Simple Living – This is Tehama

The New Normal of Slow-Living on the COVID-19 Home Front

How can your family find value in this time of COVID-19, the stay-at-home mandates, and social distancing? English children’s author Beatrix Potter said, “For quiet, solitary and observant children create their own world and live in it, nourishing their imaginations on the material at hand.” Simple living on the home front is giving us time to learn how to be together again in our family worlds. It’s giving us a chance to nourish our children’s minds, curiosity, and an opportunity to create a new normal.

I know for some, this stay-at-home time may be proving the most trying situation you have ever faced, and my heart goes out to you. Many parents have lost jobs or have jobs on pause. Ongoing health and mental health issues have brought hardship to the lives of many. I hope that you, and all people, can find help, encouragement, and peace amidst the chaos and unknown.

The majority of what I have seen by interacting with loved ones, my Tehama County neighbors, and the social media posts of friends and strangers, is evidence of resiliency and ingenuity during this unprecedented time. The response to this health crisis reminds me of the bravery displayed on home fronts during wartime. Families and neighbors are demonstrating bravery in their own homes, adopting a spirit of unity, taking time to help each other as they can, and adapting as life’s pace slows.

Flexibility and patience, with ourselves, others, and the situation, are essential as the old normal comes to a screeching halt. Many people, young and old, have been forced to face a completely different lifestyle. As a veteran homeschooler, my life hasn’t changed very much, but I am now being asked for tips from parents who suddenly find themselves facing a houseful of school-age kids who need direction.

Families are adjusting, and it is reasonable not to expect too much too soon. Relax and allow for some readjustment time for the whole family; then, be flexible about what your new normal will be.

Aside from assigned schoolwork and screen-based help, I have tried to offer an old-fashioned, restful approach for my family’s new normal. I don’t subscribe to kids needing constant entertainment, and parents shouldn’t feel pressured into doing Pinterest crafts 24/7. Instead, enjoy some timeless activities and experience the benefit for your family. Here are a few simple-living-inspired activities.

• Enjoy family or individual storytime.
• Try listening to audiobooks and audio dramas.
• Encourage both children and adults to tell a story of their own making or retell a memory.
• Read indoors or outdoors.
• Take nature walks and do nature studies.
• Play board games.
• Do chores, both individually and as a family.
• Enjoy family pets and walking the dog.
• Send snail mail letters and cards to friends and relatives.
• Start a garden from seed.
• Bake bread.
• Learn handicrafts.
• Become comfortable with quiet & learn to meditate.
• Chat with a neighbor over the fence.
• And the big one—allow children to get past those feelings of boredom to where creativity begins!

One of the most rewarding experiences for parents can be watching our children’s ingenuity flourish during quiet time. The reward for the children is even better. They achieve a sense of accomplishment after finding productivity on the other side of boredom, a skill that will give them high confidence in life.

The pandemic has given me time to pursue some new activities and continue with some favorite activities. So far, I have made homemade marmalade for this first time, started a sourdough starter from scratch, and colored Easter eggs with natural dyes.

All around me, I have been relishing in children and adults benefiting from slower living. We’re gaining patience and confidence by living without a sense of busyness and by facing the fear of a different lifestyle, a new normal, head-on. I get the feeling that in emerging from this crisis, people will know that whatever may come, “you got this!”

The benefit you find may be in the ways you spend this precious time and how it strengthens your family.

North State Parent’s wish is that your home front is even more beautiful and sacred on the other side of the 2020 stay-at-home order.