Our world has faced a pandemic for months now. We’ve all had to figure out new norms for our daily lives. That obviously looks different for everyone & in every household.

In our home, that included homeschooling. And I’m not gonna lie… the assignments took up most of the day! Still, however, was the need to branch out.

Being home more often has given us opportunities to explore new areas of learning. The academic year will begin again soon but in the meantime, here are a few other things you could work on with your kids.

Home economics

If you haven’t yet implemented this into your daily lifestyle, now is the time. Teach your kids how to do their laundry, cook simple meals, do basic cleaning tasks like dishes, dusting, and/or mopping. These are life skills they need to know anyway.

Why not start now?

My daughters are 7 & 12. They have both been doing each step of laundry: sorting, loading, unloading, folding, & putting clothes away during quarantine. My youngest was folding wash cloths & hand towels at three years old. She liked to help me so I let her.

Financial Literacy

Let’s be honest, traditional schools don’t teach much about finances & handling money. If your parents educated you in this area at a young age, consider yourself fortunate. Many people grew up on the other end of the spectrum & learned the hard way.

Now is the time to use sites like themint.org to get your kids ahead of the game. Dave Ramsey also has resources available for kids. I’m sure you’ll learn something, too. Adulting doesn’t mean you have it all together.

I really need to dive deeper into this with my girls!

Geography

Are you a family who enjoys travel & adventure? Does your child know a lot about continents, landscapes, or other countries? If not, don’t sweat it! Nat Geo Kids is a great starting point.

I’m making it a priority to get online & learn with my kids. We can’t travel freely right now but we can go anywhere we choose virtually. Get on #Netflix or #Youtube & find travel/adventure shows you all enjoy. The interactve Bear Grylls show, You vs. Wild, on Netflix is one of our faves!

Viewers get to make the decisions during each adventure & learn from their choices. Not only is it fun, it’s informative! Have you tried it?

A New Language

Arabic, Spanish, Korean, French, Italian… there are so many to choose from. My daughters joined Duolingo before the pandemic to learn a new language . They deviated from it but I’m now urging them to get back into it. The app is easy to navigate & only takes a few minutes of your time daily.

I’ve used it for my own enrichment & learned a lot. Give it a try. You can choose a daily lesson time that works best with your schedule. Indulging first thing in the morning worked best for me.

Self-Care & Grooming

Our kids need to know how to take care of themselves properly. We can’t always do it for them. If you haven’t yet, teach grooming skills such as shaving, hair washing, moisturizing, clipping nails, etc.

My oldest will be a *whole* teenager in a few months. There are things mommy no longer wants to do FOR her. I’m going to ramp up our practice in this area to make sure both of my girls are more self-sufficient.

Listen… all of this is a work in progress for us. We get unfocused but eventually find our way back to things. These are simply suggestions to vary your daily routine while teaching your kids something useful.

Maybe you haven’t gotten around to showing your daughter how to iron her shirt or your son to clip his nails. And that’s totally fine! No judgement from this mom.

Like yours, my kids had a boatload of schoolwork haunting them last year. There was barely time for anything else! Unfortunately, it’s starting all over again soon.

While a bit of summer break remains, teach your kids skills that’ll make life easier & more interesting once school begins. If you’re like me, you want to go into this new year of virtual learning in a better place than you left it last year. If we have to be home most of the time, may as well learn something useful.