Resources to Help You Stay Home

At The Peaceful Press, we love empowering families to enjoy learning at home with their children. We hope that you will see this season as a gift to your children, and we want to be a help to you in this time.

This current crisis is unprecedented in our lifetime, and we all have different ways of surviving a crisis. I want to share 5 habits that are helping me, 5 free resources, and 5 shop from home resources to help you get through this time.

5 Helpful Habits

1. Make your bed. I'm listening to the book, Make Your Bed by William H. McRaven and I'm reminded of how important it is to keep basic habits going so that we have anchors for our daily life. If you can continue your normal morning routine, you can help your children have safe spots in their day, despite the upheaval.

2. Take it day by day. If we try to forecast how long this will last, or the long term impact on our children of missing out on classes, lessons, and playdates, we will drive ourselves crazy. If instead, we take this one day at a time, and just make each day as happy as possible, we can build sweet memories with our children, despite the scary situation.

3. Read aloud. All of the books we have read, Little House on the Prairie, Sarah, Plain and Tall, Little Britches, The Endurance, and many more are reminding us now that we will be okay. Ma survived the Long Winter, the Shackleton expedition survived a year in the polar ice, and we can survive too. This too shall pass, and we can do our best to make it a season that pulls us together instead of causing us to fall apart.

4. Take care of your health. Exercise, drink plenty of water, turn off your phone, and get plenty of sleep. These habits can make the difference between surviving and merely coping.

5. Get outside. When we are inside dealing with a new normal, life can feel very chaotic, but it's much easier to feel calm when we are outside in nature. It's a good time to explore nature reserves and wild places, while giving other folks plenty of social distance. If you don't have wild places nearby, you can make your yard or balcony a little wild by adding elements such as a sand table, a box and potting soil for planting veggies, and other natural items. 

We are also excited about getting outside with our children this spring, and our one-month nature guides can give you some great ideas for learning with fun nature themes. If you find yourself in need of some inspiration while you practice social distancing, these guides can help.

For students who have finished The Peaceful Preschool, we recommend starting with the Ocean, Garden, or Tree Guide, followed by Farm, Sky, Mountain, Freshwater, and Desert. You can create an entire kindergarten year with these guides which include math, phonics, practical skills, art, fine and large motor skills, and literature.

5 Free Resources

1. Book Lists
Each of our resources is literature-based, which means we pair beautiful books with learning. You can download any of our book lists for free, and with so many of them available on Youtube as read alouds, or on Audible as free stories, you will have plenty to listen to and be encouraged by, while you wait out this crisis.

2. Calendar Bundle
It’s easy to lose track of time right now, but it could be helpful to be marking time, and looking forward to a new season. Download our free calendar bundle and learn with your young students while you keep track.

3. Free Curriculum Samples
You can download one week free of each of our full-year resources, for a total of four weeks of learning. Each sample includes letters or copywork sheets, along with recipes and art projects to keep learning fun in a crisis.

4. Audio Encouragement
This series by Kim John Payne was very encouraging for parents who are trying to be present with their children in a crisis. I’ve also recorded several encouraging episodes of the Wild and Free podcast for weekly encouragement.

5. Free Hymns
Although many of our resources (The Kind Kingdom, The Playful Pioneers) include monthly hymns, we also love this site which provides families with a monthly hymn to study. Music is a classic way to keep our spirit encouraged and hopeful in the midst of trying circumstances, and we hope you will take the time each day to sing with your family.

5 Shop From Home Resources

1. This Montessori Spring Mega Bundle- Our own Garden Guide is in there, along with $400 in printables geared towards early learning. I printed out beautiful handwriting cards, a parts of a castle printable, money matching, cutting skills activities and so much more.

The whole bundle is only $19 and when paired with The Peaceful Preschool Garden Guide (included) there is enough to carry you through this current crisis.

2. Math Games from Right Start- We love their math games for reinforcing math concepts through fun activities, and games are one of the best ways to pass long days at home.

3. The 7 Day Writing Blitz from BraveWriter- We have loved our year studying writing with IEW, it's such a great system for teaching writing structure. However, we like to add in a few fun writing activities from BraveWriter as well, and this 7 Day Writing Blitz is a great resource for those with older children. The Homebound resource from Wild and Free is another great one for encouragement and handcrafts.

4. Online Essentials Shopping- We are trying to be respectful of the current situation by only shopping for essentials and mostly doing that online. Our two favorite online shopping resources right now (besides Amazon) are Imperfect Foods, and Grove Collaborative. Both have mission statements to help the environment, and both offer great service and products. You can use my link for a special offer on your first order.

5. Healthy Homeschool Habits Challenge-I'm participating in a challenge right now that is helping us stay accountable to daily nature walks, read aloud time, and devotions, and it's making a big difference as I keep up these healthy habits. This one closed, but send me a message if you’d like to participate in the future.

Finally, thanks for being such a great community. I'm praying for each of you, and I know that together (but socially distant) we can make it through this. I recorded a short word of encouragement, click here if you need to listen in.

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