COVID-19: Doing Life with Young Children in Isolation
Schools are closing, and New Zealand is preparing to go into a lockdown period as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, in a fight to stop the spread of this deadly disease.
My husband and I are preparing to be at home with our four young children which is going to present new challenges for us as family, as will be faced by many young families across the country during this unprecedented time. Parenting strategies and the development of our children is something I am very passionate about as I’ve sown into our kids with a lot ready, learning, and growing for the past decade. With my background in primary teaching and being a full time mum since our first child was born, I thought I would take this opportunity to share a few thoughts I’m having in anticipation of the month to come.
I know for many mums, the prospect of home schooling may be met with mixed emotions of “oh, this could be fun” or “oh my goodness, where do I start?”. Breathe. It’s not all on you! The Ministry of Education and schools will be providing lots of great support and online learning for our children so if you are fortunate enough to be able to tap into that, it will be highly beneficial and make our lives easier.
It’s important to remember that your children will mostly remember how you made them feel not what activities they did when they stayed at home for a month.
Try your best to create a positive environment.
Here are 5 tips on making the most of this unique opportunity with your family:
1. Look after you!
For you to be able to give your best to your family, you need to start by taking care of yourself.If you are not in a positive headspace, it can overflow into the whole house environment.
Plan some time in the day where you can get some downtime, some time for you, in and around what the kids are doing. Know what refuels you. It is different for everyone. For me, I feel refueled when I fit in 20 minutes where I can sit, undisturbed with a book and a drink (not that kind of drink, but hey, if that’s what you need some days, all good!). If I don’t get this time in, then by the end of the day my emotional tank can be running on empty before we even start the bedtime routine.You can’t load a wagon from an empty wagon.
Protect this time as no doubt your children will try to come along and steal your peace. Politely remind them that during that 20 minutes (it’s only 20 minutes), that you are having mummy time and you will be able to help them with whatever they need afterwards.
2. Let your children take the lead.
Ask your kids what they think they should be doing each day for school work.
Do a brainstorm.
Get them to help you write out roughly what time you will do each thing. One of my kids is particularly detail orientated and holds me to anything I say which can be painful when a timetable is created. If you have a child like that, gently remind them that things won’t always go to plan and that’s okay. We need to be flexible and adaptable!
“Blessed are the flexible for they shall never be bent out of shape”
Don’t stress out academically! Look at this as being given the opportunity to deepen your bond and strengthen the relationships you have with each of your children.
3. Break the day up with physical activity!
Make sure you stop and move when you feel their attention span may be waning. Go out in the backyard and do something simple to get them moving. If they’re happy entertaining themselves out there, great. If they take a bit more encouragement to get outside, maybe make up a simple game. E.g. Run and touch something green....hop and find something purple, etc. Even just to get out there for five minutes and come back inside can make a big difference.
4. Let your house get untidy! Yes, I said it.
This is something that if anyone knows me well, knows that I don’t handle very well! But I think our days will be far less stressful if we can just assure ourselves that we can do a big tidy up at the end of the day (get Dad on board to help with this one!). After all, this is the first time in modern history that a policeman is likely to stop anyone that is about to pop in and visit you and catch your house in a mess!
5. Develop your child’s character.
This is a beautiful chance to instill core values. I’m talking about ones that school cannot or doesn’t have a lot of time to focus on with all the demands teachers have to meet academic goals. We all have aspirations for how we want our children to be right down on the inside when they grow up. At the end of the day, their character, who they are, is above working on any other area of their life. If you haven’t already, write out a set of family core values.Our family values are Faith, Legacy, Integrity, Excellence, Leadership. We centre our lives around these and filter our decision making through these to check they are in alignment. For those of us with a faith, it’s a chance to share God’s love and His word with our kids.
So just a few final thoughts...
Keep it simple! Read to them, get them to read to you. Write a letter to a friend or relative (and then type it into an email). Bake. Go for a walk and count how many cars you see. Dance. Sing! Have fun!
Don’t feel burdened. Let your kids take the lead. Get them to come up with a timetable for the day. You’ll be amazed at how strict they can be on themselves when they have that ownership.
I know to have kids home 24/7 can feel like a daunting task but even if your child did no official school work for 2 or 3 months, I know this will shock some of you, they will be okay! And in the big scheme of things, it will not matter.
If you are feeling overwhelmed, just deal with the next half an hour and don’t worry about the weeks ahead.
“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has enough worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today” Matthew 6:34
Your friend,
