The Bare Necessities: Survival at Home with the Kids (or Just Starting to Homeschool)

If you find yourself home with the kids wondering what to do during, say, a pandemic or other crazy worldwide catastrophe, or you are just starting to homeschool and you are feeling a bit overwhelmed, this article is just for you…

Take a deep breath, it’s not as complicated as you might think, and let’s talk bare necessities.

One little rabbit trail…humor me or skip this section…

I typed the title and started singing the song…if you don’t know what song, you just aren’t a “Jungle Book” fan like me! And maybe you need a recap, because there’s some life lessons in here that really apply…sing with me:  

Look for the bare necessities

The simple bare necessities

Forget about your worries and your strife

I mean the bare necessities

That’s why a bear can rest at ease

With just the bare necessities of life…

“The Bare Necessities,” written by Terry Gilkyson, from the animated 1967 Disney film The Jungle Book.

OK enough of that, back to kids at home…

A time to decompress is often helpful to kids as well as parents.

When your world is turned upside down and your schedules are thrown out the window, sometimes you need a moment to just be in the moment, not frantically predicting what all the  moments are going to look like from here on out.

I homeschooled all three of my children, all the way through school, so I hope I can offer a calm voice of reason to a season that creates many storms.

Relax

Really, this is the barest of the bare necessities.

I know it’s not all fun and games. Somebody is fighting in one room and the cat is vomiting in another. You’re trying to get some work done and feed the kids something other than a Pop tart. Maybe your husband is home and not happy about it and the store has run out of toilet paper…

“Relax” seems like the dumbest advice anyone could give.

But here’s the thing: there are some things you can’t do anything about. You have no control over certain situations.

True, you still have to break up the fight over whose Barbie gets to wear the pink heels and you’re going to have to clean up after the cat…but you don’t have to stress over every. single. other. thing that you can’t control.

Focus on what IS under your control, and try to take a step back from the rest.

If it’s the news that’s stressing you out, turn it off.

If your mother-in-law doesn’t believe in homeschooling, tune her out.

If you don’t know which math text to use, it’s OK, we’ve all been there.

If you think you’re going a little crazy, call a teacher’s workday, bundle the kids up, and turn them loose in the yard. Tell them to draw something they find and, wa-la, just like that, you created a science assignment that will stay with them longer than a boring lecture.

Your mood sets the tone for the day and the atmosphere of your home. Give yourself a time out and lock yourself in the bathroom for a hot second if need be. Reset yourself and march on, mama, because if you can pull yourself together, the rest of the family will get in line. If you spiral out of control, chances are, the chaos in your home will only increase.

Read

I know I’m a broken record with this reading thing.

But y’all, this is key.

If you don’t know what else to do, get cozy with a good book and read to your kids.
Your child’s brain will be working: processing story content, characterization, plot, grammar, and vocabulary. Their imaginations are engaged. You are teaching them without any effort.

There is no doubt that reading quality books to children is instrumental to their intellectual growth and development.

If you want to add an element of ‘school,’ ask your kids to narrate.

Narrating is not asking specific questions looking for specific answers, it is listening to them tell back to you what they processed from the story. Don’t add to it or remind them of other details that you remember, because then you imply there are right or wrong answers to “What’s happening in the story?”
Listen to what they heard, the details they picked up on, and praise and encourage them for using their voice in a way that comes naturally to them: repeating stories.

As time goes on and you encourage this, their confidence and their imaginations will engage more and more, and you will hear the results.

Oral narrations transfer seamlessly to written narrations when your children are older. I trusted Charlotte Mason’s approach on this, and I found it to work.

Get some sleep & fresh air

Sleep and the sun are known to help the body fight disease and build immunity.

So sleep in if you want. There’s nothing magical about sitting in a desk at 7 a.m.

Stay in your pajamas. Enjoy the benefits of being home. Read on the couch with hot chocolate or ice cream! The littlest details have the potential of being the grandest memories.

Get outside. If you have a yard, use it!

