Planning Tools for Uncertain Times
Today is day 7 of a mandatory shelter in place order for San Antonio, TX.
David and I have prepared as best as possible, via crafting a schedule to work from home and creating a routine with the guidance of our four year old’s preschool teachers and administration. We’ve created a binder with worksheets, activity ideas, and a planning worksheet to help us stay organized. We’re also doing our best to teach our sons the beauty of independent play (no small feat when every moment of every day is usually filled by someone or something).
It’s up in the air as to how this will turn out or when it will end (if ever in a true sense), but we’re here doing the work and putting in the effort to create a new “normal”.
As far as homeschooling is concerned, we haven’t set any learning objectives or curriculums. We haven’t downloaded educational apps or subscribed to any sort of service or site to help us educate/stimulate our kids’ minds. We’re just using the friendly face of one of our favorite authors/illustrators and we are reading lots, and LOTS of books these days. With that said, we have discovered a few ways to stay productive, maintain a slight sense of control, and learned of a few great resources to help us through this time. In today’s post, I’d like to share these with all my fellow parents stuck at home and hopefully offer some relief from the monotony and uncertainty of the days.
planning tools for uncertain times
TEMPLATES FOR GETTING ORGANIZED:
I’m a big planner. If I don’t have a plan, I feel out of control. So one way of managing this stressful time of uncertainty, is to sit down and make a game plan for your day. For me, it brings comfort to know what to expect out of my day and when to expect it. It’s not a rigid hour-by-hour schedule per say, but more like blocks of time with certain tasks assigned to those timeframes. For example, I created a “Make It Happen” planning sheet where I breakup my day into three parts: morning, afternoon, and evening. I try to think of my “top three” tasks to accomplish that will make me feel productive and good about my day. I’ve also done something similar for meal planning and homeschool prep.
If interested, you see what my forms look like and can download them for FREE below:
Fill in the form to download your free planning worksheets
To see how we are homeschooling and staying organized using the Homeschool Preschool Agenda, then check out my “day in the life” video. I’ll also walk you through our ACTUAL routine during this uncertain time and show you how the Make It Happen task list keeps us on track as we implement the different elements of our day.
If you’d like to see the meal planning guide in action, then check out this video where I show you how to use what you already have in your pantry to make your food stretch and save on grocery costs. I call it the Inventory Meal Planning Method and it’s brought a lot of peace of mind knowing what we have in our pantry + having a plan to use it wisely.