Home work VS Home work: Tips to survive home schooling and working from home
Working from Home & Home Schooling is a whole new world to most parents right now
While we are all (including our little/big people) are experiencing something completely unique to our life time, many of us are all of a sudden having to juggle working from home and home schooling our children… and at the drop of a hat. Being a working parent is tough enough, let alone working from home, whilst wearing ALL the hats: Mummy, Daddy, Teacher, Business Owner, Cook, Cleaner, Waitress/Waiter…the list goes on. After two weeks of social distancing, I think we can ALL appreciate how hard the teachers at our children’s schools work to educate their brains right now, even more so than ever before. How they manage up to 30 children is totally beyond me! Teachers you a re literally superheros (along with all our key workers) However… it’s ok! We are not expected to be a master of all trades! The most important thing here is that you keep yourself and your children safe and well. Your children need YOU more than ever right now.
Below is the honest truth about how I manage both with a 6 & 8 year old at home
I like to set up what we would like to work on for the week - this applies for me also! Having a rough plan (and I say rough because this is new for all of us!) is a good way of setting your intentions for the week without the pressure.
Get the kids involved, ask them what they would like to learn, pop it up on the wall if you can so they can see it and you have something to refer to. This is really helpful in those times of stress where you feel like you are at wits end when they say “I’m bored!”.
Make time to do something together - exercise or a great fun activity like baking, cooking, arts & crafts or teaching them basic life skills like making a cup of tea!!
YouTube or viral videos will become your best friend! If you can get them to engage in a short video online then this gives you a nice bit of time to get a task done yourself. I tend to start them off on this as this gets their engagement then we do the activity together
Have a lunchbox, drink and snacks for the day ready, so as soon as you hear those words “Im Hungry!” you can (quite smugly) say "your lunchbox is in the kitchen darling" Ensure you plan your own lunch too. Its all to easy to just be so wrapped up in surviving the day that you forget to eat healthily! Try and aim to eat lunch together and give them a good break afterwards where you can get some work done.
Be transparent on what you are doing - everyone (including kids) takes more kindly to things when they know what's happening and are included. If you explain you have a task/project to work on but later you will do XYZ with them, they will be more appreciative of that.
Be flexible with all schedules - there's and yours. You can't be expected to work from 9-5 solidly when kids are there and in need of your attention (no matter what age they are!).
Have your school resources accessible as a guide. Get done what you can with those but do not feel you have to do it all. If like me, you got totally overwhelmed by this, then please do make contact with your pastoral care workers for advice - that is precisely what they are there for
Limit social media viewing of what everyone else is doing….scroll on past it
Go easy on yourself - you are not a teacher. You are not expected to be their teacher, try to give them memories they will keep for when they retell the story of what happened in 2020
