Overwhelmed? Handle Yourself and Family with Care.

I've personally felt overwhelmed with the amount of resources being shared on "homeschooling."

I'm not a parent, but I'm an educator, and it's still been overwhelming for me.
At first, I felt as if I needed to create, create, create! Post, post, post! And get those resources out there for everyone to use!!!

Then it hit me...why?
For what gain? To lose three weeks of my life to creating materials and spending countless hours on screen time? Something I attempt to get away from as much as possible? :) So yesterday, I stopped trying to keep up for a bit. And it worked. I felt better. Free. Today, after this. I'll do the same. Maybe take our dog for a walk, read a book, write a friend a letter.
So much of the time I advocate for kids to have more unstructured, free space to be bored, create, play outside, argue, problem-solve, and learn LIFE SKILLS.
I advocate for parents, educators and society to be more present rather than wrapped up in what's coming "next".
If you're feeling out of control, then try unfollowing some things. It's that simple. Extra social media and news time can really mess with our view of the world.

Handle yourself with care.
If you're feeling like you want to provide some activities at home, but are too overwhelmed with what to choose, try reaching out to your child's teacher or another parent for some ideas. Lessen the overwhelm for yourself.

Fishing through everything and making choices can cause decision-fatigue.

Separate yourself from it all for a bit and shut it all off. We are in control of what we consume on a day-to-day basis and we talk a lot about controlling our children's screen, app, tablet, tv, etc. time, but something we don't touch on is our own consumption of this.  We do talk a lot about our need for self-love, time away, exercise, etc., but we don't often recognize our children's needs for down time and time for self-love too.

We set the example, so if we're feeling overwhelmed by it all, then shutting things down for a bit and taking a walk, baking, exercising, reading, playing, whatever that means, is probably what we should be doing.

If you're feeling better by providing homeschool at home for the next few weeks, then by all means, teach away. ;)
If you're feeling overwhelmed by it all and not sure where to begin, then begin with what you feel your children really need during this time.
Is it to be outside?
Play games?
Help cook dinner or plan meals for the week? Is it folding laundry, cleaning and organizing their rooms, playing with the dog outside that needs the exercise? ;)
Remember, these few weeks are a very small portion of our children's entire lives. We were never prepared for this. Hopefully in the future, we will discuss how to better handle a situation such as this one. For now, remaining in a good headspace for our kids is all that really matters.
My mother (a retired teacher at that) has always asked us, "Will this matter in five years?" and the answer to this is two-fold.
Will it matter that they didn't learn all the sight words they needed to during this time, or, that they nailed their multiplication facts? Nope. Absolutely not.
Will it matter that they felt safe, secure and loved through a time where grocery stores felt odd (to say the least), "social-distancing" was the norm and many adults were panicking? Yes.
It will matter.

So if you're children are in a safe place, fed, laughing and smiling, arguing a little (or a lot), finding new things to create and do throughout these days, and you're all doing your best? Then you're rocking this stretch of time. Remember, many of our kiddos were scheduled for a spring break throughout this time. They deserve and NEED this break and so do we.
If you're looking for very simple activities to focus on each day, I've created a SIMPLE idea list for preschool-age kids and activity options for K-5th grade. It's nothing complex, doesn't require printing, or anything, but in a lot of ways, it goes "back to the basics."

I hope these will be helpful for your home. Whether you use them each day, use it to make your own list that fits your household, or throw them out the door the minute you see them, all is well. ;) Keep going friend, you've got this.