Working from Home and Online Schooling? 

You Can Do It!

Homeschooling Yesterday

Online schooling is on the minds of many more parents now than in the past. More than a decade ago, I began my first year of homeschooling with great enthusiasm. I established a “school room” in my home. I indulged my school supply passions with reams of construction paper, notebooks, and crayons. After consulting with an elementary school teacher, I chose a curriculum that would ensure that my young children would grow to be “brilliant.”

I am both laughing and cringing as I write this and reminisce. It didn’t take long before our home and lives resembled Mentos dropped into a bottle of cola: we were all a confused, exploding, sticky mess. At that time, there was a huge gap between the reality I envisioned and the reality I was living! The early years were not easy. However, in time, our family learned to fall into a rhythm of working, learning, and teaching together. This led to rich relationships and sweet memories.  If you are working from home while your children are attending online school, be encouraged. You and your family can do it!

Online Schooling Today

Now more than ever, due to concerns about Covid-19, many families are faced with both working and online schooling together at home. Some may take on the task with confidence. There are a great number of others who feel anxious. They are uncertain about how their livelihoods, children, and relationships will be impacted by the shift to new ways of working and learning together.

If you are embarking on a new school year with students at home and feeling a bit of angst, know that you are not alone. Over the years, with experience and help from others, my family learned how to clean up our “Mento in cola,” home/work/school life. These are a few of the lessons we learned along the way, as well as some practical tips from those who journeyed alongside us.

Balancing Home, Work, and School

Home

1. Focus on Relationships – Healthy (not perfect) relationships are key to long-term wellbeing among all family members. For some, it is easy to let academic concerns about grades and assignments overshadow maintaining healthy parent/child relationships. Working and learning from home can be physically, emotionally, and relationally draining. If interactions with your child become tense slow down, examine your values, and refocus on relationships.
2. Hold Routine Family Meetings – Communication and accountability are essential. Some children will need help getting organized for the day and others may need an adult to check in and make sure schoolwork is accomplished.  Establish consistent family meeting times to “get on the same page,” and ensure everyone is progressing with their online schooling.
3. Post a Chore Schedule – Assign children age-appropriate tasks around the house to accomplish each day.
4. Set up Activity Stations for Young Children – Assign spaces in your home with numbers and in each space post an activity for your child to engage in. For example Station 1 at the kitchen table may have crayons and a coloring page.  Station 2 on the living room couch may have a book to read. At Station 3 in the hallway children do jumping jacks for 30 seconds, etc. Teach children to rotate through the stations each day.  Timers make good tools for station activities.
5.  Enlist the Help of Others – Coordinate schedules with your spouse if possible. Encourage older children to help their younger siblings.  Arrange for extended family and friends to help at the house or have phone or video calls with children to answer homework questions, read stories, or simply chat when needed.

 Work

1. Set and Communicate Work Boundaries – Help children distinguish between when you are available to help and when you need privacy to work. For older children, consider posting your schedule of available and busy times on the refrigerator or home office door. For younger children, parents can use an agreed-upon symbol such as a red piece of paper on the door to mean “busy,” and a green piece to mean, “available to help.”
2. Create a “Questions for Later” Notebook – Give your child a notebook in which to jot their thoughts and questions while you are working. Review the notebook together daily and answer their questions when you have time to focus.
3. Teach about Emergency Interruptions – Teach your child the difference between emergency and non-emergency work interruptions.
4. Take good care of yourself – Working from home and participating in online schooling can be an adventure and a challenge.  Take breaks, eat healthy food, stay hydrated, get some exercise, and take care of your emotional well-being.  Don’t hesitate to reach out for help when you need it.  Call a counselor to help you navigate complicated emotions and family relationships.

 School

1. Remember that Everyone is Continually Learning – Working and schooling together at home will present unique challenges daily. Expect the unexpected! Be flexible. Navigating challenges at home as a family provides opportunities to grow in faith, resilience, and patience. It also provides opportunities to learn how to communicate needs, form and maintain boundaries, forgive, resolve conflict, and work as a team.
2. Learn from Failure – In the Disney movie, “Meet the Robinsons,” Lewis says, “From failure we learn, from success, not so much.” Moments of relational, academic, or planning failure are redeemable.  Accept failure as part of the learning and growth process for yourself and your child.
3. Scan your Environment for the Positive – Keep an eye out for the good! Praise things that are well done, keep a gratitude list posted for all to see, and take time to pause and celebrate the large and small successes of each family member.
4. Teach your Children to Help Themselves – Keep healthy snacks, toys, and games within reach.

Always Remember To:

1. Laugh Often – Laughter is good for the soul. For more information on the benefits of laughter, check out my blog post, Laugh Out Loud.
2. Trust God – I write this last in the hopes that you will remember it first.  Remind yourself often to trust God.  He is faithful. He knows your situation.  And he knows you and your children.

Proverbs 3:3-6 Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

 You can do this!

Written by Andrea Brandt, NCC

andrea@restorationcounselingatl.com, ext. 154

Roswell Location

Andrea graduated with a Master’s Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (CMHC) from Richmont Graduate University, a Christ-centered academic environment.