All the busyness of having to be here and there and everywhere is no longer a concern – so above all else, let your kids be kids and let them play outside. They will learn more than you think while using their imaginations, observing nature, and working those little muscles climbing trees, crawling around on the ground, making mud pies, and learning to do a forward roll.

Life Skills

How often do we lament that there is no time to teach kids basic life skills? We must rush from school to baseball practice to art class to homework to dinner to baths to bed…

Now you have time.

• Bake – cookies or bread or treats for the dog or homemade shrinky dinks.
• Check the oil in the car and learn to change the tire.
• Sew – a button, a pillow case, a quilt from favorite tshirts, the holes in your socks.
• Sort laundry, wash the dishes, sweep the floors, wash a window.
• Make a bed without any wrinkles!
• Plant a seed, repot a flower, start a garden.
• Make a meal plan for a week. Create a meal plan with items already on hand in the pantry.
• Cook dinner. Set a table.
• Create a budget. (You can use pretend numbers and shop names for young kids!)
• Identify some constellations and birds and trees in your neighborhood.
• Feed the dog. Clean the litter boxes.

Some of the things that you take for granted as simple tasks can be great teaching moments.

You would be surprised at how much you can teach your children about life skills in all the little moments and chores that comprise a well-run day. Meanwhile, you are also teaching them how to keep a household running, how to manage their time, and how to recognize things that need to be done and take the initiative to do them.

Play games

Fun and educational games abound!

As a matter of fact, you might discover that you enjoy game night so much that you make it a part of your family’s routine even when life gets busier.

Sing, Dance, Laugh

Learn a song! Dance around the kitchen!

Read and recite poetry. Memorize a line of scripture. Have a vocabulary word of the week. Post it somewhere and use it frequently – you will be surprised how quickly it becomes part of your personal dictionary!

All ages, from the youngest to the oldest, can benefit from memorization skills. And choosing one or two simple things and working on them daily takes only moments, but delivers long-lasting results.

Online books, classes, & virtual field trips

I couldn’t begin to list all the online opportunities I’ve seen: free books, classes, virtual field trips, concerts, plays, musicals, zoo & other online cameras…

Whatever your interest, search online and see what’s offered.

Check on homeschooling sites and their Facebook pages for even more ideas.

Ruth Soukup at Living Well, Spending Less has published a great article: 21 of the Best Educational Resources and Activities for Kids at Home.

Lots of options abound and offer diversity to your day. Not to mention a moment to breathe while the kids are otherwise engaged. I wholeheartedly advise you to take advantage of any ideas that work for your family.

But don’t neglect couch reading, real dirt wallowing, and muffin baking….the hands on stuff has a way of staying with kids for a very long time.

What about math?

If you’re worried about keeping up with math lessons, there are lots of great texts and workbooks out there. A daily math lesson should not be cumbersome or last for hours.

Khan Academy is a fantastic, free, online math site that we used for upper level math in our homeschool high school, but there are lessons for all ages. As a matter of fact, your child could work their way through lessons on this site for free, without any additional purchase of math texts. Or you can use this site’s videos to help explain difficult concepts when you encounter them in your current math text or workbook. As the teacher, you can set up an account (for free) that links to all of your students and shows their progress and the work they have completed. And it’s a very easy to use site.

Foreign Language

To continue foreign language studies or to work on learning a new language, DuoLingo is a great site and app! It’s FREE and interactive. We used it in our homeschool after it was recommended by a college student (who spoke several languages) who said he liked it better than Rosetta Stone.

If sign language interests you, here’s a fantastic site our youngest daughter used in our homeschool high school: American Sign Language University.

For younger students, lots of sites teach the alphabet and basic words in sign language, which would be easy to work on little by little each day.

Ask for help

Don’t think you’re all alone.

Everyone has those days. Everyone feels overwhelmed sometimes.

It’s not easy, and you’re not alone.

