Spring 2020, has families juggling parenting, working, and teaching all at the same time across the country. Millions are now getting a little taste of homeschool life and it is challenging, especially if you don’t naturally work from home.
For parents or guardians that work from home, single parent households or those that are still leaving the home working, the day is can get pretty hectic. Any parent knows that getting anything done with their kids around can be almost impossible sometimes.
Although, teachers are great multitaskers, I know even I have to find the right balance during this time.
However, I think I have some great tips you can follow to help you manage your day without losing your mind, no matter your current role is.
Follow a Schedule
The one thing that’s going to prove invaluable during this time, is creating and maintaining a schedule. The kids need a schedule and you need one to help you keep up with your increased duties. So start this early in the experience.
Start with making a schedule for the kids, one that they can follow. You can include educational activities, play time, T.V. time, and mealtimes. I had my son (13) make his own schedule and checked in with him that he was following on his own.
When kids know what they are working on and have a schedule to follow, it makes it so much easier for both them and you. Most kids love routines and need structure to outline their day and a schedule is a must!
Create Routine
Once you have your kids on a schedule and a followed routine. You can both set up times to “work” at the same time. This will be great if you are working from home too. It also works well with older kids because for the most part, they can manage their schedules and schoolwork.
This give you both time to work and try and schedule time you can spend together on your breaks too. That way, they are still getting one to one attention from you, reducing the likelihood they’ll pester you when you need to get on with work because they are working as well.
Have a Workspace
For you and your kids to get work done, you need a designated workspace. This might be different from the family computer if possible but just some place where it is quiet. Designated work spaces should be away from all distractions and ideally everyone in the workspace means that they are not to be disturbed.
For multiple kids, this can just mean having one child at each end of the dinner table, or island with you in the middle. Then you can all play the “quiet game” and make rules for asking questions so everyone gets their independent reasoning time.
Quite Time
We all just need some quiet time. If you just need a break, quite time is an opportunity for your kids to think and play by themselves. *Quite Game rules still apply!
Here are a few ideas to try for quiet time:
1. Puzzles
2. Word search – my students love word searches!
3. Reading
4. Educational worksheets
Take Breaks and Get Kids Engaged
It can be tough trying to work when the kids have bundles of energy. Think about keeping them engaged for an hour in a square room! To help you kids balance their energy and motivation to sustain being focused, give little breaks throughout the day.
I would give 20-30 minutes of work time with 10-minute breaks. During their break time give them something physical and simple to do like playing tag just set a timer on your phone an. Or you can use this fun video throughout your day of breaks.
Once they’ve finished their physical activity, they will be more likely to play quietly for a period of time and be more engaged in a task.
So, follow up with a project like a WebQuest which is all designed for kids to get online, research, and follow prompts to complete a project. It is almost like an online tutorial that you can find on YouTube that is also highly engaging.
Furthermore, tutorials can be anything from cake decorating, to wreath making, to knitting a scarf! Just find a beginner video of something cool, and if you have the supplies you need—give it a try! It can be a lot of fun to see how their finished product compares with the video’s. This can show kids about individuality, and help them see that everyone is different in awesome ways!
Utilize technology
In usual times, you try to limit your child’s exposure to technology throughout the day. However, technology can be a great tool to assist with educational activities. The WebQuest mention above is all technology related. All technical activities a big helpers when you are trying to keep your child focused while you are either trying to work from home also helps you if you are trying to work from home or get work done around the house.
When you don’t want to be disturbed, let the kids watch an educational movie, app, or game. This will keep them occupied for a longer period of time, allowing you to take that to get things done around the house or in my case, teach my students on Zoom.
Be the Parent, not their Teacher
Now that you have taken on this new role, doesn’t mean you have to become your child’s teacher. You don’t have to plan and research and create a full curriculum for your child.
Instead, focus on simple educational activities they can do such as reading. You can also set up things such as sensory buckets and let them use educational apps.
If the school provided digital work or learning packets your kids can follow, use that is your guide and everything else you want to add is supplemental.
Final Thoughts
Remember, this is just a time for everyone to have patience and know many families are going through a similar situation.
Please also, keep in mind, teachers who have children are tasked with parenting, teaching and managing their own child, while learning an entire distance learning process. We will all get through this together and will come out better for it.