Hello Friends!

I know that you are grappling with a lot of time at home and are quite possibly trying to
work from home while keeping your child/ren busy, happy and, with luck, learning. I
recognize that the sudden lifestyle shift can be challenging for you to manage and that
both your child/ren and you can be struggling with a lot of emotions.

I’ll try to keep up a steady streams of videos I’m making for my students and fun activity
inspiration for indoors and out, but in the meantime I’ve also prepared some tips for
settling into a routine at home, keeping things light and fun in challenging times, and
how to get your child/ren involved in this shift and new schedule to the day.

Please let me know if there are any things your child is asking about or wants to do or
learn that I can support with videos of me giving lessons, doing experiments, reading
books (my library is EXTENSIVE for 3-10 year olds!) or activity suggestions. In the
meantime I hope that this list of tips on how to manage your time at home and my (soon
to be completed) sample daily rhythm schedule can help you to settle into a happier life
at home for these next few weeks.

With love & well wishes,

Eileen

PS –credit for this list goes to the homeschooling page Loving Earth Mama as I’ve used a lot of her list and added my
own take 
 

Parent’s Guide to a
Connective and Joyful Quarantine at Home


Here are some of my suggestions of ways to make your days run more 
smoothly and to bring joy to your family in these challenging times: 
Family Fun List 

Kids LOVE to make lists. Sit down together with your child or children and write up a list of things they
want to do during quarantine. Help them first to understand the restraints (everything on your list needs to
be done inside or on walks, but we can’t go anywhere else) and perhaps start with a few
suggestions…like make pizza from scratch, build a fort from couch cushions, make shadow puppets, or
grill marshmallows on the stovetop. You can just write it as a long list that you check off, or you can
allocate different points for different activities and try, for example, to reach 100 Happy Points over your
time at home together. The key here is that you are engaging with them and getting not just their buy-in
but really taking into account their feelings, their needs and their wishes. Keep the list somewhere you
can all see it and add to it as ideas come up!

Rhythm 

Create a flow and rhythm to your day that the children can learn to expect. Having consistency right now
is key and helps comfort children in unstable times. Creating daily rituals, for example, can be fun and
give children touchtone moments in the day– perhaps you all do a yoga pose of the day before sitting to
breakfast or read a poem at sunset, make a daily smoothie in the afternoon, or ring a bell when it’s
special time (more on that later). The flow makes it much easier for children to cope with uncertainty.

Schedule 

With that flow should be a daily schedule that you try your best to stick to. Again, keeping things
consistent means that your children will grow to understand and respect the time you need to do your
individual work, the time they are expected to do their own work, and will keep their lives and hours
manageable. This isn’t a good time to stay in pajamas all day or go to bed at 11pm. Again, maintaining
hours and expectations and a known daily rhythm is critical for children of this age group.
 

 
Read Aloud 

Have a ‘magical reading hour’! Reading aloud to your children has so many benefits from building their
attention span and vocabulary to nurturing empathy, creativity and imagination as well as providing a
launch pad for discussions about nature, emotions, problems and how to solve them, social behavior,
etc... Try to always fit a minimum of 20 minutes reading aloud. It can be in a reading time block or split
throughout the day, perhaps a few books in bed before breakfast (letting you stay in bed a little longer!
then again before bed.

Special Time 

This is going to be critical for those of you with multiple young children. It’s quite simple but incredibly
powerful. Set a timer and spend a short amount of time (usually between 10 and 20 minutes) giving your
COMPLETE attention to ONE child. That is key. It is one-to-one with a guarantee of no interruptions
(especially by the other siblings). AND the kid gets to lead 100%. It is their time, their choice. They get to
choose what to play or not play. You can have some safety limits but that really should be it. This is about
them. They lead. You follow. Your main job is to pour your DELIGHT into your child. Focus on what THEY
are interested in, for those 10-20 minutes. Be positive and supportive. Do not fix, rescue or ‘adjust’ their
ideas, plans and creations. Your warm attention and joyful connection is soothing for their soul. And as
you ‘fill their happiness bucket’ in this way, you really re-set them emotionally and have a way bigger
chance of seeing the best of them in the hours to come. A connected child is a content and cooperative
child.

Be warned… sometimes Special Time creates so much safety that it actually allows kids to show us
MORE of their pent-up emotions/tears/tantrums. That’s still important. That’s them being smart and using
your attention to offload those feelings… try your best not to be frustrated if your special time becomes a
meltdown. Your child just needs your love and affection in that moment.

Bake and Cook Together! 

