’ll share on my Instagram stories so stay tuned to those.
A few tips:
As a former teacher, I want to offer a few tips if you haven’t ever taught children, especially your own.
- Dedicate a space. kids need a separate space that is free of clutter and distraction to work. This can be a folding table and chair, a bean bag with a clipboard, a floor pillow and the coffee table, or a desk in their room. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but keep it neat. The more easily distracted your child gets, the more structured their environment needs to be. It’ll minimize frustration for both of you!
- Make a work sandwich! This simply means to sandwich a short time of work with a short time of play or reward. I recommend no more than 10 minutes of work for Pre-K, then a 5 minute brain break. Add 5 minutes of work time as the grade increases (e.g. 15 for K, 20 for 1st, 25 for 2nd, 30 for 3rd and up) I wouldn’t expect any elementary child to sit and work for more than 30 minutes without a short break. I’ll give some brain break examples on a separate post.
- Stay on schedule. Don’t be crazy and don’t let it stress you out, but try to stay on a predictable schedule. I’m including our schedule in this post. I’ll include curriculum ideas including PE/recess, brain breaks, activities, lunch/snack ideas on a separate post.
Our Tentative Schedule
8:00 Breakfast I don’t plan to wake the kids at a certain time, but I will wake them for breakfast at 8:00 if they aren’t already up, also we plan to stick to our breakfast menu Monday through Thursday.
8:30 Dressed The kids will get dressed in play clothes each day. I know I am more productive when I change out of pajamas, so I’m assuming the same will be true for them. I feel like it will help them to get into a good mindset.
9:00 Schoolwork This part will be totally specific to your child. I’ll share ideas on a different post, but this time will consist of discussion, probably a simple activity or two, a brain break or two and independent work (worksheet).
10:00 Snack These snacks will be decided on the night before (just like we do now) and will be laid out after breakfast.
10:15 Schoolwork continued
11:00 PE/Recess At this point it would be easy for me to banish the kids to the outside to “play”, but the truth is, with a little effort from me, I predict it will become our favorite part of the day. I plan to choose 4 or 5 activities and just rotate through them each day. I’ll include my ideas on a separate post.
12:00 Lunch Lunch will be packed/prepared the night before (just like we down now) which will make it convenient and help keep the kitchen stay clean during the day. If I’m cleaning the kitchen and doing chores, we’ll get off schedule.
12:30 Quiet Time This will be when Daisy (our toddler) will lay down for nap and my big kids (8 and 4) will go to their rooms for quiet time. Clark usually reads and Penelope typically draws. I set a timer for 30 minutes. We do this in the summer, so they’re accustomed to it.
1:00 Arts & Crafts/Games Quiet activities will continue, but they’ll come downstairs and we’ll play together. I’ll get some ideas together in a separate post.
2:00 Snack These snacks will be decided on the night before (just like we do now) and will be laid out after lunch.
2:15 Done for the day!
As they’re working and having quiet time I’ll check over their work and make plans for the next day depending on how well they’re doing with the current skills being taught that day. Prepping things ahead will make the day run smoothly and help me keep my sanity!
I hope this little schedule helps when you’re planning your weeks ahead. Message me with any questions and be sure to follow along on stories for updates throughout the week.
Thanks for stopping by, Jamie xo
