by Brooke Forry

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We knew it was coming, but that didn’t make it any easier to hear last week’s official announcement that Pennsylvania schools will remain closed through the end of this school year.

In the first few weeks of social isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not have a very structured schedule in my house — we were still coming to terms with what was going on. (And, okay: panicking quite a bit.) I was mourning our regular routine, canceled spring break plans, our friends, walks to school, fitness classes, our bustling downtown, and fun-filled afternoons at the playground the most, and I felt a lot of fear as I followed the news. Creating a schedule was not even something I could wrap my head around at first.

After those first two weeks, distance learning officially began in our school district, and reality set in that we are in this for the long haul.

I have a son in first grade and a daughter in preschool, so while I’m grateful to only be managing distance learning for one school-aged child, keeping my daughter entertained while my son needs to complete school work is its own sort of challenge. Not to mention that my husband is working from home and on calls nearly 8 hours a day, and I’m trying to stay on top of my own business while surrounded by 3 other people at all times.

We have about 13 hours to fill each day, from the kids’ wake-up to bedtime.

No two days are ever the same, but as we’ve found a bit more rhythm, having a loose weekday schedule has helped a lot… especially on the harder days when emotions are high, the weather is miserable, or we miss our friends, family, and teachers even more than usual.

After a few weeks of fine-tuning how our days were taking shape and what was working best for us, I laid out and printed the schedule below, “laminated” it with clear packaging tape (my favorite life-hack of the moment), and put it on the fridge so we can check things off with a dry erase marker as we go through our day. (My kids love checking things off. They’re definitely mine.)

Some days, we forget to check anything off, but stay pretty close to the schedule; other days, we don’t follow the schedule much at all if the kids are playing well together and school work can wait until mid-afternoon. But on the days when we’re all a little stir crazy, emotional, or desperate for structure when we have already exhausted several activities and it’s only 9am… to the schedule we go.

SOME THINGS I KEPT IN MIND AFTER SEEING HOW OUR FIRST FEW WEEKS WENT:

• Enjoy slow mornings: our kids are usually awake by 7am and play really well together in the morning, so we are in no hurry to start tackling school work. Mornings are for playing, breakfast, and more playing while everyone is getting along.

• Carve out time for non-negotiable self-care: mine is time to do a streaming workout, every weekday (while the kids get a TV break in another room). This 45 minutes of uninterrupted exercise time helps to boost endorphins and ease my anxiety.

• Set aside two chunks of time for school: my first-grader’s school work can usually be completed in an hour, but sometimes things can get a little… contentious if we try to do it all at once. On those days, we break for lunch and revisit any remaining assignments later in the day.

• Designate snack and meal times, and pre-pack commonly requested snacks: while some days still turn into Snackapalooza despite my best efforts, pre-packing some snacks in containers each morning (as I did when they went to school) and putting them within reach has helped to curb the every-ten-minutes snack requests. It also gives my kids more independence. Win-win!

• Stick to a regular bedtime routine: we’ve always been pretty consistent with bedtime, and this situation is no different. Our kids are in bed by 8:00 every night. This is both for their benefit (sleep, yay!) and ours: we need time to decompress each day, and Tiger King certainly isn’t going to watch itself.

While our schedule and structure helps immensely, there are also a few things we’ve become much more relaxed about:

• Getting dressed: honestly, some days you just want to stay in your pajamas. If the kids don’t want to get dressed and there is nowhere to go, pajama day can be every day, as far as I’m concerned.

• Screen time: don’t let the schedule fool you — there are plenty of evenings we throw the “no screens” rule out the window and snuggle up on the couch to watch Kids Baking Championship together before bedtime. Some days are long and hard, so whatever gets you through the day: do that.

These are the things that work for us, but every family is different. Find what works for you and evaluate the rhythm of your days, and use that as a jumping off point. I’m a big proponent of structure, but staying flexible and open to change is key for taking each day as it comes.

If you need a little help creating your own schedule, enter your name and email address below to download our free printable template.

Follow the link that will appear below after you submit your info, then download, print, and write in the schedule that works best for your family. If you’d like to reuse the schedule each week but don’t have a laminator handy, use clear packaging tape as a lamination substitute and use a dry erase marker to check off times and tasks throughout the day. Or, laminate while it’s still blank and customize it each day with a dry erase marker!

Hang in there, friends — we’re all in this together.