My fiance has two incredible daughters that I get to claim as my own. We have them for 1 week at a time every other week. I am no expert and can only speak for what we have personally experienced during these interesting and different times in our own household.
I have always ran a fairly tight ship. So scheduling, timers, and structure is no strange thing to our girls. We have a few deadlines that we maintain in order to keep us feeling as human and accomplished as possible especially when it is so easy to lounge in PJs all day and not shower often! We have the 10AM wake up time. No one is able to sleep past 10AM on a weekday. Usually only the teenager will sleep in this late anyway. I can only assume she has been experiencing growth spurts lately! The first thing we do is eat breakfast and brush teeth of course. Then right away we will move into school work. Our girls are 12 and 14 so they're pretty independent with distance learning so long as we ensure they log in they do just fine getting the work done. There was a short adjustment period for our youngest when we weren't aware of a particular website she was supposed to be completing work on and none of us had any idea what it was including her. Once we worked out all the kinks we only had to check in with her and be sure she completed all of the different websites' assignments.
We are by no means a perfect family. We missed many of our youngest's zoom meetings with her class, usually because it completely skipped our mind. We finally had to set a reminder on Alexa to let her know to log in because sometimes I was in school or at work when she needed to log in and I couldn't help remind her. My fiance was also adjusting to working from home and would always be using the computer when she was supposed to be logging in. Sometimes there were technical difficulties that prevented her from attending those meetings too! One week she was at her mom's and I had to facetime with mom and hold the camera up to the computer so she could still attend because zoom changed the login process and she was going to be late by time they figured it out. Obviously we have all had to learn many new skills over the past few months, but hopefully we've all worked out the kinks and this fall will run a little more smoothly!
Once the schoolwork is turned in online we only had to ensure the girls would read at least 30 minutes a day. To me this is the most important part of school. We rotate between screen time and off screen time even when it is summer break. It is a habit the girls started about 4 years ago and they understand and like the rule because they know they can earn screen time so long as they spend time off of them first. Usually our youngest will choose to read in her off screen time which is great!
The next goal at our house is to be dressed by noon. PJs are great, but we were not meant to lounge all day every day. Even if we are not going out in public I am a strong advocate of putting on clothes, brushing our hair, and of course maintaining good hygiene. It definitely helps keep our spirits high. If the weather is nice I request the girls get outside for some sort of activity even if it is only for 15 minutes. Sometimes they enjoy sidewalk chalk, badminton, walks, bike rides, or hide and seek. More recently I have been blessed to have some time off work and be able to take the girls to the bike trail in the valley and we really enjoy riding our bikes to Scholz Farm, saying hi to the goats, and supporting a small family farm. When we can we will all go to the new shopping center at Point Ruston. The girls really enjoy when all four of us can go and rent the surrey bike. It serves as a great workout for all of us as well!
I volunteer a lot as Miss Pierce County for America and I try to get my family involved as often as possible. Lately food banks have been in desperate need of volunteers. There are often age limits for these volunteers though so it is a little harder to find opportunities right now for little's to be involved in helping out. I was so lucky to take our 14 year old to the food bank though and show her what it is like and she was able to help pack soap bars for food boxes to be donated. It is a wonderful time to not only give back to our community, but to bond with one another too. Not to mention all of the other incredible volunteers you meet while you are there! I highly recommend finding a place to volunteer with your kiddos. It is a great reason to get out of the house and it leaves you feeling great and the people you help will benefit greatly as well!
I have created a database with local volunteer opportunities available for youth. All of these opportunities can be googled, but when I was looking for places that allowed children to come along the task of sifting through all these places was daunting to find some that allowed the right age range to attend. I also know that a lot more people would go volunteer if they did not have to hire child care for their few hours of volunteering. I plan to keep this list growing and always welcome new information. If there are any opportunities you can share with me I will be happy to add it! Here are the local opportunities I have found so far: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1U9XCjdXeL-W8EMRpT0Ay7abO85WK58eA9wjeVOOO5lQ/edit?usp=sharing
Thanks for allowing me to share my tips and tricks for surviving these interesting and sometimes challenging times! While the weather is nice I highly recommend getting outside and enjoying it as much as possible! Remember, self care before caring for others just like on the airplane! We must secure our own oxygen first before helping others. I encourage all of you to hang in there and know that everyone needs help sometimes. Know that it is ok, know when to ask for help, and pay it forward when possible. Community involvement will make upcoming challenges more manageable. After all, it takes a village!
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