How to create a daily routine for kids with a daily routine template. Creating a daily routine will help you and your entire family thrive during this season. This daily routine template will help you create an individual schedule just for your child.
Well, as parents, I think we are pretty much all in the same spot. We found ourselves homeschoolers overnight!! As crazy as this news seems, one thing we all have in common is that our daily life is going to be altered at least in the short term.
And I have to admit some of my initial thoughts involved anxiety and just wondering how I would balance everything. But fortunately I started brainstorming pretty quickly how I could best help my family thrive through these new changes. I called on some friends, who are experts at homeschooling, moms who are already doing it! And got some good ideas for creating a routine for our family.
I came up with a simple daily routine that would help my daughters and I balance our new norm. And I think simple really is key here, it doesn’t need to be overly complicated.
Below are 5 reasons why I think a simple schedule can really help to settle anxieties and better manage our time with these new changes.
Here’s 5 reasons to create a daily routine schedule:
1. A Daily Routine helps children know what to expect
In a very uncertain time, it’s important to remember our children’s schedule and lives have also been shifted significantly. Although they may feel thankful for a couple of days off of school, depending on your child, a significant change like this could also create anxiety within your child.
Creating a routine, even a fairly simple routine can help ground our children during this time.
2. A Daily Routine Helps Parents Know What to Expect
This change in our daily lives can cause uncertainty or stress. Coming up with a daily plan can help you as a parent feel more grounded too.
Even if you are flexible with your schedule, after-all that’s the beauty of homeschooling, you will have a plan. Older children will be able to help younger children stay on task by following the schedule. And it will be a lifesaver when your child says, “Mom I am bored. What can I do next?”
3. A Daily Routine helps us appreciate down time
Prior to the closing of schools, my daughter had already been home from school for almost two weeks prior with the influenza virus, During this time I had made some observations of how the time off of school was affecting both of my daughters.
One thing I noticed was that they tended to become more easily annoyed with each other and had more disagreements. I started to realize that having so much unstructured time, was not the best for their moods. I learned having some routine and structure helped all of us appreciate our down time more. And if we did some structured activities in the morning they tended to play better in the afternoon.
4. A Daily Routine Helps Us with Prioritizing
Just spending a few minutes to come up with a simple schedule can help us to think about how we want to use our time. What are the things we want to prioritize?
Are there things we want our children to continue to work on? For example my daughter is learning to read. So a priority for this time at home will be to do lots of reading together. Other priorities might be to be more relational. For example, we are expecting our third child in just a little over a month. So this time can be a time to spend more 1:1 time with each daughter.
5. Routine Allows Us to be More Productive
Another reason to come up with a schedule is to take just a few minutes to asses other responsibilities, like for work or business. For example, a lot of our realities might include needing to still continue to work even if now remotely or continuing to work on a at home business.
So creating a schedule can help you manage stress with the workload you need to maintain at work or in your business. Schedule in break times, set your child up with an independent activity and some electronic time for when you need to get work or other responsibilities done.
Tip: Remember to be flexible with Your Daily Routine
Even though having a daily routine is extremely important and could be a lifesaver in the next couple of months. Also keep in mind that since this may be really new for your children and you, be flexible! Use and keep the things that work and get rid of or modify the rest.
My friend Dayana Frich, a homeschooling mama, shared this on her Facebook page today about homeschooling. I loved how the emphasis is on rhythm vs just the clock: “FAMILY RHYTHMS: Healthy repetition that creates a breathable flow, with predictability, that creates emphasis in our priorities and not on the clock or checking out things off our lists.”
Now download & create your own daily routine for your children
You can download the simple sample schedule and template for your family below. Making an individual schedule is ideal because I truly believe that you know your family best!
But I also know it can also be helpful to have a sample. So I have included a sample schedule along with the free template for you. Hopefully this free template makes creating a daily routine for your family a cinch for you!
We are all in this together! Please let me know if you have any questions or trouble downloading the free template to make your own daily routine!
God bless and keep you during this time!
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