With the school year kicking off this past month, the O'Malley house has been thrown in to a state of what I would call a joyous chaos. Joyous, because as a virtual teacher/tutor who works from home, the Lord has still been faithful to deliver work for me and our family, and that I have to praise. And, well, chaos, because while being a homemaker is challenging enough, now throw in blocking off at least half of your day for work, WHILE wanting to disciple (walk alongside and lead toward Christ) an almost four and two year-old. I quickly realized that I had made a huge mistake in preparing for this season, and I believe it is a common mistake that can cause very avoidable burnout in so many moms. . .
There was no intention structured into any part of our day.
Let me explain. The transition into this season was probably harder for my kids than it was for me. Overnight, they went from having mom's attention almost 24/7 to mom being somewhat unavailable for half of that. In addition to this, I did not plan accordingly when it came to activities and tasks to truly occupy them, and I soon realized that I could only say "go play please!" so many times before even I was tired of hearing it. It was after about two weeks of this that I realized I had to put some planning into our days for everybody's sake and sanity. This planning was to ensure that I not only had plenty to keep my kids occupied when I needed them to play independently, but that it was intentional independent play time. So far, this has helped our days run more smoothly, and given me more peace of mind that while I am now dividing my attention, my kids are still being poured into mentally, and spiritually.
So if you are a stay at home mom, a work from home mom, or could use some guidance on intentionally pouring into your kiddos once they are home after a school day, I pray this will be as beneficial for you as it has been for me!
Now as you can imagine, being a work from home teacher combined with the paycheck of my IMMENSELY dedicated Police Detective, we are operating on a budget! So my goal has been to come up with cost friendly, plain, simple, yet intentional activities and systems. And the beautiful thing about kids, is the plain things go a long way! I see the aesthetically labeled bins and work stations moms have set up in their homes, and while I would love to aspire to that, it's simply not practical and achievable for everybody. But that doesn't mean you can't reap the same results! Most of what I have thrown together has come from old holiday craft materials, and dollar store coloring/work books, it's just a matter of setting it up with purpose.
So with my kiddos being 4 and 2, I'm mostly focusing on having preschool level materials ready for my son, and his sister kind of just likes to pretend she's participating! I have taught preschool through middle school for six years now, and can tell you there are so many simple ways to modify these for your child's grade level/age group! I make sure I have a math focus skill, a reading/writing focus skill, and do my best to tie in a biblical truth I can weave throughout those. Let me give you an example!
Here are some activities I literally pulled out of materials from a junk closet, and can EASILY be reproduced with Dollar Store finds. I'm choosing to use the story of David and Goliath and Hebrews 13:6 to teach the biblical truth that we do not need to fear because God is always with us (in my son's case, even though he is much smaller than others!). I've weaved this into math and writing by using a simple sorting activity where he has to sort big and small pom poms. This could also be done with gluing big and small shapes into a sort on paper to practice those fine motor cutting/gluing skills! I also brought shapes into writing to practice tracing big and small shapes. This could also be done with whatever letter you want to work on as well! I would pair this with the story of David and Goliath from his children's bible, and find some fun songs or videos to incorporate as well. The best part of that is siblings join in for that too!
You can throw these into a basket, a snap box container, or even a gallon Ziploc bag, and pull what you want when you want it.
In later posts, I'll talk more about how to turn these into systems and really build a strong structure around these activities. Because just like in my classroom, I need systems so that my kids to know exactly what to do when mom has to go to the computer for an hour, or when you need to take care of a load of laundry or make dinner. They crave the structure, and I crave the sanity!
I hope with just this small snippet, you feel a bit more encouraged that the peace of mind of knowing your babies are being poured into even when you are not directly with them is SO possible. Keep an eye out for more to come!
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