Coronavirus: how to survive 2 weeks at home with the kids

in Productivity hacks, by Emma Trew

There seems to be no slowing of the spread of coronavirus and with the prospect of schools closing here in England, as announced in Ireland today, I’m sure a lot of Mums out there are thinking what the hell are we going to do with the kids at home for 2 weeks or more?!?!  Sod the stockpiling of toilet roll, the stockpiling of prosecco/gin [delete as appropriate] is far more essential!

If the schools shut, do we have to fully self isolate? We haven’t been out of the UK and we haven’t been in close contact with an infected person.  Can we leave the house or not? How are we going to fill the days, hours, minutes if we can’t??? 

I have an 8 year old and a 6 year old, old enough not to warrant 24/7 supervision but still young enough to need some supervision/attention/intervention.  I feel the need for some sort of structure, to manage our time and help us not to go completely stir crazy!! And ever the pragmatist, what is the silver lining to this enforced staycation?!

My mind is a whirlwind of thoughts and ideas…  we could spring clean the house – get the kids involved and teach them a few life skills – how to hoover, dust, wash the floors, learn how to do the laundry, teach them how to hang clothes on a hanger instead of leaving them all over the bedroom floor!

Baking and cooking, not my forte at all, but maybe now is a good time to teach the kids how to make pancakes or an omelette, heat some beans in the microwave and they’ll be good to go for breakfast, lunch or tea forever with beans on toast! 

Art and culture can feature too in an attempt not to use the tablets/Nintendo switch/TV as a complete crutch.  My daughter wants to learn some of Adele’s songs off by heart and is always asking me to print the words, well now we can dedicate some time to this and chose her favourites to print and she’ll be occupied for hours.  My son has I don’t know how many unopened lego sets and Christmas/birthday gifts in the cupboard. We can get those out and spend some time on those. And all the paints and glitter sets in the cupboard too… or maybe not…  not if the house has already had a spring clean, probably best to leave them where they are!

I have my own upcycling project too, my Nan’s dressing table has been sat in the garage for months waiting to be sanded down and repainted, now is the perfect time to get started on it!  And then there’s the garden, it’s been a tad warmer and the rain seems to have eased, we could get in the garden and dig out all the weeds, jet wash the patio, clean up the trampoline, set up the football net, surely that’s a good few hours on multiple days there :o)

Luckily I have my Audacity app to hand, into which I can chuck in all my ideas and then organise them into daily activities and even manage each part of the day too. Alongside the usual reading and screen time I’m not sure 2 weeks will be long enough to get through all these tasks!

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