Covid Quarantine - Lessons Learned and Looking Ahead

Day one is done!

The two main things I didn't anticipate about day one were that I would wake up super late (woke up to my daughter saying, "It's wake up time!" The rest of the family was already up. So, tomorrow I will set my alarm... and wake up when it goes off.

I also didn't anticipate having about an hour and a half of work to finish up tonight. So, tomorrow I'm going to try to be more strict about focusing and knocking out the must do's first thing in the morning. I'm also going to be adding a "Stop" and "Go" sign to our door so the kids know when they can come visit and when they can't.

Overall, I really loved today. It was so nice to have our whole family together, to witness a lot of the little things I miss each day and to have less outside distraction.

This morning when I went out to the kitchen I did a funny dance that Nouri always does when she is happy and sang, "It's home school day! It's home school day!" And Nouri yelled, "Noooo! You can't come to school in pajamas!" So I ran to the room and put on pants and ran back and she said, "You still have a pajama top on!" Nothing gets by that kid. So, I changed again and then Feraz said, "Your hair is a mess!" So, I ran to fix my hair and Nia said, "No! Come back! You are fine. You are ready for school." Na'eel laughed his head off at all this. It was a pretty great start.

The girls were excited about the schedule because we had gone over it the night before and then again at breakfast. I was able to do 'morning meeting' with the kids before signing on for work. All in all, the schedule really helped us structure our day, avoid fighting and whining and provide balance. I'll keep checking the energy of each person in the family (especially mine!) and modify as needed.

The hardest part was probably pushing myself to do the evening stuff. It's easy to do what's best for the kids but I'm just as likely to eat a tub of ice cream and spend my evening on social media. Which doesn't really make me feel great. I'm going to try to expand social distancing to social media distancing as well. I will still go on it (it's still on the schedule!) but really try to reduce it more each day. That said, I pushed myself to do the evening stuff and felt great about getting it all done.

Hoping tomorrow is a smooth day as well! Here is what I have on deck.


Day 2 Schedule:

8:00 am – 9:00 am	Wake kids up, brush teeth, change clothes, potty and breakfast	Breakfast: Kodiak pancakes with berries. Check-in feelings and circle time to say welcome. Nouri’s turn to share.
9:00 am – 9:45 am	Structured free play	Today we will do puzzles. Clean up begins at 9:35.
9:45 am – 10 am 10 am – 11:30 am	Get ready to go out Outdoor walk/bike ride	Weather looks better today so will extend outdoor time a bit.
11:30 am – 12 pm	Reading out loud videos.	15 mins storylineonline.net 15 minutes reading in room
12:00 pm – 12:15 pm	Laugh time	Each person will have a challenge to find an object and use it in a funny way. Like use a slipper as a phone. Each person gets a couple minutes to go find something and then ‘present’.
12:15 pm – 1 pm	Lunch	Packed Bentgo boxes for kids. Toast and fried eggs for teachers.
1pm -3 pm	Nap/Rest time	Do dinner prep so everything is ready for the kids to ‘help’.
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm	School time	Khan Academy for 30 mins for Nouri. Painting for everyone else or another walk if weather is nice.
5:00 pm – 5:30 pm	Family dinner prep	Chawaal, raitha and pakora.
5:30 pm -6:30 pm	Family dinner	Focus on conversation. We do “Memorable Moments” at dinner in which each person shares something memorable that happened each day.
6:30 pm -7:00 pm	Get ready for bed
7:00 pm – 7:30 pm	Stories and prayers/reflections	I am going to use this time to build a deeper gratitude practice with my kids. We generally express our thanks in our evening prayers but will ask them to think more meaningfully about the things they are thankful for.
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm	Clean up house and prep for tomorrow	I’m adding one deep clean thing here for each evening to make sure our house stays in good shape. Today, steam mop all wood floors.
8:30 pm – 9:00 pm	Social media
9:00 pm – 10:00 pm	Work out, knit, write or do any other hobby	Same videos again today. I will be doing this and this.
10:00 pm – 10:30 pm	One organizational task	I will try to do one organizational thing at this time. 15 min minimum. For today, organize the front closet.
10:30 pm - Bedtime	Read, watch TV, veg, whatever. Will be trying to sleep by midnight but we tend to sleep on the later side.	I’m going to try to do one maintenance thing each night like nails, fix hair, face mask because I’m the type of person to let it all go when I don’t have to go into work.