My kids have 2 days left on their spring break, but I received an email from their school stating that as a result of the Coronavirus Spring Break will be extended an extra week. My immediate thought was panic because it was challenging enough keeping both kids busy during the first week of spring break, now I am thinking about what to do for the next week and potentially the next couple of weeks. So I came up with a plan for the kids and myself.
Determine a Routine to Help You and Your Kids Get through the Extended Spring Break.
I have a 7 and a 4-year-old, to help maintain some sanity I created a routine for them. I created a routine that would support the extra week of Spring Break and additional weeks if they were to be away from school for a prolonged time.
Morning Routine
- Wake Up
- Make your Bed
- Brush Your Teeth
- Eat Breakfast
- Shower
- Free Play for an hour
- Morning Art
Afternoon Routine
- Snack Time
- Nap time
- 4 year old reads a Bob Book with Mommy or Grandma
- 7 year old reads one chapter of a chapter book
- Lunch time
- Free play time (we really enjoyed working on our 1000 piece puzzle during this free play time)
- 4 year old practices writing his numbers or letters
- 7 year old works on a math (we use Reflex Math or free math printable sheets from the web)
Evening Routine
- Snack Time
- Outside activity (walk, draw with chalk outside, play basketball or soccer in the backyard, I also purchased a bubble machine and several large bottles of bubbles for fun outside)
- Shower time (Bubble baths were especially helpful, they played in the water for a long time and I get to sit and read or clear my head or just take a breather)
- Dinner Time
- Brush teeth
- Family TV time
- Bed time (I read to them, or my 4 year old would read a Bob Book to us or my 7 year old would read a story book to us).
- Prayer
- Lights out.
This routine list was really helpful that first week of extended Spring Break but it was even more helpful when I received the email that school campus would be closed for additional 3 weeks and that I would have to Home-school my kids. We simply made adjustments to our lesson times and free play time to accommodate the school work and school activities. This was helpful because I already had the routine in place.
I hope this routine list brings you some help in structuring your day and those of your little ones. Share your routine with, I am sure it’ll help me to improve my list.
Happy Reading
Nikki
