Many Ohioans work remotely. Many families in Ohio homeschool and many families have a Stay-at-Home parent(PDF). Although these different examples represent work, school and family roles, the recent closing of schools and many job sites have parents across the state wondering how best to meet the needs of these different obligations.
On Friday March 13th, our child’s teacher sent home packets of instructions, organized handouts and best wishes for all of her students. On Monday morning, my favorite first grader and I already had different ideas of how home learning and Extension work should operate at our house. We guardedly settled into worktime at the table. When the math sheets were complete, my child looked up with a big smile. I could envision a lightbulb above his head when he happily announced, “After math is recess and lunch!” Thank goodness it was finally 11:30am so we were getting close to a break. I prompted, “Tell me about what happens during your school day.” He listed off about 7-10 events that happen in order every day in his classroom. While I knew that his teacher has worked hard since the first day of school to help her students learn the daily routine, I was surprised at how valuable it was for him. That was enough to convince me that a planned routine would most likely work best for us during this time of change and uncertainty.
While I love the organized, color-coded schedules that I found online, the ones I found were student centered. Our current reality is that we share the same space to meet our very different daily work and school objectives. I needed an additional column on a schedule to represent my work which had also moved to home. We needed an agenda that not only validated our student’s goals, but also meets the needs of the whole family team.
Every family is different. I am eager to learn the best practices from those who are experienced at working from home, from families who homeschool, and from households who have a parent at home throughout the day. What works for you? As the Extension Educator’s creed states, “I believe in people and their hopes, their aspirations, and their faith; in their right to make their own plans and arrive at their own decisions; in their ability and power to enlarge their lives and plan for the happiness of those they love.” In the midst of great uncertainly we have the opportunity to learn and define what works best for ourselves, our children, and the whole family as a team.
I unassumingly offer this daily schedule as a resource to those who are currently striving to balance home learning and home working. Our family is using this schedule as a starting point. I predict there will be changes and I am not tied to the exact times. Except, depending on the day and the lessons, I might use specific times including half hours because one of our current math lessons is telling time! If it is helpful to anyone, here is a pdf document of the Home schedule for work and school 2020(PDF) to use for your own family details (apologies – it won’t let me attach a Word document). This is not easy, and we get to keep learning together!
