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Tips for balancing working from home with remote learning



A few tweaks in your routine will do wonders

Tips for balancing working from home with remote learning


As the Winter of Covid stretches on, many children are still learning remotely, with parents continuing to adjust to the triple demands of parenting, working, and being a teacher’s aide. If you’re one of those parents, and you’re feeling overwhelmed, you are not alone. Real Simple’s Lindsay Tigar has assembled “educators, psychologists, and parents like you for some strategies they swear by” to help keep all the plates spinning… most of the time.

Before running down the very helpful list, Tigar makes a point of expressing solidarity with parents, and emphasizing a lowering of expectations as a key to happiness. She writes: “While we all know how important it is to prioritize self-care, take a bath, and eat clean, the reality is, sometimes the dinner menu kind of has to be cheese and crackers. And that is completely OK. “

She looks at the big picture, opining that little bribes and cheats will not be remembered in the long run, but rather, “you’ll recall the small moments of togetherness that you or someone else in your family normally would have missed.”

READ MORE: “Cheat Days” may help remote learners and parents

Tigar talks to two sets of parents who have happily lowered their standards, but haven’t necessarily gone hog wild. Anthony and Christina Ma, who both work from home while raising and helping educate two youngsters, have allowed for more mess in the house. While stepmom Sue Keats gladly allows an extra hour of screen time.

Tigar’s interviewee Kimberly Nix Berens, PhD, author and the founder of Fit Learning has invented the “hardworking interval.” This entails sitting your child in front of their work, and setting a timer for 10 minutes, during which time they will be expected to focus on their work while you do something you need to do. Ten minutes are up, they get a break, then back to the ten minute interval.

Among other list items is scheduling play. This is particularly important. Having a semblance of predictability can go a long way towards making everyone feel a pleasant, calming sense of control in a crazy time.



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