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While my family isn't quarantining yet, we kind of feel like we already are.

You see, last night we paid to rent a movie from Amazon Prime instead of heading to the nearest Redbox to get one.

Did you catch that? We bought one, instead of getting one cheaper or even for free because we were uneasy about possible contamination by leaving the house.

Afraid of a virus that might potentially not even be there.

And that got me thinking… so we're not even officially quarantining and I've already bought something that I didn't need to pay for. Boy, this pandemic could be horrible for my budget if I don't stop it now.

So I wracked my brain for what I did after the 9/11 terror attack, plus with over 16 years of homeschooling, I'll share my best tips for staying busy, keeping the calm during the storm, and fun ways to get your home in order while you have to quarantine.

Because if you have to do it, you might as well be quarantining in style and having fun doing it! Right?!!

I'll share my best quarantine tips to help your family stay busy because when you're busy, you won't have time to spend money.

And, if you have to quarantine in your home, you'll want to do certain things in order to mitigate the craziness going on in the world. You'll need to cultivate peace in your home so not only you can remain calm, but so that your family can too!

Plus, with these quarantine preparedness tips, you can be sure you will keep your family learning and have lots of fun too!

So let's dive into what you can do to save money and stay busy while you're quarantining.

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1. Keep The Same Schedule

Keeping the same time schedule as close to normal is so important during these crazy times of quarantining. It can lower stress and help keep your bodies' natural sleep pattern in order.

A predictable schedule also helps your children feel safe and that's important during this time.

The best quarantine tip I would say I've learned is to continue with the same awake and sleep schedule. It can especially help prevent meltdowns (even from the adults).

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Staying on the same routine helps to lower stress, which then can help the body's immune system fight against sickness.

The more you stay on the same schedule the better it will be to keep your family healthy while you quarantine in your home. Plus, it will help once everyone goes back to school and work.

So get the kids up, get them fed breakfast, and get their pajamas changed into their day clothes. Just the act of changing their clothes can help the shift the mindset into doing something different besides lounging around like a lazy Saturday.

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2. Turn Off The News

When the terror attacks on 9/11 occurred and the news information kept getting worse and worse, I turned off the news.

Why? Because I was shielding my children from what was going on in the nation.

Was it important for them to know? Not at that age. Would it have helped them to feel calm or secure knowing about it right then? Nope.

It would have made them stressed out, anxious, and nervous. Since kids don't always know how to process their feelings in a positive way, it could have led to further developments like arguing, fussing, and fighting. Not the kinds of things I wanted to deal with at that moment.

So I chose to turn it off. My husband, James, and I kept informed of what was going on from watching the late night news after our children were in bed and shared our feelings with each other in private.

While I did tell my kids some of the things that happened so that they could understand it, I also conveyed the most important thing, that they were safe and they had nothing to worry about.

So my best advice to you is to turn off the news while you are quarantining. Get some updates when you can, but don't burden your children with the weight of the problem. And please don't leave it on in the background, like white noise. You might zone it out but what your kids hear could be disturbing and nervewracking. Heck, I'm feeling nervous right now too!

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3. Make A Learning Schedule While Quarantining

Yes, you're kids are out of school but that doesn't mean that learning has to stop even if you are quarantining. Set up a schedule with learning, lunch, and play times so that you're child doesn't stop learning. This will not only help their brains, but it will also help your sleep/awake schedule stay intact.

Even if you don't have “school work” from your child's school just yet, create something for them to do. Writing stories, practice handwriting, learn money games, learn a new language, etc. should all be apart of your quarantine preparedness. There are so many activities you can print or learn right from the internet so that the learning doesn't have to stop.

Set up reading as part of your day and have a read-aloud with all the funny voices. Not only is this fun for everyone, but having a voice for each character really helps the story come alive. It engages each reader and listener, and believe me, they won't want to stop the story until it's done.

Think of all the subjects your children are learning and do at least one thing in each subject per day of the week Monday through Friday.

Of course, you can always throw in some learning fun like Water Day! Go over the basics of water, where it comes from, how it gets to your house, and why it rains. You can go over what aquifers are along with a great day of playing in the water.

