Online Homeschool and Feeding Kids: Keep it Simple With These Tips!

Like so many of you, we’re taking on online homeschool with our kids this year, in light of the current pandemic. This definitely isn’t what I had expected or planned, but we’re making the most of it with our 5 kiddos. 

And while homeschooling itself has its own set of challenges, feeding kids all day long can be a full-time job all in itself. Because when kids go to school, it helps break up the meals and feeding jobs during the day. But homeschooling can feel like feeding kids around the clock. Just when one meal is prepared, served, eaten, and cleaned up after, it’s on to the next one. 

From my own experience and from discussing with the families I work with, many parents may find the monotonous and repetitive task of feeding kids exhausting, even overwhelming at times. When kids are home more frequently, they may naturally request food (in the form of snacks) more frequently, constantly asking about food, or wondering when they get to eat next. If you’re a parent who’s juggling kids, the house, homeschooling, and even your own work and business, food requests can get old really quick. 

If you’re also embarking on homeschooling, and if feeding kids is sucking the joy out of your day, I’ve got you covered, mama! Here are some tips and suggestions to help you simplify your feeding routine and bring some joy back to eating with your kids so it doesn’t just feel like another chore to check off your list every day. 

Simplify Feeding Kids While Homeschooling

Here are some 9 simple ideas to help you simplify feeding your kids while homeschooling, from a homeschooling mom and family dietitian:

1.Pack lunches as usual:

Even though we’re doing school from home, packing lunches the night before can be a lifesaver. Easier still - I have the kids pack their lunches the night before. This helps them have some structure during their school day, even though we’re learning from home.

It’s also one less thing to have to think about, and one less meal to plan during the day.

My kids also enjoy getting their lunch boxes out, and it gives them a sense of normalcy during these unusual times. If you need more help with a framework for building and packing lunches, check out this post here: “Is Your Child Not Eating Lunch at School? Try These School Lunch Ideas”

2. Switch up where you eat:

Piggy-backing on the first tip, switching up where you eat lunch can help break up the monotony around planning meals as well. It can be as simple as having a picnic on the living room floor or outside in the backyard. If it’s been a particularly challenging day of online homeschool, I find it’s helpful to actually get out of the house and switch up our surroundings for lunch.

This is where the packed lunches can come in handy, as we grab and go. Eating lunch at a local park or anywhere outside the house can do wonders for everyone’s mood and be a welcomed break from the meal monotony during the day. 

3. Take breaks for scheduled snacks:

I don’t know about you, but my kids seem to gravitate more toward snacking when homeschooling. It could sometimes be out of boredom or even to procrastinate from doing school work. To help mitigate the constant snack requests, I find it helpful to have designated snack times during our school day.

For us, this looks like a snack break between breakfast and lunch, and a snack break between lunch and dinner. We usually wrap up homeschooling in the early afternoon and will have our afternoon snack then. I’m a huge proponent of having meal and snack schedules with kids, as I find it makes food more predictable for them and avoids the constant grazing.

When my kids know it’s part of the schedule, it helps decrease the constant snack requests too because it's part of the homeschooling routine. For more help on creating a meal routine for your family, check out this post here: “Build Healthy Habits For Kids With a Feeding Schedule”

4. Eat with your kids:

When you’re homeschooling, managing the house, taking care of the kids, and doing all the things, it can be challenging to feel like you can even sit down for a meal, let alone, eat more than the leftover scraps on your kids’ plates.

But taking care of yourself is part of taking care of your family, and you can’t run on empty fumes. Eating is the most valid form of self-care, and you deserve to sit down and feed your body during your busy homeschooling days. Taking the time to eat when your kids are eating can help you connect with your kids and model the importance of prioritizing self-care.

It’s easy to put your kids before yourself and to do for them what you might not do for yourself. But you deserve to eat, too. Use your kids’ eating times as a reminder to join them to eat, too. 

5. Have time where you eat alone:

With that said, it’s also important to have time alone to recharge your batteries. Homeschooling is rewarding and challenging in that you may feel like you never get a moment to yourself.

