Anonymous wrote:Let them sleep in.

Breakfast then cartoons and toys for a couple hours.

Let them play outside while you monitor from inside.

Lunch and cartoons.

Online school work followed by reading or coloring.

Snack

Playtime outside

Cartoons

Dinner

Husband should go into office super early to get home earlier than usual and give you time to work.

I think you missed some of what OP said. Her kids are 4 and 7. They can't play outside by themselves and can't do school work independently online.

I am having "school time" from 8 to 11:30, with breaks in between. Thirty minutes for each major subject. Not doing art, music, etc. They can play inside after that or watch tv while I work in the afternoon. I don't expect to put in a full day. Set expectations with your coworkers and managers now. You cannot be expected to do it all. Getting up extra early and staying up late to fit it all in will wear you down, make you tired and stressed, which will make your body more easily receptive to getting sick. Just don't do it. We're not robots. I think businesses need to realize the new reality and some haven't caught on yet.

This is why ther needs to be a FMLA (partially paid) option for those whose kids are in districts that closed and they must work. Hopefully the bill that passed the house takes care of that for this emergency situation.

Don’t worry if they aren’t keeping up with the schoolwork. I’m an ideal world the closures don’t interrupt learning progress. But so many people will be in the same boat as you that your kids will not be behind relatively speaking and the schools will just need to cope with that reality when things start up again down the road.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let them sleep in.

Breakfast then cartoons and toys for a couple hours.

Let them play outside while you monitor from inside.

Lunch and cartoons.

Online school work followed by reading or coloring.

Snack

Playtime outside

Cartoons

Dinner

Husband should go into office super early to get home earlier than usual and give you time to work.

This is my general plan as well. Not much I can do about it. Conference calls/WebEx where I actually lead are going to be challenging.

I’ve done calls from home before with the kids. I tell them they need to be silent while I’m on the phone. They watch tv or play video games downstairs, and I work upstairs. It’s not a big deal.

Anonymous wrote:Let them sleep in.

Breakfast then cartoons and toys for a couple hours.

Let them play outside while you monitor from inside.

Lunch and cartoons.

Online school work followed by reading or coloring.

Snack

Playtime outside

Cartoons

Dinner

Husband should go into office super early to get home earlier than usual and give you time to work.

This is my general plan as well. Not much I can do about it. Conference calls/WebEx where I actually lead are going to be challenging.

DH and I will split the time, using a combination of leave and telework. Unless your spouse is a first responder of some kind, he can figure out how to be at home -- he can call out sick, for example, even if he's not in a position to tell his boss that office work right now is inappropriate.

Lots of people will be calling out to deal with school closures. Offices are just going to have to deal. They can have partial productivity from home or they can have none because people are out.

Anonymous wrote:PBS kids
Set up an art area
Go for walks with them

If you can - start your work day much earlier in the morning and finish it after bedtime. This is what I told my boss was my new reality for the next 4 weeks.

This. You are NOt the only parent in this situation. I have to imagine that your colleagues will be as understanding as mine!
Amazon prime video has a ton of educational stuff - i just bookmarked a bunch of videos ling enough for me to have a phone call
Super early wakeupa, a movie in the afternoon, and back online in the evening. That is what i am doing. But i am lucky, my boss is SUPER understanding and i can successfully telework for the duration

Let them sleep in.

Breakfast then cartoons and toys for a couple hours.

Let them play outside while you monitor from inside.

Lunch and cartoons.

Online school work followed by reading or coloring.

Snack

Playtime outside

Cartoons

Dinner

Husband should go into office super early to get home earlier than usual and give you time to work.

Babysitter and movies. Desperate times call for desperate measures. It will be a screen time free-for-all at our house for the next month.

I'm just not seeing any way i can get full time telework done. I'm aiming for 6 hours a day, starting before anyone else wakes up, and taking my remaining unpaid FMLA time to cover the other 2 (I JUST came back from maternity leave and have a few days left of the 12 week allotment). Also not expecting my kid to have a full day of learning. These are exceptional times. I think we should push back on the expectation of maintaining full productivity and normal schedules to the extent we are safe enough to do so. We have to take care of our families and health and communities first.

I agree- find a babysitter. Even for a few hours to help your kids with the distance/remote learning, so that you can work.

PBS kids
Set up an art area
Go for walks with them

If you can - start your work day much earlier in the morning and finish it after bedtime. This is what I told my boss was my new reality for the next 4 weeks.

Find a college kid to babysit.

I'm staring down a week of teleconferences/work projects and lists from 2 schools on educational instruction/schedule recommendations (for the next 4 weeks!). I have a spouse that is required to be in the office all week. We have no local family and no nanny. My kids are not old enough to independently learn. If you are in a similar situation, how are you going to manage? I'm working on a schedule of getting up super early to work for a couple of hours before the kids wake up at 6:30am. Then give them the normal weekday routine of breakfast, get ready as if we are leaving the house at 7:30am as normal. From there, I'm looking at how to give them a somewhat set schedule similar to a school day of learning, outside time, snacks/meals (not the 24-7 snacking my kids tend to do on weekends). And then work for a couple of hours when they go to bed. But that doesn't get me to an 8-hour workday nor does it help when I have midday conference calls or calls from my staff. So, maybe make up a few hours on the weekends? I allow electronics on weekends so I could use that time to work. My kids (4 and 7) are not old enough IMO to play outside alone so any outside time (which our preschool is recommending be at least 4 hours per day!). I was thinking of finding other similarly situated working parents so we could share the load.
This post is part-woe is me, I know. But I'm also looking for creative ways to balance it all without the support of family or nanny. Thanks