Tips For Temporary School at Home, Free Curriculum and Fun Indoor Activities

In This Post: Tips For Temporary School at Home, Getting Started Homeschooling, Free Homeschool Curriculum, Free Student Planner Pages and Activities to Do with Your Kids if Stuck Indoors for Long Periods of Time During School Closures and Possible Quarantine Situations.

Due to the nationwide school closures and measures taken to control the spread of the pandemic, I have put together a care package of sorts that might help navigate this time of unplanned temporary homeschooling.

When I started homeschooling about 11 years ago, I was CLUELESS and TERRIFIED. I didn’t get what it meant to homeschool, but I chose it. So I can’t even imagine how you may be feeling with this all thrown on you with no choice in the matter.

So I’m here to help you navigate all this so you will feel less overwhelmed and more prepared to handle this without worry or fear. So onto the tips. 

5 Things To Do Before You Start On This Temporary Homeschool Journey

1- Fear Not

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. -Isaiah 43:1 – God actually commands us not to fear. The phrase “fear not” can be found 80 times throughout the Bible, probably because He knows the enemy uses fear to combat our faith.

Fear is prevalent everywhere you look these days…at the supermarket (in the toilet paper aisle), on the news. You can’t go anywhere without fear trying to press its way in. Fear is a bigger epidemic than the virus right now. But we must Stand firm against it and trust God through this time. God is still on the throne. He is not surprised or shocked and He did see all this beforehand. 

He did not give us a spirit of fear, but of LOVE, POWER and SOUND MIND. (2 Timothy 1:7) This too shall pass.

If you are a praying momma you know that this should be the first step in everything. So pray and ask God to guide you, protect your family and lead you through this difficult time. Take care of one another, pray for each other, help and check on your family and neighbors. Especially the elderly or medically fragile. 

2- Contact School Staff

Ask your school staff and teachers if they have any resources like curriculum, eLearning or guidelines to follow over the weeks to come. Every school is going to be different. My 2 oldest are currently going to middle school and they have daily eLearning assignments provided by the school, but most do not have that luxury so I’ve provided a big list of free curriculum links below for your convenience. 

2- Talk To Your Kids

This may be hard and It may get messy. Homeschooling does get stressful. Your kids will revolt from time to time. I don’t know about you but my kids tend to give mom the hardest time. They are perfect angels for anyone but me.

So. Not. Fair. But that’s real life.

That’s why you will want to sit them down and have a family meeting before jump into this change. Explain the situation from your perspective and clear up any doubts or fears that they may have been dealing with about this situation. Let them know that God is in control and He is BIGGER than any virus.

Let them know what a typical day will look like and your expectations for each of them throughout this big change.

3- Let Go of High Expectations and KEEP THINGS SIMPLE

With the added stress of quarantine or lockdowns we really need to put things into perspective. You don’t have to add all the things. When you jam pack the day and have ridiculous expectations, it’s hard to keep your peace.  Something’s got to give. And when you are overscheduled every single day, you begin to feel like a failure when things don’t get checked off the list. 

Your mama confidence takes a hit with every unchecked box. It’s like a bright flashing reminder that says “YOU HAVE FAILED” at the end of each day.

This may seem a bit dramatic, albeit ridiculous it is TRUE. Even though, in reality, it doesn’t really matter if every single box is checked and you have in fact NOT failed. There is something in the human brain that connects unfinished tasks for the day as a failure.

When you can’t breathe because you have 20 different lessons to complete, this does not allow you to stay flexible and keep your peace. Keep things as simple as possible. Try to follow more of a routine than a schedule. 

4- Set Up An Easy To Follow Loop Schedule or Routine

As I said above we tend to put too much pressure on ourselves when we don’t check everything of the list. Following a basic daily routine or a Loop schedule can eliminate this unnecessary stress.

• Basic Daily Routine

The idea of this is to follow the natural flow of your family. Instead of trying to pencil in specific lessons at specific times, keep it really simple. Our family’s natural daily routine is this…

We wake up and eat breakfast, after breakfast we do some cleaning and get dressed for the day. (sometimes)

After that we do morning basket (AKA all the subjects we can learn as a family like Bible or History) Then I have a very simple list of things they can do on their own.

As they are working on that list, I fit in a couple lessons that they individually need my assistance to get through, usually math and language arts.

We have no schedule, we just follow a routine. If something happens to take a bit longer, or we follow rabbit trails and end up on an interest led learning path, so be it.

If your school has provided eLearning curriculum set up your schedule around that.

• Loop Schedule

With loop scheduling, you don’t assign a specific subject to a specific day. Instead, you have a list of work that you do. You simply go down the list, doing one thing at a time. It’s kind of like reading a book, when you are done reading for the day, you put a bookmark in so you can pick up where you left off the next day.

This comes into play in a couple different ways in our house. We have a loop for our morning basket and a loop for each child’s independent lessons.

