3 Key Insights To Carry Into The Post - Quarantine Life
The magic thing about home is that it feels good to leave, and it feels even better to come back. However, our lives of late have been very different. We are still spending more time at home & way more time with our little ones then we know what to do with.
We have waved goodbye to most of our daily routines to make room for life as a quarantined family, and boy is homeschooling harder than we imagined. This has been one of the most remarkable periods for all parents. For sure we all have our lists of things we learned so we decided to share our three key insights to carry into the post-quarantine life.
Practice Good Communication
For many families staying at home means being full-time parents, on top of working full time from home, on top of doing all the work about the house. However, we are not robots, we get tired, we have our own moods, things get complicated at work, and it can be stressful, to say the least. With everything getting harder to balance, we must learn to not let our frustration pass on to our kids. So what is the silver lining? Strengthening our own emotional management and communication skills to our children.
Talking and explaining how you feel, what you feel, and what they can do to help is a good approach. Remember to listen back & listen actively. Kids want your attention because you are a parent for them; their main source of support, love, and fun. Make sure you have an active dialog and not an exchange of idle sentences with your kids.
Tip: For those with younger children - talking to them still helps. They can’t respond with words but it helps them learn. Eventually, you’ll see they understand parts and will try their best to cooperate.
Children Prosper With Routine
Little kids rely on predictability and security, which is also an important element for a child’s development. Luckily they also love playing grown-ups. So aim to create an achievable everyday daily checklist and routine that gives them a taste of home life which helps keep the house organized & the kid’s busy.
Chores | Create a checklist with daily tasks.
You can create it with your kids and make it a fun activity. See what they like to do, what they might need to learn, and what they are interested in. You can also ask them to make tasks for you. Perhaps they might like to play hide and seek with you, or have you sew an old toy up. It’s a good time to learn more about your little ones and build new areas for connection.
Routine | Create A Daily Routine To Follow
There are five key activities you should include in your daily routine.
Personal Care
Morning Hygiene, bath time, making the bed.
Exercise Time
Family walks, bike rides, yoga, sports.
Academic Time
Study, flashcards, exercise books, quizzes.
Creative Time
Toys, drawing, crafting, music, baking.
Free Time
Naps, reading, playing outside, movies.
Let them be little
Homeschooling is hard and being quiet all day is almost impossible for kids. It’s a natural need to express their childlike emotions. It helps them to learn, grow and develop. Trying to suppress those emotions in your kids usually backfires with a bigger tantrum or long term issues. The best solution is to find a time when you let them be silly and go crazy.
It’s a good idea to note what makes your kids happy the most. Is it half an hour with lego? Playing hide & seek? Freeze dance? Try to negotiate the time when kids can go and be on their own or get involved as well. You can play together or let them play, get messy, get loud. Remember kids are kids. They need to pull that old box of toys that were sitting neatly in the closet as much as you need a glass of wine at night.