Since you are the teacher now, you get to decide. But remember, the more you plan, the more you have to keep your family busy, and most importantly, keeping them learning!

Do include brain breaks! Here are over 20 ideas to give that brain a break!

If there is no work from the school yet, start by browsing the over 600,000 FREE resources from Teachers Pay Teachers. All you have to do it sign up to get these free downloads!

FREE Learning Resources

You can also check out these sites for more fun FREE resources:

  • Amazon Inspire (Only available until 6/30/20) [Grades K-12: Math, Science, Language Arts, Social Studies, Arts, World Languages, Physical Education, Health, Career, and Technical studies]
  • Best History Sites [Grades K-12: History Lesson Plans, Activities, Games & more]
  • Common Sense Education [Grades K-12: Language Arts, Social Studies, Arts, World Languages, Math, Science, Health.]
  • Edsitement [Grades K-12: Lessons and materials.]
  • Epic! [Grades K-5: eBooks, Videos, Quizzes & more.]
  • HippoCampus [High School-College: Algebra, Geometry, Biology, Earth Science & more.]
  • Illuminations [Grades Pre-K-12: Algebra, Geometry, Measurement & more.]
  • Jump Start [Grades K-5: Activities, Worksheets, Lesson Plans and Curriculum.]
  • The Kennedy Center Classroom Resources [Grades K-12: Music, Dance, Theater, Opera, Visual, Media, Literary and Performing Arts]
  • Library Of Congress [Grades K-12: Language Arts, Social Studies.]
  • Math Drills [Over 50,000 Free Math Worksheets.]
  • NASA [Grades K-12: Lesson Plans, Activities, Learning Modules & more.]
  • National Gallery of Art [Grades K-12: Lessons, Activities and Interactions.]
  • National Geographic [Grades K-12: Math, Chemistry, Geography and more.]
  • PBS Learning Media [Grades K-12: Science, Arts, Math, Engineering & Technology and more.]
  • ReadWriteThink [Grades K-12: Lesson Plans, Student Interactives, printables & more.]
  • Scholastic Learn At Home [Grades Pre-K-6+: Free resources to keep your kids reading, thinking and growing.
  • Soft Schools [Grades Pre-K-12: Free worksheets, games, quizzes & more]
  • Story Online [Elementary Children: Free streaming of actor's reading children's stories available 24 hours a day.]
  • Teacher.org [Grades K-12: Free teacher tools and resources.]
  • Times Educational Supplement [Grades Pre-K-12: Free resources for teachers made by teachers.]
  • USA.gov [Lesson plans, activities and worksheets.]
  • We Are Teachers [Grades Pre-K-12: Free resources on all topics.]
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4. Stay Busy

The more time we have on our hands while quarantining, the worse it gets for my budget. I don't know about you, but scrolling through Facebook and any other social media produces tons of advertisements. Advertisements that are meant to catch my eye and my wallet.

So what are we going to do while we quarantine in our home? Well, besides locking that credit card up, we are going to stay busy.

After your school day is done, and dinner is complete (which by the way can be another tool in your learning tool belt by teaching your kids how to cook and bake), plan to work on a project – one that doesn't require using your debit or credit card number.

Listen…THIS is our chance to actually DO all those things we never get to do!

Get out that craft you’ve been putting off and get it done!

Make that baby scrapbook (even though your kid is now 4 years old) or design and make those matching T-shirts for your family reunion happening at the end of the year.

Or in my case… restringing my pearls that broke a year ago and I never got time to fix them.

Here are some other great activities I've got planned:

  • Quilt squares I’ve wanted to pull out and put together
  • T-shirt quilts I wanted to make for the kids using their baby clothes
  • Rotate seasonal clothes (go through my closet & drawers to have more room)
  • Make new throw pillows for our sofas (I've had these supplies for years!)
  • Make Christmas gifts using the jewelry supplies I've had on hand
  • Get ready for a garage sale

Just think of all those craft projects that you started or bought the supplies to make, but didn’t get to even start or finish! You'll have time to do them now!

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5. Learn Or Make Something New Together

Just because you have time off with the kids while you are quarantining doesn't mean you can't do something fun together. Since learning is fun, let's learn and have fun together!

