Many parents are working from home with our kids as COVID-19 burns its way around the world. Canada has been impacted by mass unemployment. Offices are shuttered and employees in most industries have been sent home – some with pay, others without. The lucky among us have the good fortune to work from home during this crisis. But it can be stressful and exhausting keeping young kids engaged while also working. With that in mind, here are six tips for keeping your sanity with kids while you work from home.
Count your blessings
Working from home with kids is hard. Being home with kids, but without an income, is harder. The first thing to consider when you feel like you are losing your sanity is to reflect on how fortunate you are to have a job in this unstable economy. Three million Canadians are much worse off. This principle is one that you can take with you even when things get better – which they will. Think about what you have rather than what you are missing. may be one of the few things you can control as the world is buffered by this crisis.
Be honest with work (and yourself) about your productivity
Everyone knows COVID-19 is a crazy extenuating circumstance and hopefully you’d be hard-pressed to find a boss or employer who doesn’t get this. It’s important to communicate your situation to your boss so they are aware of your circumstances. In some cases, they may even have resources they can deploy to help you or at least show a lot of empathy and patience when your five year old makes a guest appearance during your virtual meeting. One graphic I found helpful when considering productivity is pasted below:
Kids need &*$%# exercise
Pent up energy is going to be the death of us all as we multi-task our work and life. So find some specific times in the day where you can literally run the kids out. Are there family activities you like to do that will tucker them out, like going for a social distance hike (away from people) or bike ride? As friend the Potentiality Nathan Wawruck says: “Take breaks throughout the day for intense physical exercise with kids, to exhaust them, and sap them of their seemingly limitless energy – it’ll lead to short albeit blissful periods of natural sedation.” Nathan isn’t an a expert in child psychology or education. But he is a father of three young kids.
Schedule the day
Many of my friends – particularly those who seem to know what they are doing – recommend creating a daily schedule and sticking to it. It may be weird for you to do at home but keep in mind, most kids are all about programming – they get it all the time at school. A schedule breaks up the day into more manageable bite size chunks that can be more (sanely managed). Mix it up with physical, creative and free activities and pray that they’ll take to your program so you get some basic work done!
Embrace screen time
Most of us do our best to keep screen time to a minimum. COVID-19-aggedon isn’t a time to do so. Let loose a bit and don’t beat yourself up if they are “watching something” (as my three and half year old) describes it from time to time while you take that urgent conference call. Remember, once we get back to somewhat normalcy you will have so many more tools and resources to make up for lost time and experiences. For older kids, one tip is to clearly define when is screen time and when is school time (hence the scheduling suggestion above).
Get a little creative
Friend of The Potentiality and educator Phil Skipper had a bunch of suggestions for ways to creatively engage kids during this challenging time. Top tips included:
- Creating a learning journal where kids do one page per day detailing the crafts, games, assignments, shows they engaged with during the day – if your children are too little, you can write it for them!
- Create video book reports where they can provide a summary response format highlighting what the video was about and what did the child like about it
- Stop animation – give the kid a smartphone, show them the principles and see what they come up with!
But the worlds your oyster for creative solutions. Honestly, pretty much anything you come up with will probably help move the ball forward as we move into future weeks of physical distancing!