Hi Parents and Friends of the Hollis Social Library:
It occurred to me this morning that we are all in uncharted territory and so I thought I would share my approach to the new normal.
I began my day by planning a schedule for my two children, ages 3 and 13, both of whom are now housebound for the next several weeks. I believe now, more than ever, it is so important to be consistent and maintain a routine. This will help our children adjust to their new normal for the next couple weeks. Our library will be putting together “bored-bags” filled with activities and goodies to enjoy during our Great Shut-In! Stay-tuned for more information! I have included my family’s schedule, which I adjusted based off of the schedule included on Khan Academy’s website.
My kids are great sleepers. So we’ve decided that 9am is a reasonable time for them to get up and start their day. But every family and household is different so if you have early risers you can adjust the schedule times as needed.
My Family’s Schedule:
| 9:00AM | Wake up and breakfast. |
| 9:30AM | Learning Activities: For my 13-year-old: Start activities through Khan Academy, which is a free service, or Brain Pop, which is allowing free access to their lessons during school closures. For my 3-year-old: Instead of Khan Academy, I use Starfall, Fun Brain, BrainPopJr, or ABCYA. |
| 11:30AM | Lunch |
| 12:00PM | PE: As a former Para-Educator I enjoy using the YouTube channels Just Dance and Cosmic Kids Yoga if your kids can’t go outside and play. |
| 1:30PM | Reading or Art: Hollis Social Library now has access to Tumblebooks, please see our website for additional details. Also, Mo Willems is hosting a doodling hour with kids on his YouTube page. |
| 2:00PM | Free Time Learning: This last hour of school activities is where I let my kids pick what they would like to learn such as: coding (two great websites are Hour of Code and Scratch), music, astronomy, cooking, or science experiments. Check out Alchem.ie or Back Pack Sciences for ideas. |
| 3:00PM | Time for Chores: Focus on the Family has great ideas on age-appropriate chores. I like to have my boys work together on cleaning up around the house and helping out with our puppy, Apples. |
| 4:30PM | Movie or Game Time: For my 13-year-old: There are some fun and educational activities for kids to do through Kids National Geographic or Highlights. Make sure to check out Google Earth Where in the World is Carmen San Deigo or BreakoutEDU. For my 3-year-old: I also used Nick Jr. and Disney Jr. for games. |
| 6:00PM | Dinnertime |
My boys work on their individual activities at the table together. But they do their PE and art with each other. They also sometimes work together on their reading, my oldest will read to my youngest.
After dinnertime I let my kids play LEGOs, read, draw, and basically wind down until bedtime.
I hope you are all staying healthy. Please check our Facebook page for our live Storytime Events. We are still here for all your library needs and will be continuing to share services through our webpage and social media sites.
I will be offering a blog post once a week to share things that are working with my household, which might be helpful to you and your family. Together as a community we can support each other and keep each other healthy and safe.
Take care,
Meghan, HSL Youth Librarian