Right now we are all working towards saving money for a vacation in Kansas this summer. We took a big poster board and put our Savings Goal at the top ($5,000) and then we divided out how much money each balloon needs to represent as we save up for our goal. We cut out little balloons to paste onto the board as we successfully saved the money towards our goal.

Breaking down the savings goal, by dividing it out based on how much time we had, as well as brainstorming all the ways we can raise money towards are goal were a lot of fun (and that's a great lesson to learn!).

Also, we did paper crafts. Like making origami jumping frogs and having races with them.

Or making a themed under the sea window treatment with origami fish, whales, crabs, sharks, and even sea turtles. We simply hung the paper shapes from a curtain rod with some tape and some fishing line. Then, we read books about oceans and even watched some great nature movies about the ocean and ocean animals (plus, Nemo). We learned so much and stayed busy doing it!

Learn About Your Family

Another great quarantine tip you can do is to research your family history and make a family tree. Since you can't visit your family, you can still call them!

Call up your relatives and ask them these questions:

  • What is your full name and when and where were you born?
  • What are your parent's names?
  • Do you know where they were born? What was their birth dates?
  • Do you know anything about where your family came from?
  • Who is the oldest relative you remember about and what do you remember about them?
  • Do you know how our family originally got to America?

Then you can also ask them some fun questions too? Like:

  • What kind of mischief did you create or get into as a child?
  • What kind of games did you play as a child?
  • Where was your first job, how much was your first paycheck and what did you spend it on?
  • Where did you first meet your spouse and where did you go on your first date?
  • What is the family tradition you wish your family still did now?

Then add all the information to your notebook and create a family tree with all the relatives you have found.

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6. Stay Active

While you may be quarantining in your home, this does not mean that you have to become a couch potato because of it.

Staying active will not only help you process the stress of the situation, but it will help your children's bodies do the same!

Make some kind of physical activity part of your day. It could be running around for 5 minutes picking up all the dirty clothes to go in the wash, placing all the shoes piled up by the back door to their appropriate closets, or even picking 10 weeds out of the lawn in under 60 seconds.

When was the last time you played T-ball or kick ball in your back yard? Or had a water balloon fight? While these activities may seem small, they are huge things to keep your body moving and will help reduce stress during this time.

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Stuck inside? Create an indoor obstacle course or a super fun scavenger hunt.

Use some painters tape and create hopscotch, Matchbox car racetracks, tic tac toe, a giant chessboard, or paper airplane landing strips.

Grab your recyclables and make up a bowling game or you can play tennis with a balloon and paper plates.

Grab the Nerf guns and have a Nerf war!

Don't forget about hide and seek, charades, musical chairs, hacky sack, keep a balloon up in the air, faux snowball fight, tag, or even Red Rover.

There are hundreds of indoor activities to keep your family moving, grooving, and staying active.

And needless to say, these activities won't cost you a dime! Save your money for the more important stuff you'll need to buy later!

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7. Love On Your Family (Don't Forget Your Fur Babies)

When a stressful time comes around like when you are quarantining, it can easy to get caught up in the tizzy and let the stress come over you.

But in these times, we need to hold onto something… either our faith, family or even our fur babies… and sometimes all three!

My family cats have been extra clingy lately because they can feel the stressful situation that we are in. I'm sure your little ones are probably acting the same way.

Let's take time to love on our babies, big, little or with lots of fur and take the time to just sit down and relax to take a couple deep breaths for a few minutes.

While we may not be able to change the situation, we can change how we respond to the situation.

Stop, breathe, give a hug, and a kiss or two and just decompress.

It'll be worth it for your sanity, and your families.

Well, I hoped you've learned from my best quarantine tips to help your family stay busy, because when you're busy, you won't have time to spend money.

And, if you have to quarantine in your home, you'll want to do certain things in order to mitigate the craziness going on in the world. Cultivating peace is the best way for your family to remain calm.

Plus, with these quarantine preparedness tips, you can be sure you will keep your family learning and have lots of fun while you're at it!

YOUR TURN: What quarantining advice would you give to a family that's never had to do it before? Share with me in the comments below!

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