COVID-19: Balancing Parenting and Home-Schooling

The struggle of parenting – Now with home schooling

In the current global crisis, the pressure is on parents now more than ever. Not only do we have a heavy financial burden that comes with the unknown during this crisis, we are also home schooling. Families across Australia (and I’m sure around the world) are stressed, frustrated and worried about the outcomes that may come from this confinement.

I WANTED TO BREAKDOWN SOME KNOWLEDGE I HAVE TO SUPPORT PARENTS AND THEIR CHILDREN DURING THIS TIME OF UNCERTAINTY.

Home schooling primary school children is challenging. Remember you are not a teacher; you are a parent and that role comes first. 6 hours of 1:1 schooling is WAY too much. 6 hours of schooling is required when you have a class of 30 and the teacher is trying to get to everyone. That mix of 30 children who have different needs and abilities is what the teacher is trying to accommodate across those hours. 2 hours at home will be enough to cover the curriculum requirements and nurture your relationship at the same time. If the school has prepared a mountain of work for you to try get done with your child and its not working for you, take the pressure off yourself and ask them what the most important work for them to complete is. It will most likely be their reading and Math. Don’t stress the household trying to get all 6 hours done. It simply won’t be of any benefit.

For our younger children, they do require more attention, supervision and support in their general routines. Our children that are Prep age or younger are still working their way through some significant developmental milestones; physical, cognitive, emotional and language development. Expecting them to be perfect little people all the time is not realistic as they are not equipped with these capabilities yet. Yes, our 4,5 and 6-year-olds can talk however the more emotional they get the less they can verbally communicate. As the child’s limbic system (part of the brain the organises our emotions) becomes more active (children getting stressed, angry, scared, hungry, lonely etc.) the harder it for them to use the cerebrum (part of the brain the enables us to learn, speak, control our muscle movements etc.).

This makes it impossible for our young children to be regulated all day. Remember our emotions are contagious. So, we need to stay balanced. Children will catch your anger, your worried and your frustrated emotions, but they will also catch your balanced and centered emotions. Emotional regulation typically kicks in as a capability at about 8/9 years old. Behaviour regulation often feeds from the emotional regulation. Once a child is emotionally unbalanced, they will the often respond physically.

Keeping our children, and ourselves, calm is important!

There are some key things that we must ensure we plan for each day.

  • Connection: all humans need connection. However, our young children are still making sense of the world around them and rely on this connection to bring understanding and reassurance to their actions and emotions.

  • Relaxation and down time: Children need time to relax their bodies and their minds. Learning is part of a child’s wellbeing.

  • Play: this is the best type of learning. So let them create and imagine.

Please send me any questions or feedback you might have around this topic. If this form of communication and information is helpful for our community then I will continue to share.

Thank you for reading. We are all in this together.

Liz Pennings – Operations Manager liz@perfectbeginningschildcare.com.au

Jillian Myatt