Setting Up A Stuck at Home Schedule with Kids

If your family is anything like mine then this change to schooling at home is very different. It is a HUGE change and well not one that everyone will like.

I wanted to let you all know how we are dealing with this. And that I really want my girls to be apart of making this all happen.

I’m going to show you the steps we use and I’ll be updating this as we go through our time.

Setting Up A Stuck at Home Schedule with Kids - fun ways to make an at home schedule for activities, chores and school work - 3Dinosaurs.com

If you are new to all this you might need some help setting things up. I know that we are all struggling. All my school-themed printables and helps can be a help at this time.

I know there are tons of people talking about schedules and sharing schedules with other people.

And it is great to have these! I want you to see how we are setting up our schedule and blocking out our time. I wanted to show all the steps that we are taking for this.

It is never too late to restart and work on things.

Have a meeting with your kids

Why have a meeting with your kids? Well, they are stuck at home just as much as you are. This is a crazy time and they need to know we are thinking about them as well. They need to express their voice as much as we do.

We talked about that this is still school time and not a vacation. We need to work on some learning. We can’t just sit around at home for 3 weeks.

We wanted to make a schedule similar to what they already had at school.

We talked about what they were learning in school. What subjects and themes they were doing.

We also talked about what the school is providing right now. We have some online learning that kids can do.

We planned what they want to learn about right now.

You can see our meeting results below. Yup we all have a part in saying what we are learning about.

Letting kids plan some activities

You can see in our schedule we had some activities they wanted to do. A lot of these are with things we already have at home or could order online and easily get (While we can).

This helps them be a part of what we are learning. Plus it lets me know what things will interest them.

I know I tell them we should do an activity and it does not always happen. But now they know we have time and nothing else should matter.

I’m also letting this activity time be things they want to do or things they want us to learn about.

Our lists include things like:
– teaching mom Minecraft
– Learning to animate things
– LEGOs
– Sensory Bins
– gross motor
– and the list goes on

This will be unique to your family. But this should and can be great for family time. Plus this a list that should be updated weekly! They will have new things they want to do.

Things I want to make sure we have on our schedule

Each day there are some items I want to have on the schedule.

Gross motor – Yes this is so important! You need to keep active and your kids are used to moving around a lot more at school than at home. So get them moving.

Getting outside while we can.

Art projects that vary in how you do them.

Alone time. Yup alone time. We all need time during the day where we are not with everyone else. So I want to put that in our schedule.

We are using blocks of time

I love blocks of time. Why this? Because it gives a start and end time for kids. They have a schedule of classes and routines to keep up and this helps them keep their minds and bodies in order.

I have been flexible about going overtime or starting early. But it has helped my girls know just what we are doing.

Here are the basic times we are using:

7:00-7:15 Wake up/get dressed

7:15-8:00 Breakfast

8:00-9:00 Chores

9:00-9:30 Gross Motor & Snack

9:30-10:30 Morning Studies from school

10:30-11:00 Reading Time or DEAR

11:00-11:30 Lunch Time & Break

11:30-12:30 Afternoon Study Block

12:30-1:30 Afternoon Activity – Craft or special study

1:30-2:00 Get the Wiggles and snack

2:30-4:00 Craft and Activity time

4:00-5:00 Free Time

6:00-Night Dinner and Family time

I have two days but they are basically the same but we are changing up how we do it and when we do some things. There are two days to use and an option of one with checkboxes.

Doing chores

When the schedule was put out my girls groaned loudly at the chores section. And that it was an hour. I’m making chore lists for them. I have them color-coded to my girls’ favorite colors. Super simple and easy to just print.

Each of them gets a list of at least 10 chores. The idea is that they can do these ten chores any time during their chore time. They have one set chore to do every day. But the list is something they have to have done by Saturday. As they finish the chore they can check it off.

I’m also taking this time to teach new chores as well! This is a great time for everyone to learn something new.

You can see where to get this printable at the end of the post.

See how we used our Stuck At Home Schedule

Every morning we are meeting after gross motor for a bit to review the day. This gives them a chance to look over what we are having. I put our day in a sheet protector.

I write with a dry erase marker on the sheet protector any notes about the day. This lets them know what each of the study and activities is.

I can also have the extra activities done and make it easier to keep going with our day.