CoronaStayCay, Spring Break Edition (March 16-20, 2020)

My goal for my kids' spring break, which was also our first week of everyone staying at home due to the Coronavirus (which I have now dubbed "CoronaStayCay") was to balance fun and freedom with a little structure.  I wrote a schedule over the weekend for Monday.  I didn't think it was overly ambitious and I tried to make sure that we had lots of time for each activity, whether it was an extended breakfast or more time to get ready.  I set times, but I wasn't holding the kids to them rigidly.  Having a schedule is also good for me, because I do much better having a plan, even if I end up changing it.  Without a plan, I end up spending a lot of time on my computer or phone, instead of doing the things that I actually want to do, and the kids will retreat to their corners and spend time on screens, waiting for something to happen.  When they were younger, they would spend hours playing, but now that they're older, they seem to have forgotten how to do that.  Eventually, I'd like to get them to a point where they choose to engage in more productive activities and plan their own days, but this is the first step.  

This was my first draft for Day 1:

6:30 Wake time Eat Breakfast Get dressed

7:00 Mom - Online Barre Class, bike, yoga, or run after (weather) Kids - Finish breakfast and dressing Kids - Chore: Put clothes away and help sort laundry

8:00: Mom - Shower & Finish sorting Laundry Kids - Read and/or Creative Activity

9:00: Check in and Plan the day

9:30:  Mom/Logan: One on one time RJ: Independent time (no YouTube, Shows, or video games)

10:30:  Mom/RJ:  One on one time Logan: Independent time (no YouTube, Shows, or Video Games)

11:30: Mom/Kids Fun Project/Play

12:30: Make and Eat Lunch/TV time

1:30: Productivity time Mom - Sew RJ - Logan -

3:30:  Free Time

5:30:  Dad/RJ Exercise

6:00:  Mom: Make Dinner RJ/Logan: Empty Dishwasher RJ/Logan: Help make dinner or do something creative - no screens

7:00:  All: Dinner/TV

8:00: All: Clean up from Dinner/Shower

8:30:  Family Reading time

9:30: Bedtime

In reality, the kids didn't wake up until I finally woke them up at 8:30, because I was busy doing my own stuff and it was nice to have quiet time!

Then, by 9:00, RJ was in the shower and Logan was getting dressed and putting his basket of clothes away. When that was finished Logan and I started the chore of sorting the dirty laundry. It wasn't until 9:30 that I realized that they didn't get breakfast like they were told.

So, I make sure they ate breakfast and had a brief morning meeting to plan what they were going to insert into their time blocks.


Our morning schedule was modified so that each kid had an hour of time with me and then we had lunch. We skipped the time with both of them so we could stick to the rest of the schedule.


For the rest of the week, we loosely followed the modified schedule below (which was adjusted based on Monday's reality, but the times got shifted around depending on when the kids actually woke up and what time I had vFit classes (which, by the way, if you are a busy parent, this is a phenomenal live but virtual fitness studio that has lots of different formats and times!)

5:45 Mom:  Wake time Eat Breakfast Get dressed

6:00 Mom - Online Exercise class [Do Not Disturb - this is a LIVE online class]

6:30 Kids - Eat breakfast and Get Dressed

7:00: Mom - Shower Kids - Read and/or Creative Activity (no screen time unless approved)

7:30: Chore: Fold Laundry Kids: Socks

8:00:  All: Check in and Plan Free Times, etc.

8:30:  Mom/Logan:  One on one time:  RJ:  Independent time (no YouTube, Shows, sleeping, or video games): [Insert what you want to do here.  See ideas below.]

9:30:  Mom/RJ:  One on one time: [Insert what you want to do here.  See ideas below.] Logan:  Independent time (no YouTube, Shows, or Video Games: [Insert what you want to do here.  See ideas below.]

10:30:  Mom/Kids Fun Project/Play: Science Kit - Globe, etc.

12:30:  Make and Eat Lunch/TV time

1:30:  Productivity time Mom: Data Backup, Sewing RJ: [Insert what you want to do here.  See ideas below.] Logan: [Insert what you want to do here.  See ideas below.]

3:30:  All: Free Time

5:30:  Dad/RJ Exercise

6:00:  Mom: Make Dinner RJ/Logan: Empty Dishwasher RJ/Logan: Help make dinner or Creative Time

7:00:  All: Dinner/TV

8:00: All: Clean up from Dinner/Shower

8:30:  Family Reading time

9:30: Bedtime

Here are some of the things I did with the kids:

Mom and 10 year old:
1.) Built Legos
2.) Went through stuff in his room to organize it (over a few days)
3.) Started weeding the garden and planting seeds in the greenhouse (over a few days)
4.) Mask making with clay, alginate, and latex














Mom and 12 year old:
1.) He taught me how to use Adobe Premiere Pro
2.) We researched hockey roller blades
3.) Went rollerblading at the park, being careful to keep our distance from others. ( We did this a few times)
4.) Made slow-motion videos of his hockey shot.


Together, with both boys, we used some of the science kits we had laying around, but, unfortunately some of these were not as engaging as I had hoped.  For example one of the old kits had a plastic globe that they were supposed to paint, which is not their thing.  This is probably why it sat in our science area for years.  We also built the weather station, but don't have a good support in our back yard to nail it to.  What the boys did enjoy all together was making homemade protein balls.