Reach out to teachers and other homeschoolers, online and in your community. Educators love to share their suggestions and ideas. Don’t feel obligated to use all of their ideas, though – you know your family best. Use the ideas that work for you, and don’t worry if your homeschool days look very different from other families.

Keep it simple

Simple is better than overwhelm and stress.

Don’t try to plan days that leave you and your family feeling overwhelmed or disappointed because you haven’t done ALL the things.

A very simplified plan of action:

• Read every day.
• Keep a journal. With or without specific writing assignments.
• Choose one new vocabulary word to post and use all week and one poem to practice for a few minutes together each day.
• Have each child that can read choose one book to be reading on their own. Ask them to tell you what’s happening in their book each day.
• Create a daily chore chart that works for your family and includes everyone.
• Get outside every day.
• Have everyone decide on a project that they want to work on (on their own) while they are home: cleaning a closet, clearing a part of the yard for a garden, drawing up plans for a mobile chicken coop or a tree house or a rainwater harvesting system…, turning the patio into a container garden area, painting a room, organizing their toys or a bookshelf, writing letters to mail to friends and family, learning a new language, writing a play…the possibilities are as endless and diverse as each individual person.
• Do an online math lesson.
• Choose one online activity or virtual field trip from the multitude of possibilities or work on a craft together. (daily, weekly, or as often as works for your family)
• Draw a picture each day in a science notebook. Read about the birds, flowers, trees, ants, spider in the bathroom…whatever your child finds interesting, identify it, label it after they draw it, and read about it together. Drawing something increases concentration, power of observation, and attention to detail. Praise their drawings – artistic skill is not the objective.
• And every week, choose a life skill to teach or review: meal planning, spare tire changing, bread baking, bed making… and have a game or movie night.

Relax, converse, eat meals together, slow down and enjoy each other. AND get moving – dance, exercise, act silly, run laps outside around the house. Enjoy the opportunity to rest and also take opportunities to encourage physical activity (so the pent-up energy won’t drive you crazy!).

If, one day, all you do is sit in the sun and watch the kids play, it’s a good day. Another day, you all sleep in and then bake cookies and read The Swiss Family Robinson: also a good day. And some days, keeping the kids from punching each other in the face and feeding them cold cereal might be all you can muster. Guess what? You’re still winning at this thing.

Enjoy the goodness of each day. Be thankful for what you have and that tomorrow is another opportunity to have a really good day.

You are doing great & I mean that

You are perfect for this role.

Stop second guessing or assuming that someone else would do a better job or feeling sure that someone else probably IS doing a better job right about now.

God knew what He was doing when He gave you those kids. You are the perfect mom for those babies.

Listen, that family down the street who look like they have it all together – here’s a secret: they don’t. Their peanut butter sandwich always hits the floor peanut butter side down, too. That mom has lost her cool more times than she wants you to know. There’s a closet in their house that needs some serious decluttering. Their kids pulled each other’s hair over an Oreo.

Maybe not those exact scenarios, but you get the picture: families are families no matter where they are or how perfectly they smile and wave as they drive by.

So stop sweating and second guessing your ability to teach those babies.

As a mom to three grown ‘babies,’ all in their 20s now, here’s one thing I know:

You won’t have perfect days, but you will have perfect memories.

The crazy, stressful, panicked moments have a way of fading into the background and the pajama-clad, silly dancing, peanut butter on the floor wrong-side-down moments get bigger, cozier, and funnier in their future retellings and reminiscings.

You might also enjoy:

• Where to Get Homeschooling Books & Curriculum
• A Message to the Momhood: A little encouragement and laughter, because we all need more of that
• Just in case you are struggling with those blasted multiplication tables: The Miracle Multiplication Memorization Program that WAS truly a miracle around here
• For your littles: some help with learning the alphabet
• There are so, so many great books to read that it’s hard for me to narrow down a list. I chose a few that delighted my students of all ages in 10 Books to Read to Children

One more thing in the face of COVID 19: caution & common sense are important, but these free printables are a reminder that we don’t have to succumb to fear:

Sign up for access to the free printable library here: