As schools close their gates and we’re forced to keep our kids at home, it seems we have little choice. Still, we’ve been here before, right? We were our children’s first teachers, and we can do it again.

However, it’s important to remember that every family is different and every home has different configurations, so these tips are just suggestions for you to adapt to your own situation.

With the advent of the global pandemic from the coronavirus, many schools have been shut across the United States and elsewhere in the world, leaving countless parents with the unanticipated task of teaching their kids at home.  In many cases, your schools will assign work to complete during this hiatus.  But if they don’t, or you want to use this time to extend your child’s learning ability, here are 15 tips that can assist you in your home schooling.

1) Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

Yes, a worldwide pandemic would be a disaster of epic proportions. But there are all sorts of things we can do to survive it. Stock up on essential food and medicine while you still have time, make sure your home is sealed against airborne contaminants, and ensure you have enough fuel to run your car for several days without stopping.

2) Build a shelter under your stairs.

It’s possible that you’ll find yourself forced to stay indoors during the pandemic. If this is the case, try and set up camp in one of the rooms underneath your staircase (if you don’t have a basement). It’s small, but it should be big enough to fit your family and a few supplies.

3) Find a place to put your shelter.

Where will you put your shelter? The safest places would be high up in the mountains or out in the desert — areas that are difficult for people to reach and unlikely to become accident hotspots during an outbreak.

4) Stock up on food and medicine.

Yes, we all know that it’s good practice to keep some extra food and medical supplies around just in case… But now is not the time for those cute little “preppers” whose only preparation is the purchase of their very first gun safe! You need emergency rations and disinfectant, as well as essentials like food, water, and medicine enough to last at least three days.

5) Decontaminate your home.

It’s not just the outside world that needs to be made safe for you and your family — you also need to make your home safe. Start by buying industrial strength cleaner capable of disinfecting all surfaces in the house, then get yourself some gas masks so that you can keep working while airborne particles are still settling.

6) Find alternative ways of powering your TV and gaming consoles .

You should already have a good battery pack or solar panel set up so that you can use lights and portable devices during blackouts… But if there’s something particular about modern life that you want to preserve even after society falls apart, identify and install the appropriate back-up solution (a hidden diesel generator or a rooftop solar panel for instance).

7) Get to know your neighbors.

You never know when you might need help, which is why it’s best to get to know your family and friends before disaster strikes. If nobody else in the world will remain safe during the pandemic, then at least you can be sure that yours will.

8) Get fit!

You don’t have to spend hours at the gym every day, but being physically able to exert yourself should give you an edge if things get rough… whether by helping you outrun danger or simply allowing you to defend yourself better against would-be attackers.

9) Learn how to shoot.

You most likely won’t survive the pandemic if you don’t know how to defend yourself. All the locks and alarm systems in the world aren’t going to save your life if somebody with a weapon breaks into your house. So enroll in some shooting courses, buy yourself a gun safe, and make sure your children know which end of it they should be pointing at anyone who comes through the door.

10) Take precautions for long-term survival .

If society does fall apart then there’s no telling how long it will stay that way… meaning that you might need to learn new skills like hunting or agriculture. So start doing some research now on how best to do so so that you can keep surviving after fossil fuels have run out.

11) Prepare your children .

Most of the skills in this list will be useless if you have kids, so teach them how to shoot and identify symptoms so that they’ll always know when someone is sick… But also make sure they understand why these rules are important so that they don’t get tempted into breaking them later when there’s nobody watching.

12) Tell your family what to do (and what not to do) if you go missing .

If the worst happens and you’ve been forced into quarantine then it will be up to others to take care of your loved ones. So tell them which cities and towns nearby are safe for them to hide out in until help arrives; provide detailed instructions about how best to get around and where to find food; and give them the number of a reliable lawyer who can be trusted to help them get released.

13) Prepare for collapse …

When society does finally fall apart, you might not get very far if all you know about is how to shoot or hunt… So start getting into hobbies that will be slightly more useful once society has fallen apart, such as gardening or blacksmithing.

14) Scavenge as much as you can from your local area .

It’s possible that there will be a lot of abandoned supplies nearby when the pandemic first hits — effectively making it just as dangerous to leave your house as it will be to stay in it. So if possible, equip your home with plenty of useful supplies to help you survive when everybody else is struggling.

15) Prepare for anything .

It’s impossible to plan for every eventuality when the world is about to collapse… But the best time to practice coping with any dangerous scenario is before it happens, not after. So try to think of other ways that society might fall apart, and learn how to cope with them just in case