Does anyone else feel like we’ve been stuck in a time loop since March?

It’s now August, time for kids to go back to school. Usually, this time of year consists of back-to-school shopping and preparing for another school year in the classroom. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is looking dramatically different.

While some schools have decided to do in-person learning, many have opted to continue virtual learning; other schools are doing a combination of in-person and online learning. It’s been difficult for families, to say the least. Some parents are working outside the home; some are working from home. Still other families have stay-at-home mothers, and all of us are working at full capacity to provide a sense of normalcy.

I want to speak to the families who are embarking on virtual learning as the 2020-2021 school year begins. Is the thought of your kids resuming online learning making you break out into a sweat? I’m a homeschooling mother who will be homeschooling my children this upcoming year. I’ve homeschooled while also working from home.

However, homeschooling and virtual learning does have its differences. With homeschooling, parents typically choose the curriculum and take on the bulk of teaching, but this is not always the case. (Some create homeschool cooperatives and share educational duties.) With virtual learning, teachers are teaching their students, just not face to face. Teachers are adapting their curriculum and doing a combination of live online classes, pre-recorded lessons and sending work packets to do at home.

With homeschooling and virtual learning, your child is home with you, and you are there to aid them in their path to learning. While all this is overwhelming and may feel difficult to plan out, it can be manageable! Here are seven tips to help you make virtual learning a success this school year. Granted, the challenge is harder if you are also working from home or working outside the home, but we hope some of these tips can help you.

A couple of hours of prep time can make or break your whole week. Set aside some time on Sunday – before the beginning of the next week – prepare for the week. This can include writing out a daily schedule for yourself and each of your children. You can get individual planners for each member of the family. If you have a large whiteboard, you can write out major projects/reminders/deadlines for each student.

Each morning, older children should know their daily schedule and what they need to accomplish. For younger children, you can write out their schedule on a whiteboard. Older children can also enter their schedule in their smartphone calendars and set reminders and alerts for each class or they can have the information written in their planner.

Another thing to plan ahead, especially for working parents, are meals. You can food prep dinner, lunch, and even snacks for the week ahead. If you have an instant pressure cooker or slow cooker, you can create “dump meals” so that you can toss them in the cooker during the week. You can make them large enough that there are leftovers for the next day, so you wouldn’t need to cook everyday. Consider prepping a simple lunch. For snacks, you can set up a “snack basket” with grab and go snacks. Another idea is to cut up fruits and veggies into small, on-the-go portions so that there are healthy snack options available between classes.

Another way to get ahead of the week is to set up everyone’s work area. If you work, you probably already have an office area and a dedicated laptop. It can help students get in the mind space for work if they also have their own materials ready for them. This can include each student having their own work area, laptop or tablet, school supplies, etc. This way, siblings aren’t fighting over which electronic device to use or where to sit.

Have you ever woken up and – before you even stepped out of bed – thought to yourself, this day is not going to go right. Then you rush right into your day without giving yourself a chance to take a breath first. By midday, you’re already exhausted.

We’re not always going to have a great day. We can’t control the things that happen to us. What we can control is our own reactions and thoughts. We can encourage a positive mindset each morning by setting up and sticking to a morning routine.

Your morning time can be simple. You can do it over breakfast, before the chaos of the day descends. For example, consider this morning routine to help your kids get going in the right frame of mind:

1. Sit down for breakfast, recite the Fatiha, say positive affirmations about the day. 2. For younger kids, you can read a short story or sing a song to get them excited for the day. 3. For older kids, you can go over everyone’s schedule for the day and what goals to accomplish. 4. End the session with a du’a.

This way, you’ll all start your day with encouragement and with a plan on how your day will look like. You can even spend some of this time writing out your own list of things to get done.

To avoid your household falling into chaos everyday, it helps to set a schedule or a routine for each child (and for yourself too!). A consistent routine helps give kids structure for their days. Without a routine, the days seem to drag on. A schedule can also make transitions from one activity to the next easier if your child knows what to expect. There should also be a set wake-up time (preferably in the morning when everyone is most productive) and a set early bedtime.

You want a semblance of a schedule, but you also want to include plenty of fun and breaks throughout the day. Break up the school day into small, manageable chunks filled with breaks. That way, your child won’t feel like they’ve been studying or learning nonstop. Here are some examples of what you can do between classes and school work:

Mini-scavenger hunt: You can find printable backyard scavenger hunts online that you can hand out to the kids during a break. You can give them 15 minutes to find as much as they can on the list.

Mindfulness activity: I’ve been getting into mindfulness activities with my children and for myself as well. Mindfulness means taking notice and focusing on the activity that you are doing. We live in a world where we’re always rushing to finish everything or to complete multiple tasks at once, almost like we’re on autopilot. Mindfulness activities, like these, can help us and our kids slow down and focus better.

Snack time: Set up a “snack-time basket” filled with healthy snacks that your kids can grab and go.

Play time: This is especially important for younger kids. Incorporate plenty of play time breaks throughout the day.

A Nature “hike”: If you have a walking trail by your home, you can take the kids for a short walk and have them take notice of the different types of trees, birds, or any animals that they see whenever they may have a longer break built into their school schedule. You can also take this little “hike” around your neighborhood.

For older kids that have limited time between classes, they can get up and stretch or take a small walk around the house to move their bodies. If you’re available, they can check in with you and discuss how their day is going.

There are going to be topics and subjects that will be difficult for your child. You might be overwhelmed if your child is asking for help constantly.Set aside a time of the day where your child can come to you with non-urgent questions about their school work. You can use that time to go over a lesson, explain something in depth or do research to learn more.

In addition to the above tip, your child’s teacher is there to help. This new frontier of virtual learning during COVID-19 is new to teachers as much as it is for parents and students. You can work together with your child’s teacher if you have any concerns, or there is a particular topic that the student isn’t understanding. Just because the classroom isn’t face-to-face anymore doesn’t mean that the student is all on their own.

These are trying times. There are going to be days where everything gets done and you feel like a superhero. And there are going to be days where nothing is going right and nothing gets done. Remember, the house will eventually get cleaned, and the work will eventually get done. You’re doing your best and you got this!