Many families are facing a difficult time due to the coronavirus. The closure of educational centers and the imposition of teleworking have forced many parents to combine parenting, education and work in the same space, with the difficulty that this entails. According to experts, the key to surviving this situation is in good organization and maintaining routines. "Habits are important in children because it helps them to follow an order in their life and build their emotional stability" -explains Pilu Hernández Dopico, teacher and educational coach of 'El Pupitre de Pilu'– “The children are going to spend many hours at home and it is important that they do not live with the feeling that they are on vacation. Therefore, they must continue with their routines. Repeating the same behaviors every day provides a mechanism of constancy and regularity essential for family life ”, she adds.
So far so good. Parents are aware that their children need habits to feel safe and should not neglect their homework, but … how is it possible to maintain those routines without dying in the attempt?
GUIDELINES FOR NOT LOSING THE "GOOD CUSTOMS"
Laura de Roque Sanz, psychopedagogue and graduate in Teaching, offers us some recommendations to achieve this:
Keep schedules
Make sure they go to bed and get up at the same time every day. This will make it easier for them to go back to school when classes resume.
Involve them in household chores
Get them involved in household chores. It is important to instill in them the importance of making their bed, cleaning up, helping in the kitchen, setting and removing the table, cleaning …, as it encourages their autonomy. Maybe this is a good time for you to enjoy these little "obligations."
Establish a study schedule
Try to always do their homework in the same place and at the same time. That will help them focus and not wonder so much about whether they feel like doing it or not. It is also important to control study time. You can set an alarm to make sure you spend the same minutes on each subject.
Homework, better in the morning
It is convenient to carry out the activities that require greater concentration in the morning and dedicate the afternoon to more playful activities. As with adults, children are more rested and perform much more during the first hours of the day.
Propose a challenge
If you have to work and you can't constantly supervise him, negotiate with him so that he isn't constantly wondering about you. You can give him a challenge to make his tasks more fun. Of course, it is essential that you always work with rewards; do not resort to punishment. The idea is to use expressions such as "if you finish your homework on time then we'll see your favorite movie" instead of "if you don't finish soon, you won't watch TV all day." Positive messages always work better.
Educational apps
Putting the tablet, why not go to educational apps with which they can have fun while learning notions of their own level? There are tons of games with which you will find that studying doesn't have to be boring.
WORK YOUR BREATHING TO RELIEVE STRESS
Conflicts between family members are likely to arise throughout the day. Working and caring for children are very demanding activities and can lead to stressful moments. To alleviate family discomfort, Myriam Campelo, director of Petit Bambou Spain, recommends breathing: “Performing conscious breathing exercises will help all family members to be more relaxed and focused on each activity they carry out.One suggestion is to do phase breathing for 5 minutes: take a deep breath through your nose, take a short pause, and slowly breathe out through your mouth. If children are very young, they can do the exercise lying on their back with a stuffed animal on their abdomen; they will enjoy watching the stuffed animal rise with each inspiration and fall with each exhalation ”.
DO NOT TORTURE YOURSELF IF YOU DO NOT GET TO EVERYTHING
It is necessary to make a titanic effort to achieve work goals from home and, in addition, to become a private teacher for your children without any training (or patience) to do so. The situation is complicated, so do not be overwhelmed if you do not manage to meet all the objectives. "Teachers know that the situation is very complicated for parents and we are quite flexible. In fact, many of us have children and we are experiencing it in the first person", says Laura de Roque Sanz, "The important thing is that children follow the instructions given to them. their tutors are giving by e-mail or online and do not spend the day doing nothing ".