An example of a simple loop schedule for morning basket (family learning)

• Bible (start day one)
• Math Facts
• Poetry  (end day one)
• History (start day two)
• Bible
• Science
• Math Vocab  (end day two)
• Composer Study (start day three)
• Bible
• Hymns  (end day three)
• The Lord’s Prayer Memory Work (Start day four, once you finish this go back to the top)

Note that I have Bible in here several times. This means that this is an important topic that I want to cover every day if possible. This is about a 3 day loop. So on Monday if I get through Bible, Math Facts, and Poetry, I will make sure I get Bible in on Tuesday too.

You will have to do some tweaking in your loop until you find your perfect flow, but once you get it, you don’t have to worry about it again.

>>>Download my Free Printable Student Planner Pages<<<

5- Focus On The Family

Make the priority right now to take this extra time together to really hang out and spend quality time. Play cards, board games or have movie nights. Plan a week long STAYcation for your Quarantined Spring Break.

Listen, change is never easy especially when it is forced or unwanted. Whatever you decide to do during this school closure, be intentional, make memories, just simply enjoy your family! Don’t just allow the days to tick away.

We can’t get these years back with our kids. They are literally a blink. So, make it great and make it memorable. What satan meant to hurt us, God can use it to grow and strengthen us. Let’s come out of this with our families even stronger and closer than ever.

ATTN: (THIS POST WILL BE UPDATED PERIODICALLY AS I FIND MORE LINKS FOR FREE RESOURCES TO ADD, SO SHARE THIS WITH YOUR FRIENDS, PIN IT TO SAVE FOR LATER AND COME BACK TO SEE ME)

PREK-12TH GRADE COMPLETE ALL-IN-ONE ONLINE CURRICULUM OPTIONS FOR THOSE THAT DON’T HAVE ELEARNING OR CURRICULUM PROVIDED BY THE SCHOOL

• Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
• CK-12- curriculum(K-12)
• GuestHollow.com- Full Curriculum (K-9)
• Ambleside- Full Charlotte Mason Curriculum program  (K-12) (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
• Old Fashioned Homeschool– 40 Week Schedules (K-12)
• Free World U– Free flashcard curriculum (k-12)
• Core Knowledge– (Pre-K-12)
• Easy Fun School (K-6)
• Edhelper.com (Pre-K-12)
• Homeschool Share- Lapbooks (K-12)
• Lesson Pathways- Lesson Plans (K-5)
• SAS Curriculum Pathways
• Teachers Pay Teachers: Free Resources and Lessons (K-12)
• The Homeschool Mom-Unit Studies (K-9)
• School Express- Units & more (K-12)
• KHAN ACADEMY- Videos and Lessons (3-12)
• Ron Paul Curriculum-Free Courses (K-5)
• BBC (k-12)
• Charlotte Mason Help- Higher up and Further In curriculum (K-12)
• Sheppard Software- Games (K-6)
• A Mind in the Light- curriculum (1-12)
• Moby max- Free & Paid option
• Free World U – Free & Paid Option (Pre-K- 12)
• SAS Curriculum Pathways-(6-12)
• Connections Academy- Free Online Public School (K-12)
• My Schoolroom –Classical Curriculum
• WatchKnowLearn.org– Thousands of free Educational Videos (Pre-K-12)

TEMPORARILY FREE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES DURING SCHOOL CLOSURES

Mystery Science

They Went through all their elementary science lessons, pulled the easiest ones to do from home, and put them up on this link for free. No signup required, no student login: Mystery Science School Closure Planning

Musik At Home

During this Emergency she opened up free access to her online Musik at Home class series -Family Music for Mixed Ages!- No account or log in needed. If you need something to do with your little during the coming weeks click here for instant access to the classes: Family Music For Mixed Ages.

BrainPOP

During the school closures, simply fill out a form to receive free, unlimited use of the full BrainPOP suite during the period of closure. You will receive an email with instructions on next steps to set up your account. Sign up here: BrainPOP Free Access.

**HUGE List of Free Access of Educational Resources During School Closures**

OTHER FREE RESOURCES FOR SCHOOL AT HOME

Master List Of Free Homeschool Curriculum

Free Curriculum For Preschoolers

Big List Of Free Copywork 

The Best Educational YouTube Channels for Kids

Best Educational Podcasts for Kids

How To Keep Kids Reading When the Library is Closed

Learning at Home: Everything You Need in One Place

FUN WAYS TO KEEP KIDS BUSY WHILE BEING HOME 

11 Indoor Activities for Kids for When You are Stuck Inside

7 Fun Ways to Keep Kids Busy on Rainy Days

Create an Intentional and Frugal Family Staycation

20 Excellent Activities for Kids At Home All Day

If you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments below.

PIN FOR LATER

ATTN: (THIS POST WILL BE UPDATED PERIODICALLY AS I FIND MORE LINKS FOR FREE RESOURCES TO ADD, SO SHARE THIS WITH YOUR FRIENDS, PIN IT TO SAVE FOR LATER AND COME BACK TO SEE ME)

Forest Rose

Forest Rose is a God Loving, Blessed Wife, &  Mama to 3 girls. She’s passionate about lifting moms out of the trenches that are discouraged, overwhelmed, or feeling alone or isolated. Her hope is to point them to Christ and equip them to rise up with a newfound hope and joy within, that He alone can provide. Besides blogging, she also loves to create printables!