Working From Home: The Lockdown Survival Guide for Families

How can we create a productive space for the whole family to work from home? Maintaining your child’s education, your ability to be productive in the workforce and your family’s financial stability has never been so challenging.

Many more parents are working from home alongside their children. Quirky Kid has developed our Top 5 Tips to help families prepare, adapt and conquer working and studying from home together.

Tip #1: Plan a daily schedule together

Routines are essential for children’s growth, development, and sense of normality. To help with creating healthy routines, each night, sit as a family and map out a schedule for the following day (and support all family members to stick to it!).  We prepared a quick fun video to help you create a visual schedule that actually works.

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Include tasks for the whole family and allow all family members to contribute ideas to the schedule. Use visual images and/or colours to make the scheduled fun and accessible. For two-parent households, alternating ‘work shifts’ may be helpful.

Tip # 2: Include varied activities in the family’s day

To make the most of focus and motivation while working from home together, start the day with cognitive stimulation. This will help siblings get along and adults to be more patient. Some ways of doing this include:

• Complete academic activities first: Adults and children are more able to sustain effort and achieve desired outcomes earlier in the day. Parents may need to work before dawn to meet deadlines before children wake up. It may also be helpful to speak with your child’s teacher to access more online learning options. Check-in with your young person every 10-15 minutes, depending on their attention span, to praise their ability to work independently.

• Find fun ways to teach new concepts: YouTube science tutorials are a great way to inspire young scientists to conduct experiments at home. Baking is another way to teach children about measurement and timing. Folding paper planes and using a tape measure to record their top 10 distances is also useful to develop fine motor skills. There are many more examples.
  
• Get Physical: For younger children, combine your child’s interest in Pokemon, Spiderman or Mermaids with a themed yoga class. These classes are free and go for 15 to 25 minutes.
  
• Keep Social: Support all family members to remain connected with each other and the outside world. Family mealtimes and scheduled breaks are an opportunity to take part in a video call to grandparents or school friends. If social skills need refreshing, Quirky Kid is offering The Best of Friends and Basecamp program online. Sign up here.
  
• Plan ahead: Parents need time alone too! Make a “Do Not Disturb” sign and explain the rules and reasons for this boundary in advance. Rewards for respecting boundaries are recommended. Think fun family activity over food rewards.