Stuck at Home

Our daily lives have been greatly changed this week. We have gone from trying to keep up with all the errands, work, transporting kids, and juggling schedules to a sudden halt. Maybe we can enjoy this forced staycation, but maybe some of you need ideas. Here are a few suggestions to get your family through the next few weeks.

  • Schedule your days. Remember, if you have school age kids they are used to having a scheduled day. Keeping some sort of block schedule will help keep a flow for the day and keep some sanity. Hang a weekly schedule and go over the schedule for the next day the night before.
  • Begin the habit of a family devotion time. https://www.challies.com/articles/why-we-fail-at-family-devotions/ Free devotional plans can be subscribed by email with organizations such as Compassion International: https://www.compassion.com/devotionals/family-devotions.htm
  • Schedule a quiet rest time each afternoon. Take an hour for yourself and have the kids keep to their beds to read, or write in a journal, or take a nap. Siesta!
  • Plan a project to complete and schedule 30 minutes to an hour each day to work together – Clean out that closet, clean the garage, scrapbook those photos, go through summer clothes, start a garden. So many projects are lingering at your house, tackle one with the kids. 
  • Have a 30 day challenge everyone tries to conquer. Try daily exercise or no sugar diet. Give something up for 30 days, this is also called fasting. 
  • Plan to meet with friends and family. In your daily schedule set aside a block of time to meet on facetime or skype or other online platform.
  • Keep limiting TV/computer/phone time, negative news time, gaming, etc. It is very easy to let the devices take over. We look at a device and just check on… Kids just as easily get caught up in their screen time as we do. 
  • Read through the classics – Remember reading aloud the Little House On the Prairie Books? Pick a classic book or series of books and begin a reading aloud time every day. 
  • Learn a new skill. This might take some equipment and most items needed for skills can be ordered on Amazon. (Sewing, knitting, drawing, painting, jewelry making, paracord wristbands, duct tape projects)
  • Plan an hour to continue schoolwork. You do not have to get fancy curriculum or spend loads of money. When my kids were little every summer I would purchase workbooks for the kids to do at home. Try https://amzn.to/3bh2FOJ or https://amzn.to/33FtsBV or https://amzn.to/3dfpdBk for ideas.
  • Put together a 1,000 piece or larger puzzle.

You can also Google for creative ideas, examples:  ‘staycation with kids’ or ‘old fashioned games to learn’.