Many children have transitioned to home schooling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic – bringing about a big change in routine for kids and the entire family.
The Kids Research Institute Australia registered child psychologist and child heath researcher Dr Monique Robinson provides the following advice for parents and carers to help kids and families transition and adapt to schooling in the home environment.
1. How can I help my kids transition to home schooling?
We need to keep a structure while relaxing the pace. A structure provides familiarity and control, which is what we all need during this time, but a relaxed transition and flexibility keep the tension down.
The school may provide a structure to follow but we are all in this together and hence there are many structured plans available online, you might ask your networks or parents with similar aged kids to share any plans that are working well for them.
At first it will seem like a novelty to be doing school at home, but like any novelty it is likely to wear off. We’re going into this with no clear answers on how long it is for because that information just isn’t available. But we’re in it together, it’s happening, and we need to tolerate that uncertainty and accept it is just how things have to be for now.
2. Is structure a good thing to help them transition? Should I involve them to come up with a new routine?
Keeping as much of the ‘normal’ structure as possible brings a feeling of predictability so we want that. So, keep anything that can be constant stable like mealtimes, getting dressed, brushing hair, brushing teeth.
It’s a great idea to let kids have creative input into the daily structure though, once again to give them a feeling of control. Perhaps they can choose which lesson to start the day with, or which subject to finish with.
Add a few ‘silly’ activities into the day to keep the mood light. Make an obstacle course for physical education, count jelly beans for maths, if you usually like a clean tidy house bring out the glitter for art and craft and accept a little bit of chaos. Relaxing the rules might be key for all of us.
Have a bit of fun. Perhaps have pretend assemblies and make merit awards to give out for special behaviour. Have a concert or dance party where you dress up.
3. I have a social child who is really going to miss seeing their school friends. How can I help them through that?
There are so many apps and programs that can help, whether it be FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, Teams etc where not only can your child chat with their closest friends but lots of friends can be together at the same time.
Work with your parent networks to send around photos and videos and come up with activities that all the kids can do together and then send around to each other to foster a feeling of connectedness.
If your child has friends in the neighbourhood, let them know when you’re going to be walking the dog and coming past their home and kids can come to the doorstep to chat at a social distance and wave to each other.
4. We may be confined to home for a while? How can I get them excited once the novelty wears off?
It’s really important to acknowledge all the things that we learn at school, and it’s not just the curriculum. We learn about social relationships, both through play with others but also prosocial behaviour like turn taking, encouraging others, being thoughtful and kind. We learn to trust another caregiver outside of our family, in our teacher relationships. We learn physical activity and sports, about art and drama etc. All sorts of things contribute to our child’s experience of school beyond the actual school work, and it’s important to understand there might be some grief involved as these incidental experiences are lost for a time.
Ask open-ended questions and keep checking in with your child. Find out what it is they’re missing and try to find a substitute experience or acknowledge the loss of some of these activities associated with school that they can’t access for now.
Keep flexible with your plans- even if you feel you’ve found a good working structure, if it isn’t working for your kids and the mood is dropping have a break from it and don’t put added pressure on yourself and your kids. We will all do the best we can and if we need to press pause and declare a day just to watch movies or sit outside in the garden or listen to music or read books, that’s okay.
Sharing information amongst networks is crucial, yet already some of the home-schooling resource lists online seem daunting- ask your parent networks to curate a shortlist of 1-2 programs, apps, ideas that are working for them and send them around. That way we can all build our own list of tried and tested resources that keeps changing and evolving to keep kids engaged.
5. Advice for parents who may be wearing many hats at the moment and now have a teacher hat to add to the mix!
Home schooling kids of different ages while working from home, while also caring for small children is going to be a reality. It’s not easy but once again, you’re not alone. The stress caused by this COVID-19 situation is real, it’s threatening our health, our loved ones and our income, and it’s taking away many enjoyable experiences that we were looking forward to.
If you feel like it is overwhelming, there are many resources online, for example healthdirect.gov.au has a comprehensive list of online mental health resources, including LifeLine that can really help. Your GP is there to help talk about your situation and direct you to services that can help as well, whether it be for you or your kids.
Social support is key- while you can’t physically surround yourself with others who help you share a positive outlook you can connect over the phone and online, reach out to others who may be doing it tough and keep an eye out for friends and family who might be struggling.