Ice storms, Snow flurries, and Rain, Oh my!

Hey Mamas!

For those of you who have the luxury of working from home, or in a school, or in a company that was closed today because of the weather, I know we are all thinking the same thing! What do we do with these kids?

Well, I'm not an expert as I'm only 3 years in the parenting game-- but I have been teaching for quite a while so here's my perspective:

Use a schedule!  

This doesn't mean that you need to come up with 24 different things for your kids to do every hour. You can think of all of the things that they would normally do and block them into segments. For example, if you have an older kid they might want to: have phone time, watch tv, sleep, eat, etc. Now put a time to those events and Voila! You've got a schedule for the day.

The bonus of the schedule is two-fold. You can limit the amount of time they spend doing one of those items (i.e. sleeping for 6 hours or snap chatting it up for 10!) before the day begins. The second benefit of a schedule is you know the amount of time that you will have to yourself. Now of course this won't be perfect ( I'm currently at the bribing stage of my preschooler's nap time in our daily schedule), but at least it gives you a plan that helps prevent some of the stress that comes with the unscheduled flurry that is a Weather Day.

Here's my son's sample schedule

1.  Breakfast
2. TV Time
3. Numbers Worksheet- I made this myself by dotting out the numbers from 1 - 10 and having him trace them
4. Coloring  Time
5. Music Time 
6. Snacks
7. Outside/Game Time
8. Nap Time ( also known as roll around in the covers for 2 hours while repeatedly asking "Am I sleeping now, Mommy?")
9. Yellow Bag time- The Houston Library has an account with Flip Kit. This is a yellow mesh bag with all of the materials that you will need to run a themed lessons with your child- and you get a free Children's Museum Pass when you complete it. We usually check out 2 or 3 when we go to the library. You can read more about them and reserve them online at https://www.flipkits.org/

1. Outside/Game Time/TV Time ( he can choose)

Now if you don't have a job that allows you to work from home, or one that you can afford to take time off of work from you have to plan ahead. Think about neighbors, or friends who are teachers who might not mind watching your child(ren) for the day. This is also a good chance for you to do a tradesies with another mom/dad you know. You can watch their kids for one day, and the next weather day they can watch yours. #ittakesavillage

Also, if you have to sweeten the pot by offering to cook dinner for them or buy a bottle of wine, no judgement-- you know your friends...and you know your kids!!

PS. I love Houston, but I'm a Chicago Girl at heart..and this really isn't a Snow Day--ijs!