Kids at home – some advice

There are no perfect kids and there are no perfect parents. And every situation is different.  If your children are home schooled, or are at home for any reason, here's some advice from a professional.

There are houses where the family can spread about and not be under each other’s feet; and there are some where people have no choice but to live in close proximity to each other. Depending on the ages of the kids, they will need more attention. After all, most school-goers are occupied for 6 to 7 hours every day. The important thing is to keep kids occupies, ideally in an environment where learning is encouraged and their minds are stimulated. This is no easy task and parents also have responsibilities outside of family. Many are working at home and need ‘work time’, uninterrupted by needy children.

Even if you could plonk the kids in front of the TV or computer, this will be a temporary relief at best, and won’t do you, or them, any favours. So the best thing is to have an organised day, so TV, computers and other pastimes should be off limits during the school day, except when they are boing used for education. There are many education programmes on TV but it’s essential to plan these, not just allow the kids to surf. So dedicate a little time to that planning. Make sure there is a variety of watching – some pure education, some activity based watching, for example yoga, some easy watching, for example the history channel, discovery channel and even news. Think about having a short quiz after watching, to see that information is being absorbed.

Make sure the kids time slice, some TV, some indoor activity (games, quizzes, puzzles, jigsaws), some computer time, and some outdoor activity if possible. Keep them occupied but remember tio get them to help with the planning. Then stick the schedule on the fridge and tell them that it’s fixed, but it can change if they make a good argument. If you have more than one adult at home, take it in turns to spend time with the kids, but also do things as a family. Make sure that anyone who is starting to get twitchy with the situation is given space and time to cool off, before it escalates.