Social Distancing with family. It´s child's play.
In a very unusual situation, children are out of school during the State of Emergency. Are they in vacation mode? Not at all. How about us parents, how is our schedule when all the kids are home?
Finland has been doing necessary precautions for the coronavirus pandemic by closing the schools. Limiting the daycares though it continues to be open. Employees are allowed to work remotely.
How can we help with the homework given by the teacher? Do we all know the language? For almost everyone, we at least know the basics of Finnish. We always received an email from the teachers written in Finnish via Wilma. In such cases that we do not understand the task at all, we can have quick help from Google Translate for example. It may not translate the whole sentence correctly but particular words can be easier translated.
What happens if both parents work remotely, with the combination of school-aged kids and daycare age kids at home for the whole day? This may sound chaotic, busy, noisy to name it a few. This is all for the safety of our family. This is all temporary.
There are many ways to keep our schedule easier and less stressful.
Remote studying for school-age kids
Our children are used to being in school, every weekday with the proper schedule on what are the things to do. How do we parents help them do the same thing while they are at home. Simply, follow the same routine. Let them sleep and wake up as if they are going to school. That will make them feel that they are not in vacation mode.
If both parents work remotely, this is a challenging task. What I do is, we take turns. It is good to have both of the parent's own time with the children. Then when work is done, you can have time as a family.o go. We are still avoiding contact with more people after all. anymore, it comes and melts. They only need to go out of the house and there they go! Fresh air and sun! The more kids in the family, the more fun and activities they can figure out to do together and make less of screen time.
There is the biggest chance that your kids can understand the whole task on their own if you read it to them, in case they do not know how to read fluently yet, or you let them read it. For the bigger children, they usually don't need help with the homework but assistance in some technical stuff like for example, how to set the Meet when they need to have the video conversation with the class.
Handicrafts
School-aged kids have homework about the handicrafts. This is a very good time to make use of time while helping them to also entertain the smaller ones. If you have daycare children, let them do simple crafts too. The best part is, they are using their time together without knowing it :-)
Outdoor activities
It doesn't mean that while they are not in school or daycare, they will be kept inside the house the whole day. Of course not. Find something to do outside. If you have trampoline for the summertime, let the trampoline season start. Besides, we do not have so much snow anymore, it comes and melts. They only need to go out of the house and there they go! Fresh air and sun! The more kids in the family, the more fun and activities they can figure out to do together and make less of screen time.
Luckily Finland has so much forest too. Go out and bring the kids to the forest and explore. You might not be able to do this every day but at least on the weekend. Avoid though, places too common for people to go. We are still avoiding contact with more people after all.
Remote working
If both parents work remotely, this is a challenging task. What I do is, we take turns. It is good to have both of the parent's own time with the children. Then when work is done, you can have time as a family.
Budgeting
When children are in school or daycare, school-aged kids eat lunch in school. Daycare eats only dinner and snacks at home. Now that they are all at home, this can cause a rise in the family budget. Or does it? Not necessarily. In fact, it is even possible that we can save. Why is that? Because firstly, if we stay at home, we do not spend money on eating lunch in the restaurant in our working place. We also saved gasoline or transportation money for this month.
Meal Plan
If we are thinking about our food budget, then what always works even before is the proper meal plan for the week. Especially kids are home, we need to have a plan for what to eat for the whole day. Try to shop for a week's food, you can save an unnecessary trip to the shop and save you the possibility of getting the coronavirus too.
Our children are used to being in school, every weekday with the proper schedule on what are the things to do. How do we parents help them do the same thing while they are at home? Simply, follow the same routine. Let them sleep and wake up as if they are going to school. That will make them feel that they are not in vacation mode.
Yesterday, the government changed their new restriction about the children of grades 1 to 3 to be able to be in school if the parents want to start on Monday. There are no more restrictions for only those who have the parents in the critical profession. This is not mandatory! However, they advised to still keep the kids at home. Will you let them be in school?
Positive Effects
I don't and I will not. As mentioned above, it is challenging but there is always a way to overcome this temporary situation. Besides, I noticed a few important positive effects on our family.
1. We ate together from breakfast to dinner. This is very rare in a normal situation. We only eat as a whole family usually on the weekend or some days at dinner time too. Breakfast is very rare, as the daycare kids eat breakfast in the daycare.
2. More family time together. What else can we do when our hobbies are cancelled. No friends are visiting and no kids are allowed to visit us either. Kids play more together with each other. This is all because of the precautions to avoid contaminating the virus.
How about you our dear readers, what you do to make your first week or rather the first few days having all the kids at home? Does this post give you an idea or rather help you for the next week? You are free to comment and give your ideas and suggestions too. A happy weekend and safety to everyone!
4. Reading. Before the library closed for a month, I took two bags of books and a few DVDs. Kids like reading from newborn until this pre-teenage stage. We love reading books. It is a great time to spend time and learn at the same time. The kids' language can also improve if their parents read to them all the time.
How about you our dear readers, what you do to make your first week or rather first few days having all the kids at home? Does this post give you an idea or rather help you for the next week? You are free to comment and give your ideas and suggestions too. A happy weekend and safety to everyone!
Written by: Mercy