Healthy Ideas for Learning at Home

As the school year has begun virtually for at least the first 9 weeks, how can your family keep healthy while learning at home? The good news is that there are plenty of ways! Most ways require minimal cost, time, resources, and they all help to bring the family together.

Unplug and Connect: As students are using technology more right now to learn at home, when students are not learning take time to unplug and connect.  Enjoy family time together by preparing a meal together, enjoying physical activity or playing a fun new game.

At-Home Learning: Create a schedule and stick with it. Find a space in your home free of distractions, noise and clutter for learning and doing homework. It should also be well lit. Try to attend school activities and meetings with COVID precautions. Identify opportunities for your child to connect with peers and to be social, either virtually or in person, while maintaining precautions. If your child participates in school meal programs, identify how your school district plans to make meals available to students who are learning virtually at home. Check your local resources, food banks and visit meal sites. Visit mdsummermeals.org or visit your local school food and nutrition website to find a location near you. 

Smart-Snacks : To keep your children going during the at-home school day include low-sugar, whole grain breakfast cereals with low-fat milk, low-fat string cheese, fruit smoothies made with low-fat milk or yogurt, nuts and raisins, whole wheat pita slices, cutup veggies, and hummus, whole grain pretzels, fruit slices dipped in low-fat flavored yogurt.

Physical Activity: Everyone loves participating in the many trendy social media challenges these days. But why not create one of your own for your family? Who knows, maybe it too could become a trend! Try making a, “Staying Healthy at Home” challenge. Use a simple point-based system to keep track. You have to score a minimum of 5 points per day! Rewards or privileges could be given for completing this. Choose from the following tasks below or think of some that work best for your family. Do them all for extra points and extra wellbeing benefits for you! See who can get the most points per day or per week! 

• Being active for at least 30-minutes a day – 1 point. This could be as simple as taking breaks for physical activity, walking around the house, walking up the stairs twice, having a dance party, standing up during instruction, at home workouts, etc. 
• Have water in a reusable water bottle to drink during the day – 1 point. 
• Eating regular meals and snacks (3 meals and 2 snacks daily) –1 point. 
• Take a break from the screen for 30 minutes every 2 hours –1 point. 
• Prepared a meal together as a family – 1 point.
•  Keep a morning routine (change out of pajamas, make the bed, shower, etc.) –1 point. 
• Go to bed at the same time every night –1 point. 
• Meditate or do yoga –1 point. 
• Practice Gratitude – 1 point. 
• Do something together as a family –1 point. This could look something like going on a walk or a bike ride together, preparing or cooking meals together, making an arts and crafts project together like a face mask, etc. You can even do something outside together like gardening or going on a scavenger hunt. 

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