The Working Parent’s School Closure Survival Guide
By: D.L. Gioe
Tags: Working Moms, Lifestyle, Parenting, Homeschooling, Health

The Working Parent’s School Closure Survival Guide

Or how to stay sane in the face of COVID-19

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

It feels unreal. For most of us in the first world, there’s been nothing like this pandemic in our lives, and probably not in the lives of our parents. We’ve gotten so busy, so connected, so smart (or at least our phones have), but in the process we’ve fallen out of touch with seasons, with communities, and with the power of Mother Nature. Germs, as it turns out, don’t care about our priorities (though they do love our smart phones, so wipe those down please). It’s unsettling. The panic in the grocery stores is downright disturbing. And to top it all off, now we’ve got to find a way to balance the competing demands to telework (maintain social distancing to flatten the curve!) AND to take care of your kids at home while schools are closed.

It’s a lot to take on, for sure. Now consider: If the grown ups are stressed, so are your kids. After all, kids thrive on routine and pretty much everything about their lives is being disrupted — activities, school, family patterns.

Good news though! Freelancers face the work-from-home while balancing the kid issue regularly. It’s tricky, and every kid-parent dynamic is different, but let me share some hard-earned hacks I’ve gathered over the past few years, plus a few additional resources that are coming online in response to this horrible virus.

Routine Success

Like I said, kids love routine, so the best way to forge ahead is to develop a routine and stick to it. Neuropsychology and Education Services for Children and Adolescents (NESCA) posted this great chart developed by Jessica McHale Photography. See those blocks for academic, creative, or chore time? Depending on the ages of your kids and their self-sufficiency, those are times that you can set the tasks to be done and then focus on your own work.

Parent Hack #1

If you’ve got some flexibility in the hours you work, you may also want to consider waking up early to get some hours in before the kids are up. I’m not a happy member of the 5 a.m. club, but I get loads of work done after my kid goes to bed, around 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Now is the time to get real about how many hours you actually need to get your job done. For some, there will be scheduled hours that we are required online for virtual services. For others, without all the daily office rigamarole, you may find that you can accomplish your required tasks in fewer than 8 hours. The more hours you can squeeze into non-kid time, the easier this will be for you all.

What to do with ‘academic time’

One thing I love about this chart is that it sticks to a schedule that should be familiar to pretty much any school-age kid. The question many parents are facing is what/how to teach them from home, especially if you’re trying to do your own work too. If you’re lucky, your kids’ teachers provided some take home work before the schools were closed, or the schools are rolling out online platforms to enable kids to stay engaged with their curriculum. At which point, roll out those worksheets or online lessons until they run dry.

If you weren’t so lucky, or the materials aren’t going to stretch for the whole time, consider adding in some commercial learning books. These not only will keep the kids busy, but will make school re-entry that much less painful. Our son loves workbooks from Teacher Created Resources. Their books are tailored to grade levels and run pretty true to level, in our experience.

In addition to workbooks, several education companies are offering free resources online in response to school closure. Check out amazingeducationalresources.com for a growing list of options.

Also, don’t forget the good old-fashioned tools we relied on when we were kids: we read what we had around the house. If your kids are literate, set reading challenges. Get them reading out of their usual genres, or challenge them to read more books than usual. Then have them present something about what they read to the family over dinner or a relative over video chat.

Photo by Stephane YAICH on Unsplash

The other thing we did was we wrote. Have them write stories, plays, poems, songs. Have them journal this time. They can write letter to the friends they’re missing, maybe even in code, and enjoy mailing them. Write overdue holiday thank you notes, or to soldiers and veterans via Operation Gratitude or Support Our Troops.

Creative Time

Don’t forget the art! Kids get art and probably also music instruction in school, so get out the crayons or paints and let them create. Pictures also make a nice inclusion in letters to relatives, friends, or soldiers. Have them create with salt dough, for treasures they can later paint or keep. Legos are another great creative medium for those who don’t like sticky hands. Music is good for the soul, so let them rock out to music, or make their own instruments.

Don’t forget to Shake it Off

The other thing that is really important to remember while the kids are home is the need for exercise. And no, the gym probably isn’t where you want to take them right now, so a dance party can be just the thing. Luckily, the weather is getting better, so let them run in the yard. Or if time allows, take them to a park. If it doesn’t, or the weather turns fickle, let them create obstacle courses inside. Or tune them into some kids yoga.

Photo by Jyotirmoy Gupta on Unsplash

Don’t fill every second

Want to know the real trick to making it all work? Not feeling like YOU need to fill every second of their time. Kids are great at making their own play, but for most, they have to experience some boredom for those instincts to kick in. So let them be a little bored.

This is where the schedule really pays off. If you’re sticking to the routine but they’re whining about it, put the onus for invention back on them. Be prepared for some push back, and then also be prepared to reward them when they find ways to entertain themselves (within safety considerations, of course).

Parent Hack #2

If you have to use the TV as the reward (and a way to buy yourselves a couple more quiet hours of work time), that’s OKAY. All those days that you filled with educational or sports programming after school and on the weekends so that they wouldn’t rot their little brains in front of screen — those were hours you were banking for when you’d need to spend them. So if you need to spend some now, go ahead! If it makes you feel better, see if you can find something educational.

These are crazy days, so give yourself (and your kids) a little leeway to figure it out. Cut yourself the breaks you wouldn’t ordinarily allow, to the extent you can. Try to find the bright side to some of this — a return to a family-centered lifestyle, or simply a glimpse into the world of your homeschooling friends (who, btw, are a great resource right now, so reach out if you have them!) Know that this virus will pass, and hopefully these hacks will help the time pass more quickly than you thought it would.

Stay healthy!