We all have to eat and if I’ve learned anything in the Montessori classroom it’s that children adore
preparing food and cooking and EATING. I’ll send along a video later about some ways to make your
kitchen more accessible but in the interim, have children help rinse fruit, chop vegetables, peel carrots
(yes! Many of your children are very capable and do this in the classroom), shell beans, tear lettuce for
salads, etc. Baking is especially fun and simple for children. Stock up on flour sugar eggs and butter!
 

Time in Nature 

Just because we

have to be apart from other people doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the outdoors. Nature is the best way to
re-set, re-energize and spend HOURS playing without even remembering or thinking about screens. In
fact, if the kids are fighting and you add the outdoors, that is often enough to completely change the
mood, giving them a new focus as naturally they take to climbing, racing and imaginative play. Please
avoid playgrounds or busy areas but do go on walks, visit a nearby forest or park area if you have one, or
spend time in your garden. I’ve put together plenty of fun outdoor activities to inspire you but also be sure
to let your child just relish in the outdoor time with no structure.

Find New Ways to Connect with Others 

Have Skype or FaceTime playdates with family and friends - anything to give the kids (and you) some
extra connection and FaceTime with people they love and who love them AND to give you 15mins off to
think or, you know, go to the toilet. Ask your child if they’d like to have an email penpal and have them
dictate an email to a friend, classmate, or relative which you type for them. Take photos of their lego
creations or artwork and share them with friends so that they can send a reply via email. While we don’t
know how long postal services will run, write some letters or make some cards and send them via snail
mail.

Music 

Music is healing and uplifting. Play music, sing, dance. Explore music linked to books you are reading
together. Have a dance party in the kitchen. Make up songs. Pick up some instruments and have an
impromptu jam session. Make your own instruments from items in the kitchen. Let the children be noisy
when they can, they need to get out that energy and channeling it into a time that suits you will be best!

Activities 

I’ll be providing a host of videos, worksheets and fun inspiration for both indoor and outdoor activities via
Google Classroom but it’s also time to pull out audiobooks, board games, activity books, etc. If you like
yoga, Cosmic Kids Yoga videos are very popular. Create an art corner where your child can get creative
with a few supplies – paper, pencils, scissors, tape, stickers, glue, pom poms, etc. To avoid a mess it’s
best if you limit the number you put out and change them every 4-5 days to keep it fresh and interesting.

   
 
Play. Play. Play.  

Do as much roughhousing style play as you can manage indoors or in the garden. Play tag, hide-and-
seek, wrestle, have pillow fights, sock fights, bucking bronco, airplanes, wacky races. Even if you just do
5 mins a day be sure to have a little time where they get to go wild - your children will thank you and it will
fulfill that innate need. The more you all giggle together, the happier your time together will be - not just in
those moments, but after, too, as laugher is really one of the best ways to relieve stress.

Follow some YouTube tutorials 

I’ll do my best to keep you stocked with plenty of tutorials on fun step-by-step guides for art, crafts or
science projects. This can provide a whole focus for a day or week’s worth of self-paced projects. Let
your children choose a topic or from among the activities provided so that you are sure it is something
THEY want to do. Do it with them if you can (for more connection) or let it be one thing they do on their
own, while you use the time to catch up on chores or your own work or what have you.

Daily Challenges 

If you are keen (or required for any older siblings) to get some education in and are being met with resistance
- one fun way is to set up the schoolwork as a daily challenge up on a board. Make a fun “DAILY
CHALLENGE!” sign and leave the work out, letting them choose when they want to do it. Granting them the
freedom to do it at the time of their choice can help de-stress the learning we want them to do at home.

Self‐Care 

This one is for you parents - meditate, do some yoga, sing, give yourself a face mask…just be sure to fit
in something for you… on your own. If we are to be calm, centered models for our children we have to
keep ourselves grounded and uplifted. The more you take care of yourself, the better you’ll be able to
respond to your kids AND be creative about making this a positive time they remember, growing up, as
having been if not ‘super fun’ at least strewn with magical moments!!

Surprises  

While a daily rhythm is important, so is being crazy, spontaneous and surprising your kids. Mix it up.
Randomly do one dinner by candlelight; or do a movie-night with popcorn and them camp out in the living
room overnight; or let them wake up to a to a string of clues or a treasure map to find their breakfast,
dress up in your best clothes and have a fashion show, have a story telling night in the dark with
flashlights... Have fun with it.
 

I hope that these insights and the activities I send will help you to feel equipped and
perhaps even a little excited about the unique time you will be spending together. Try to
see this as an opportunity to connect, to learn more about your children and who they
are, and to bring a little magic into your lives.

Know that some days will be easier than others, some days the schedule will go out of
the window, and that some – OK, probably most – days you will count down the minutes
to bedtime. Give yourself grace, know that you put your best foot forward and that
tomorrow is a new day. But don’t give up. Try to keep up that rhythm and do your best
to bring that joy – if only for a minute at a time.