The pace of keeping up with school and home life can be overwhelming at times, leaving you catching your breath. Have some time during your day where you are able to enjoy a meal or snack without the kids, either alone or with your partner.

This can give you a chance to recenter, ground yourself, and check in with how your body is feeling. Sometimes, it’s hard to gage what your body may be needing when you’re busy during the day. Having a moment of solitude can help you reconnect with your body and attend to any needs you might have, including honoring your hunger and fullness. For more on this, check out this post here: “How to Feed Yourself While You Care For Kids to Enjoy Your Motherhood”

6. Focus on positive meal experiences:

If you’re overly worried about the food part of feeding your kids, this can create added stress and anxiety around mealtimes. Keep in mind that connection at meals/snack times is more important for your child’s overall health than nutrition alone.

While it can be challenging to maintain a sense of positivity around meals with the repetitive nature of feeding kids, keep your eyes focused on the big picture kids can help make mealtimes more enjoyable. One way you can do this is by creating a family tradition or mealtime ritual that you all look forward to, like taking turns sharing your favorite moment of the day or even playing a game.

As a conversation starter, you can keep a jar of conversation starters (kid-appropriate, of course) that everyone gets to take turns choosing and sharing their answers. This helps turn mealtimes from drudgery to delight for everyone in the family. 

7. Delegate tasks as you’re able:

As mentioned earlier, there are so many tasks that go into the meal preparation and clean-up. Shouldering all of these responsibilities, from grocery shopping to cooking, cleaning, etc, can feel like an invisible load and is too much for any one person to carry.

If and when possible, delegate out tasks to help ease the load you’re carrying to make mealtimes happen. Involve your kids whenever possible with age-appropriate tasks, either with meal preparation, setting the table or clean up afterward. Rotating responsibilities can help your children feel more involved and also bonuses as exposing them to food outside of just mealtimes alone.

If possible, involve your partner or other caregivers by inviting them to take over one meal during the course of the day. Having one less meal that you’re responsible for during the course of the day can help give you more margin and space to work with. 

8. Let kids be involved with planning/preparing:

Sometimes, it’s easy to get stuck into a rut with the same rotation of meal and snack options. After a while, this can add to the monotony of feeding kids, especially if you feel like you and your kids are burning out on the same foods.

Trying out new recipes or bringing a new meal into the rotation can help bring some life back into your family meal plan routine. I like to involve my kids with this by letting them plan out one meal or snack in the weekly meal plan. This helps spark their creativity and also encourages them to be part of the process, rather than a by-stander.

Depending on your children’s ages, you can let them be in charge of different parts of the meal, like planning it, preparing, etc. In doing this, your kids are learning an essential life skill, which is pretty important for homeschooling, if you ask me. :)

9. Use convenient foods to build meals/snacks:

Convenience and processed foods get a lot of shade these days, and I know so many parents who feel guilty for using these foods or serving them to their kids. In reality, these foods can help build a wholesome meal for you and your family in a quick and easy way.

When you’re pressed for time and need to feed your family FAST, convenience foods can come in super handy as a meal starter. For example, for a quick lunch, I’ll put in a frozen cheese pizza and serve it alongside a fresh fruit smoothie and veggies with hummus. While the pizza is baking in the oven, I can quickly make the smoothie and assemble the rest of the meal.

There’s a variety of convenience foods you can use to build a meal that quickly nourishes and feeds your whole family. And you can leave the guilt behind because you’re feeding your family and doing such a good job caring for all your kids while homeschooling them, too. 

Taking on homeschooling during this season of life is no simple feat, and I hope these easy tips can help simplify the process of feeding your family so you can continue to focus on raising world-changers. 

You’re doing an amazing job, mama. Let me know what tip you want to try in your home in the comments below. Have any tips or suggestions that have worked for you in feeding your kids while homeschooling? Be sure to share them below as well! 

Happy Homeschooling - wishing you a great year ahead!