How to cope with schooling from home
The novel coronavirus, Covid-19, has brought about a lot of change to everything from how we work, to how are kids go to school. We now know that kids can transmit Covid-19, and that they can get very sick from it—which means many states around the US are opting for online schooling for all or part of the school year.
While online schooling is without a doubt the best method of helping kids stay safe from the coronavirus, it does make life harder in other ways. Kids benefit from school for many other reasons besides their education, and being robbed of time with friends and getting out of the house can be painful in its own way.
If you're kids (and lets face it you too) were really looking forward to the return of school, here are a few ways you can help cope now that online is the only option.
Find a support group
If you are struggling to manage time while you work from home and so does your kids, you're not alone. Reminding your child every 5 minutes that they do have to pay attention to their zoom classes and dangling upside down shirtless across a chair is not paying attention can take away from your own work.
There are a lot of facebook groups available to help support you during this time, and give you advice on how to wrangle kids and get work done all at the same time.
Develop a schedule
There are many proposed schedules already available online, which show how working from home and homeschooling can work out. Your school may already have a planned schedule for the full 6 hour period, which you can use as a map to work with your own needs.
You may be able to start earlier than your kids on your own work, help them when they need it most, and then schedule meetings for their breaks or other down time.
Delegate
It's usually one parent over another that handles the childcare, educational meetings, and more. It's safe to say that homeschooling your child, working full time or even part time, and handling all the household chores is too much work for one person. Instead of trying to wake up at 3AM so you can be that superperson, sit down with your family and have a frank talk about splitting things up more evenly.
Your kids can do chores, your spouse can cook dinner or take out the trash, and by making it just a little bit harder for everyone else, you can make it manageable for the person doing the bulk of the work.
If you are not the person doing the bulk of the work but know you're spouse is—have this conversation anyway. It shows you're willing to take on more and that they don't need to stress so much.
Don't be too hard on yourself
If your productivity or your child's grades take a dip—that's really to be expected in all the confusion. 2020 has been an incredibly stressful year, and it may be difficult to manage it all while stuck at home. You may find it easier to switch from the school offerings to your own homeschooling during this time, so you are not limited by a strict schedule.
Remember eventually this too shall pass, and we can recover grades, productivity, and everything else with time. Struggling with quarantine, working from home, or finding ways to help your kids learn from home, can be a real struggle, but you're not in this alone.