With many parents still working from home to reduce the spread of COVID-19, and Schools closing for the Summer holidays, many people may be facing the worries of how to juggle working from home with being a full-time parent with the children at home again.
Hopefully, your employer is understanding enough to realise that having kids around whilst working from home isn’t business as usual, and that you may require some leniency, but we’ve compiled a list of useful tips, activities and advice to make this balancing act a little less daunting.
Get them Involved & Learn new things –
Learning doesn’t just have to be done at School with books, modules and assignments; you might like to encourage children to get involved with things around the house! This could be a cookery class, sewing, or just getting them involved in daily chores around the house. Now is a good time to learn new things too; whether it’s a new recipe, language, arts & crafts, hobbies or exploring the outdoors (where possible). They may be able to incorporate this new knowledge into a school project when they go back after Summer. It’s important to make it fun too, so consider things to get the whole family involved; you could visit a virtual museum, look at Zoo or Aquarium live cam’s, set up a family quiz or play some board games.
Online play dates/video chatting with family –
If there is a spare phone or laptop in the house, setting up online playdates for your children with their friends or grandparents/family members can be a great way to keep their spirits up and reduce anxiety. Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts – the list of free video chatting services are extensive. Organise with the parent of your child’s friends ahead of time so there’s something to look forward to.
Keeping a diary about their time off school –
Your child can keep a record of everything that’s happening over summer – it’s a good way for them to both talk about their own feelings and get their creative brains working. What do they like about the time at home? What do they wish was different? What are they grateful for? How do they feel that day?
Use items in the home for play –
For lots of children, you can use things found around the home to play:
- Get some of your clothes out and let your child play at dressing up or role play.
- Put some empty boxes or toilet roll tubes out and ask your child to think what it could be. Make it into something – let them use their imagination. Or use your recycling to make models with them.
- If you’ve got any empty bottles around, try filling them with dried pasta, rice, lentils or anything that might make a sound. You can then use this as an instrument. Other ways to create home-made music include stretching some elastic bands over a box, or even banging a saucepan with a spoon.
- Do some shadow drawing. Line up some toys or objects next to some blank paper and shine a light on them to cast a shadow on the paper. Draw round the shadows.
- If you’ve got scarves or gloves, see if you can imagine that they’re animals. Give your child a puppet show. Or if you have more than one child, suggest they create a hand puppet together.
Let your child lead the way –
Try taking your child’s lead. Not everyone finds it easy to play with children, and older children might not want to play. If that’s the case, see if you can notice what your child seems interested in. Younger children often enjoy exploring everyday objects. Try putting some out and see what they do. This could be a tray of rice, for example, with funnels, sieves, tubs and spoons. Sit back and watch. Or join in and explore with them.
Working from Home –
With all this said, it can be really challenging to keep children occupied whilst also working from home and trying to keep elements of your own schedule intact. Communication during this time is imperative; if you live in a two-parent household, or if your children’s time is shared between both parents, it is important to discuss your workload with each other so that you can establish how your working days can run alongside taking care of your children over the summer. During such an unprecedented time; it is also important to be honest with your employer about your circumstances and establish a schedule that will work best for both you and them. There may be flexible working arrangements, or reasonable adjustments that could be made to help you work effectively from home, whilst having children with you.
If you feel you may need some support, you can contact Care first. Care first is a leading provider of confidential, professional counselling, information and advice services. All employees are eligible to use Care first, our services include; telephone counselling, information services and online support. Call Care first on the Freephone number provided by your organisation and you can speak to a professional in confidence.
Useful links and Educational apps –
Primary School Resources – https://www.primaryresources.co.uk
Recourse Bank up to GCSE – https://www.teachingideas.co.uk
Workbooks for Primary Schools – https://www.teachitprimary.co.uk/
Teachit also provides workbooks for secondary ages as well, however these are on separate sites for each subject e.g.
https://teachitenglish.co.uk
Primary School Recourses – https://classroomsecrets.co.uk
www.gov.uk/guidance/get-help-with-remote-education
https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2020/bbc-launches-biggest-education-offer-ever
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/live-lessons