Since your kids have been at home, whether you’re homeschooling or distance learning, have you figured out a schedule? Is every day just a free-for-all? Obviously, you’re getting the schoolwork done, so you’re probably in some sort of routine by now. However, sometimes we overlook some of the most-needed items and forget what to include in the daily schedule. There are five essential items that need to be included in your daily schedule. If you’ve already incorporated them, great! If you’re still struggling, this is a good place to start. It’s a perfect time to get into a healthy routine before summer vacation begins!
It took me a long time to figure out what works best for our family, and as always, it’s ever-changing. One mistake I made was allowing my kids to sleep a little later if they were overly tired. I thought it would help my day go more smoothly if they got that extra sleep, but really it didn’t matter that much and all it did was put us behind. Once we’re behind, one of the essential things to include in a daily schedule has to be cut! Not good.
For us, an early start is best. Our kids are up by 6:30 each day, regardless of how late they were up. It’s best to just stay in the routine and go to bed a bit early if needed.
That being said, these are the five things we try to make sure we have in our schedules every day.
Five Essential Things to Include in Your Daily Schedule
- Chores—
Each child has a zone to clean or a job to complete before we start school. We rotate morning chores weekly. This teaches them that if they keep an area up daily, it’s not so much work. At lunchtime, they need to complete another chore. These rotate daily and includes making lunch. This way, each child learns to cook the basics and enough to serve a family.
- Devotions—
I cannot stress the importance of family devotions! Each morning, after chores and breakfast, we read the Bible for half an hour and end with prayer for the day. This is what works for us. It might look different for you and your family, but time spent in God’s Word is essential!
Sometimes, I am tempted to skip Bible time if we are pressed for time. (You know, when we used to have things on our calendar!) Believe me! There are better things to cut out of the schedule that won’t have as profound an effect on the overall smoothness of family dynamics.
The best thing about reading the Bible together is to see how excited my kids are each morning for Bible time. Just when I think they are not paying attention at all, one of them raises their hand to ask a question like…when my six-year-old raised her hand and asked, “What is a wayward wife?”
WARNING!! If you’re not very familiar with the Bible, you might be surprised that it’s not G-rated. I recommend reading to your children so you can skim when necessary.
- Exercise—
This one is right up there with devotions as far as importance—especially when living quarantine life. Send your kids for a quick bike ride; run around the house; or combine some family playtime with exercise and play tag with your kids in the backyard. Whatever you choose to do, make sure your kids get organized exercise time each day. If you don’t plan it, they will figure out a way to burn energy one way or the next!
Not only does it help your kids burn off excess energy, it also stimulates the brain. Feel-good hormones release, making your child happier and exercise increases the plasticity of the brain, which makes it easier to concentrate and remember things. (For more on how exercise affects the brain, read this article.
- Mealtime together—
As tempting as it may be to set your kids up to eat lunch while you clean up the kitchen, don’t! This is prime time to connect with your kids! Ask them questions! You don’t have to wait until dinner for this—If you are home with your children, sit down with them at lunchtime and connect!
Don’t know where to begin? Lunchtime questions: How is your day going so far? What has been your favorite part of the morning? What would you still like to do today?
Dinnertime questions: Our family loves to do “highlights.” Are you familiar with this? If not, it’s pretty simple. Each child takes a turn telling the family his “high” or best part of the day and then his “light”—or how he was a light for Christ today. Some families like to include “lows,” but when you’re home with your kids all day, chances are, you’ve heard about the lows—you’ve dealt with them all day! We don’t do “lows” because we don’t need to re-hash them.
Including “highlights” in our mealtime conversation helps us all to live more intentionally. Sharing our “lights” each day is the accountability we need to remember to be a light for Christ throughout our days.
- Family time—
Sometimes, in real life, the only family time you can get is when you’re gathered for a meal and that’s understandable. However, ideally, you should be getting in at least 20 minutes of family time either just talking, or doing some sort of activity together.
Last night, out of nowhere, one of my sons said, “There’s a lot of ups and downs with this quarantine.” I replied, “Oh yeah? Tell me more about that.” He said, “Well, we’ve been able to do so many more fun things as a family, so that’s one of the ups. But we haven’t been able to see cousins and friends. That’s one of the downs.”
Even though the downside is reality and it’s been hard for my kids, the upside was music to my ears! Because it was exactly what I’ve been working hard for—to make this time something to remember in a good way, instead of all the negative that is thrown at us each day.
But here’s the thing…life will resume (probably never as we knew it). Kids will go back to school and activities will start up again. So, how can we continue to get in that family time? This year, our sons had re-evaluated and chosen only the activities they really loved and it has been so much better for our family; however, even when each child chooses one or two things they really love, that’s still between 4 and 8 activities every week!
And I never thought a lot of it because I homeschool my kids so I get to have them all day—that’s more time with them than most parents get! But my husband doesn’t. He doesn’t get them all day. And it has been nice for all of us to have family time—not just mom and kids time.
So, that’s your challenge for the coming weeks. How can you continue to have family time after life goes back to whatever the new normal is? What will you cut out of your schedule to make that time and how will you include these things to your daily schedule? Even an hour to have dinner together makes a huge difference!
RElated: What Good Parents Do Daily
