Our quarantine days
I thought it might be interesting, either to future Hannah or current readers, for me to record what our pseudo-homeschool plus two parents working from home schedule looks like. Obviously this is all ideal and not every day pans out this way! But it's helped to have a general guideline for what our days are looking like, and I'm trying to find silver linings wherever we can.
Somehow I lost an earlier draft of this which was more verbose, UGH INTERNET, so forgive me if this isn't as good as it could have been. I can't recreate it perfectly so this is all I got.
7:00/8:00: depending on how well Felix sleeps the night before, we've been sleeping in a bit as a grace to ourselves and moseying out of bed somewhere between 7 and 8 a.m. David usually gets the girls up, gives them breakfast, and hops in the shower while I nurse Felix the first time and get them dressed. Then I hop in the shower and he checks his work email on his phone in the living room until I'm done getting ready for the day.
8:30: David heads downstairs to our non-conforming 4th bedroom which he's turned into an office, I make myself breakfast (eggs and homemade bread machine toast and coffee, every morning like clockwork), give Felix some breakfast, and supervise the girls play and keep Felix out of trouble until he's ready for a nap.
9:00/9:15: Felix goes down for his first nap, and we start our "school day" at the dining room table, me on my laptop, Kitty across the way with her books, pencils, and crayons, Cora next to me with anything I can distract her with (scissors, magnets, markers, whatever will buy me a little time). Kitty's kindergarten teacher has been sending materials for her students to do each day, which always includes a journal aspect. I start Kitty on that and work on my inbox and work tasks for 30-45 minutes.
10:00: We get on the iPad together while Kitty reads her daily book and does her phonics/language arts work they've assigned through an app, and then assorted papers or writing work. Then after that we either do one of the "suggested activities" for the rest of school time or we write mail/do art projects/watch the daily Mo Willems art tutorial/find a free coloring page or handwriting page to do, and while they're doing those I get to more work of my own.
10:45/11:00: Felix usually wakes up from his nap around then, and I either send the girls and Felix downstairs to the basement together to play or if he's cranky, I send the girls down and keep him upstairs with me. It's working surprisingly well to send them down together most days, which is great! Kitty is old enough to keep him out of trouble if I remind her, and 98% of the basement is baby-proofed, so he can't get into much trouble out of sight. Having bigger kids is a HUGE perk.
12:00: David comes upstairs from his office to have lunch and make the kids' lunch, while I either join them or I finish up some work on my laptop. He teaches Kitty her math at the same time (thank goodness I can hand that responsibility off, whew, math not my strong suit), and I also eat lunch or take a little break.
1:00/1:15: Cora and Felix usually nap at the same time around 1:00. Kitty either finishes up some school work, begs me for something else to do, has quiet time in our bedroom with some books, or plays downstairs or outside by herself. I usually still park myself at the dining room table so I don't have to shuffle back and forth from the basement so I can supervise and attempt to get Cora to fall asleep (most of the time unsuccessfully, tbh, which is TERRIBLE TIMING for her to drop a nap). If I successfully ignore stuff, I can get a good chunk of work in here.
3:00: The littles are usually done with nap around 3:00. Prior to social distancing, I was picking up Kitty from school every day around 3:15, so we're used to taking a break from stuff about now. Sometimes I let them loose around me while I work, sometimes we go outside, sometimes I send all three of them to the backyard while I work, it just depends on the day. We've been trying to stick to our no-screen-time rule during the school week, and it's going better than I anticipated (knock on wood). Switching activities and locations for play makes avoiding TV a lot easier.
4:00: David has been getting done with work most days around 4:00 (huge perk to working from home!). I've been trying to go on a 30 minute walk or do a workout in this stretch of time if I can, and it makes me a lot less crabby for the rest of the evening if I can swing it. Sometimes I have to keep working and that's okay -- David will take the kids outside if that's the case. Thank you Jesus it's been nice enough to do that!
5:00-7:15: Normal dinner/bedtime routine stuff here. Nothing super exciting or different from before.
In the evenings after the kids are down we've been doing the same things as we always do: watching TV, playing Breath of the Wild, catching up on work, reading, watching too many TikToks, working on puzzles.
How has your schedule changed since staying at home? How does your life look different? How does it feel the same? I wanna hear, friends.
