How To Combine Teleworking And Educating Your Children At Home?
Partly due to the coronavirus pandemic, Teleworking is already a reality in many homes, For better and for worse. And like any new habit capable of completely transforming our daily lives, beyond the positive aspects it can bring us, it also represents a challenge to which we must adapt.
Examples of possible sources of problems associated with teleworking are, for example, greater exposure to possible distractions and the temptation to maintain an unstructured schedule. If we add to this the fact of having children to take care of, things become even more complicated when it comes to raising them. How to make both roles compatible?
Tips for managing teleworking and raising and educating children
In many cases, having children at home is a complex situation for those who are still adapting to teleworking. Therefore, here we will review several useful tips for teleworking with children at home while providing them with a correct education.
1. Set schedules
As in in-person work, establishing schedules is an essential element for the correct functioning of work activity and also for maintaining physical and mental organization at all times.
Habits such as getting up, going to bed or starting the work day always at the same time They will allow us to structure the day well and avoid accumulations of tasks to do, as well as acquire a constant and energetic work rhythm, having rested daily with the hours of sleep we need. But we must also try to have time references for the beginning and end of all the main activities of the day, between the time of getting up and the time of going to bed.
The establishment of work schedules and guidelines must be followed by all members of the house, including the little ones. In this way, children will learn that during the day there should be time to work but also to play, and at the same time incompatibilities and mismatches will not occur between the schedules of the little ones and those of the adults who take care of them.
By integrating the importance of time organization and discipline into their daily lives, our children will acquire very useful work habits in the future for their academic and work lives.
2. Create your own workplace
In the same way that it is necessary to have set schedules daily, it is also necessary to delimit the physical work spaces at home, places where we will spend several hours and that are prepared and conditioned for it. Ultimately, it will be necessary to create contexts that allow us to gather all our ability to concentrate.
If you do not have your own office, you can enable one of the rooms in the house as an office, in which It will be made clear to children that they should not enter during working hours (with the exception of emergencies or times when they feel unwell)
This workplace must have all the elements that we would find in a normal office or office: good lighting (ideally with natural light), order and accessibility of work materials, absence of noise or distracting screens, etc.
As with adults, children should also have their own workspace where they can do their homework and schoolwork with maximum comfort, and also without distractions.
3. Make it clear what teleworking is and the house rules associated with it.
In order for children to be involved in this new situation, it is necessary for them to understand correctly, and with a speech appropriate to their age, that this is a period of work in which silence and concentration are required.
In addition, we must ensure that they understand that during this period they must comply with a series of special rules applied during those hours of the day. These rules should be rather few and simple, to make it easier for them to always have them in mind and be able to follow them spontaneously without having to actively get involved in remembering them.
4. Schedule rest times
It is advisable to offer entertainment alternatives when the child has finished his homework and has breaks. During these rest periods you should be able to mentally “disconnect” from what you have been doing to recharge your batteries and have a good concentration capacity when it is time to return to studying or continue the next class session.
Ideally, you should get involved in an activity that causes you to focus on another object other than the screen you have been studying, both to clear your mind and to give your eyes a rest after always having been focused on one point at a time. the same distance.
5. Get up early
Taking advantage of the hours when children sleep or take a nap to carry out tasks that require greater concentration is also practical and in this sense, the morning is the best option, because it helps prepare for the day without going to bed with the mind still very active (which usually causes problems falling asleep).
Another good way to educate children in times of teleworking is to encourage them to participate in household chores and distribute each of the obligations to all family members as much as possible, so that this performance is not only in the hands of the parents.
This can be outlined as a routine in which they have the opportunity to show their transition into adolescence and adulthood, assuming roles as family members.
Carrying out all household obligations in common is a good way for children to begin to acquire the notions of responsibility and teamwork to achieve a common good
7. Do activities with them
Spending time with your children is essential for their education, and that is not satisfied simply by spending more hours under the same roof due to teleworking That is why it is recommended to schedule some breaks to meet with them (ideally, in a room other than the one you use to work or study) and help them with everything they need.
During the day we can plan creative and fun activities that our children do on their own while we work, such as crafts, drawing, reading or painting, which can be done in different areas of the house as workshops.
There are many other activities that can be done with children during the day or when we finish our work day, such as exercising together, playing board games as a family, eating together or helping them review the lessons so that they internalize well what they have learned
