It doesn’t matter what age you are, this Corona Virus Pandemic and the repercussions of shutdowns, self-isolating, and home quarantining are unprecedented.  Never have we had to readjust our lives so quickly and dramatically and learn how to survive and thrive during this covid-19 home quarantine.

Change is always easiest when we instigate it.  Buying and moving into a new home or having another baby are changes that we survive and thrive through because we want the benefits of a new home or we embrace the joy a new baby brings.  Both are difficult with lots of contradictions, but because we made the choice, we can deal with the stress of the difficulties better – the packing, unpacking, cleaning, decorating, or sleepless nights, poop explosions and baby’s complete takeover of our schedule, our day, and our lives.

So, if you’re finding that these times of covid-19 home quarantine or imposed homeschooling are difficult, you’re right, and you shouldn’t beat yourself up over finding it hard to stay positive, or not really knowing how to proceed.

Finding Positive Opportunities

When it feels like everything has just become exponentially more difficult, try to take a step back and look for opportunities.  There are always opportunities in every difficult situation.  They may be opportunities for us to adjust or change our mindset or reevaluate our values, schedules, activities, and commitments.

In this previous post, I spoke about embracing your time with the children.  If you have had a packed schedule with children in school, then in after school activities, and with more activities on the weekend, no doubt spending all this time with your children is stressful – for both you and the children. 

If you’re a mom who has been working outside the home and now needs to figure out childcare for your children, or how to work at home with the children, you will also have a stressful adjustment phase.

These first days of home isolation will not be easy.  Here are some suggestions to help reduce stress, give you some “quiet away time”, and ultimately enjoy your children.  I was home with my 7 children that we homeschooled, so I couldn’t have been more ‘with’ them on a constant basis.  There were days when I found it very difficult – I think that’s human nature.  There were days when they wanted to be in school and not at home – it didn’t offend me. 

Creating a Plan is the KEY to Success

But putting into place a prioritized schedule is absolutely the answer to surviving and thriving this covid-19 home quarantine.  Click here for a download to help you implement a schedule for you and your children.

Step 1 to Thrive During the Covid-19 Home Quarantine

Plan the Night Before

Look at what the next day might hold. Break down that day into 3 things you must do, and 3 things you should do and 3 things you’d like to do.

You won’t need to spend more than 5 minutes thinking about ‘tomorrow’.  But those will be 5 minutes well spent.  You’ll wake up the next day with a clear understanding of what you must do, what you should do, and after those are accomplished, what you would like to do.

Often, overwhelm comes simply because we don’t have a good grasp of what really needs to be done and how long it will take.  We always think activities we don’t particularly enjoy take longer than they actually take.  So, we procrastinate doing them, which only then makes them harder to do and does make them take longer to accomplish.

Here are some suggestions:

Must DO

• Help children with schoolwork
  • Make sure they know their assignments
  • Situate them so that they can work without distraction
  • Check to make sure work is done – give encouragement, incentives, or consequences
• Keep the home clean and orderly by attending to your pain points (10 min.) and DELEGATING to Children if Possible
  • What does “clean and orderly” look like for you?
    • Beds made
    • Main living areas picked up
    • Counters and tabletops of main area cleared and wiped off
    • Clean kitchen sink
• Take care of myself with some “down time”
  • Prayer, walk, hot bath, 20 min. power nap, read alone in my room, self-manicure

Should DO

• Speed clean a room for 15 min.
• 1 load of laundry, washed/dried/folded/put away
• Spend at least 20 min of quality time – eye to eye with my husband talking about the day with no interruptions from children.  Or, playing a quick game of cards or scrabble after the children have gone to bed.  Interacting, not just side-by-side existing is what fuels relationships.

Would like to DO

• Do a fun activity with the children (could just be 20 min.)
  • Teach them how to cook or bake
  • Take a walk with all of them – rain or shine, it gets you all out with fresh air!
  • Play board games
  • Teach them card games
  • Do a STEM activity

Obviously, these are just suggestions to get you thinking. Tweak them as you like with the values that are important for your family and situation.

Download the Daily Planner and write in your must do’s first, then should do’s, then would like to do’s using a time block method. 

Step 2 to Thrive During the Covid-19 Home Quarantine

Implement your plan by working through your must do’s first.  Then follow with the should do’s, and finally with the would like to do’s.

If you only accomplish your must do’s today, that’s ok!  You did what you must do.  At the beginning of this home quarantine, that may be your best day.  Celebrate!  Without a schedule, the odds are you wouldn’t have completed your must do’s.

As you progress day by day, you’ll notice that those must do’s become easier and you’re able to add in some should do’s.  Pretty quickly, you’ll get to those would like to do’s.

Step 3 to Thrive During the Covid-19 Home Quarantine

Find New Opportunities

As mentioned above, there are many opportunities that we can find and act on that we don’t normally have the time for.  It doesn’t have to be a lot of time – maybe 15-30 minutes.  But by the end of the home quarantine, you’d have made significant progress on one or more projects.  Breaking down projects into bite-sized daily actions is how you accomplish any large task.

• Spend time journaling about each child and memories you have of him/her
• Take out that sewing machine that you’ve never had time to figure out, and work through the owner’s manual teaching yourself how to sew.  No fabric?  Take an old piece of clothing or kitchen towel to practice on
• Create list of projects around the house, break them up into 15-20 min pieces and complete them one at a time
• Take the time to do a MAJOR declutter – room by room
• Spring cleaning
• Free You Tube workouts
• Turn the music UP and dance – The kids will love this -just make sure to set the rules that they can’t be crazy or they’ll have to sit out.
• Find a You Tube video, order the materials online, and learn a new skill:  knitting, painting, Cricut

Are you a Glass Half Empty or Half Full Person?

It really is essential to have a plan for the day.  If you’re a person who is naturally unstructured, you can put that unstructured plan into the day.  But if you wake up not knowing what you’re going to do from one minute to the next, you’ll do nothing except stress about all you have to do!

***Again, here’s a simple daily planner with blocks of time for you to fill in.

***The night before, think about your must do’s, should do’s, would like to do’s and write them on the schedule.

***The following day, set out to accomplish the must do tasks, and add in other tasks as time and desire warrants.

Stay well. Stay positive and focused on your beautiful children. Don’t let school demands take away from creating happy memories. Do the best you can and all will be well!

Take care!

Janet