Our mission with OneFamily is to equip, encourage and sustain couples in their marriage and parenting journey.  During this unprecedented season when families are required to stay home and maintain social distancing, we want be an encouraging and sustaining resource that will equip you with practical insights and tools to help you take hold of the opportunities for an intentional and fruitful family time.

In the coming days and weeks ahead, we’ll be sending you tips, ideas, suggestions and resources to help you best steward this situation while continuing to help your family thrive.

Here are 5 ideas to consider as you formulate your extended time at home:

  1. Daily family fun and activity time – Playing a board games, working on puzzle, building a Lego town are just some of the indoor things we like doing for family fun.  While being mindful of “social distancing”, go for walks, play catch or soccer.  Having outside activities will act as a pressure release to that cooped up feeling.  Some of our neighbors brought out their wood fire pit and made smores! For more ideas by age, check out our Family Fun Night Letter.
  2. Use this time to be productive – Having this extended time at home is also an opportunity to be productive with many things we tend to put off – home projects, personal goals, initiating a new routine, etc…   Spring cleaning, decluttering the basement, organizing the garage or kitchen, initiating a new workout or diet routine or reading that book we’ve been meaning to get to, for example.  Keep in mind that larger projects need to be prioritized and broken down into smaller tasks over several days.  Get the kids involved as well.  Have them declutter their rooms, play area and help with other home projects.  This productive time will give everyone a sense of accomplishment and build on your family identity at the same time.
  3. Daily enrichment time – Studies show that having an intentional quality enrichment time will empower your sense of wellbeing and nourish your mind and soul.  Add a morning devotional, initiate quite time with a daily journal, set up family reading time, play music together, learn a foreign language or watch and discuss a documentary as a family.  The key is to do something to enrich you mind and soul.
  4. Stay connected – Facetime and Skype are obvious ways we can stay socially connected with friends and family.  Perhaps check in with grandma and grandpa or some friends to talk about the fun or different ways they are spending this extended home time.  This past week, we’ve been converting all of our in person classes and small groups to online video conferencing via Zoom.  We will be adding more online classes and workshops this next week – Stay tuned!
  5. Establish a schedule/routine – This will help your family minimize frustrations and anxiety by providing structure and setting expectations.  Be sure to have set “work from home” and/or “school from home” times along with “free times” and “activity times” as mentioned above.  For families with older children, getting their input will help them to feel part of the process and be accountable during this unusual time.  We’ve added a sample daily schedule/routine on our resource page to give you some ideas as you create your own.

As you consider these ideas, remain consistent with your CouchTime.  You may want to add a second Couchtime, as needed (one after breakfast and one before bed), to help you discuss and update plans throughout the day.  Not only will this help you be productive, but also provide the corollary benefit of security for your children.  Seeing mom and dad talking during a time of non-conflict will go a long way toward easing any underlying anxiety they may be experiencing during this uncertain time.

Finally, as you begin to navigate this time with your family, please send us your success stories, tips, ideas, and best practices so we can share them with other families!  We’ve already received some great ideas and look forward to passing them along to you in the coming days and weeks!

Blessings to your family!

Shelly and Rich

Here is a link from the CDC to help you discus the Coronavirus with your children: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/talking-with-children.html