Stay safe and home. <3
Somehow I lost an earlier draft of this which was more verbose, UGH INTERNET, so forgive me if this isn't as good as it could have been. I can't recreate it perfectly so this is all I got.
7:00/8:00: depending on how well Felix sleeps the night before, we've been sleeping in a bit as a grace to ourselves and moseying out of bed somewhere between 7 and 8 a.m. David usually gets the girls up, gives them breakfast, and hops in the shower while I nurse Felix the first time and get them dressed. Then I hop in the shower and he checks his work email on his phone in the living room until I'm done getting ready for the day.
8:30: David heads downstairs to our non-conforming 4th bedroom which he's turned into an office, I make myself breakfast (eggs and homemade bread machine toast and coffee, every morning like clockwork), give Felix some breakfast, and supervise the girls play and keep Felix out of trouble until he's ready for a nap.
9:00/9:15: Felix goes down for his first nap, and we start our "school day" at the dining room table, me on my laptop, Kitty across the way with her books, pencils, and crayons, Cora next to me with anything I can distract her with (scissors, magnets, markers, whatever will buy me a little time). Kitty's kindergarten teacher has been sending materials for her students to do each day, which always includes a journal aspect. I start Kitty on that and work on my inbox and work tasks for 30-45 minutes.
10:00: We get on the iPad together while Kitty reads her daily book and does her phonics/language arts work they've assigned through an app, and then assorted papers or writing work. Then after that we either do one of the "suggested activities" for the rest of school time or we write mail/do art projects/watch the daily Mo Willems art tutorial/find a free coloring page or handwriting page to do, and while they're doing those I get to more work of my own.
10:45/11:00: Felix usually wakes up from his nap around then, and I either send the girls and Felix downstairs to the basement together to play or if he's cranky, I send the girls down and keep him upstairs with me. It's working surprisingly well to send them down together most days, which is great! Kitty is old enough to keep him out of trouble if I remind her, and 98% of the basement is baby-proofed, so he can't get into much trouble out of sight. Having bigger kids is a HUGE perk.
12:00: David comes upstairs from his office to have lunch and make the kids' lunch, while I either join them or I finish up some work on my laptop. He teaches Kitty her math at the same time (thank goodness I can hand that responsibility off, whew, math not my strong suit), and I also eat lunch or take a little break.
1:00/1:15: Cora and Felix usually nap at the same time around 1:00. Kitty either finishes up some school work, begs me for something else to do, has quiet time in our bedroom with some books, or plays downstairs or outside by herself. I usually still park myself at the dining room table so I don't have to shuffle back and forth from the basement so I can supervise and attempt to get Cora to fall asleep (most of the time unsuccessfully, tbh, which is TERRIBLE TIMING for her to drop a nap). If I successfully ignore stuff, I can get a good chunk of work in here.
3:00: The littles are usually done with nap around 3:00. Prior to social distancing, I was picking up Kitty from school every day around 3:15, so we're used to taking a break from stuff about now. Sometimes I let them loose around me while I work, sometimes we go outside, sometimes I send all three of them to the backyard while I work, it just depends on the day. We've been trying to stick to our no-screen-time rule during the school week, and it's going better than I anticipated (knock on wood). Switching activities and locations for play makes avoiding TV a lot easier.
4:00: David has been getting done with work most days around 4:00 (huge perk to working from home!). I've been trying to go on a 30 minute walk or do a workout in this stretch of time if I can, and it makes me a lot less crabby for the rest of the evening if I can swing it. Sometimes I have to keep working and that's okay -- David will take the kids outside if that's the case. Thank you Jesus it's been nice enough to do that!
5:00-7:15: Normal dinner/bedtime routine stuff here. Nothing super exciting or different from before.
In the evenings after the kids are down we've been doing the same things as we always do: watching TV, playing Breath of the Wild, catching up on work, reading, watching too many TikToks, working on puzzles.
How has your schedule changed since staying at home? How does your life look different? How does it feel the same? I wanna hear, friends.
Stay safe and home. <3
This is such a great post idea. Our daily life here is the pretty much the same except that Mark is working 100% remote, which brings its own share of issues, ha! Lots of "Sh, Dad's on a call!" and "No, you can't show him your drawing/Lego creation/stuffed animal right now" going on around here now. Prayers for peace, good health and sanity for you and your family during this crazy time.
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