Parenting's Latest Challenge: Working at Home While Schooling Your Children

Plans are underway by the education department to incorporate homeschooling as part of the learning process. Some districts have already implemented the first phase of homeschooling. This could be the beginning of future education strategies. 

Most parents have been on remote working schedules for close to years now. Many of them have learned to adjust to remote working. Unfortunately, homeschooling is new to them. They have to adjust further to accommodate their kid’s class time. 

Conflicting work time and school time – create extra time

Most of the parents working remotely are full-time workers. That means they have to be on their laptops between 8 am to 4 pm, depending on their work schedules. Employers expect the employee to be productive and deliver work worth their pay. On the other hand, the school expects the parent to be productive and home school the kids according to the syllabus. 

It happens that this parent is the same employee who’s expected to deliver by their employer. The biggest challenge is to handle conflicting work time and homeschool time. Children can get stressed when they consistently miss their lesson time. 

You should find a solution to help with lowering your children’s stress by rescheduling their class time. From your 24-hour schedule, create extra time. You can get them ready for lessons two hours earlier before you report to work in your home office. You may also schedule their lessons after your work time. 

Handling kids’ homework and employer’s work – work with flexible schedules 

After every lesson, the parent must assign lesson exercises to help the kid understand the lessons well. After the kids complete the assignments, the parent must mark, grade, and help the kid to make corrections. Most kids may not have the patience to wait until their parents complete work duty. They want their homework marked immediately. 

This is a challenge that most parents don’t know how to handle. Instead of sticking to your work schedule strictly, create flexible schedules. You can work for two hours and take one hour break. Within the one hour, use forty minutes for homeschooling. Take twenty minutes to rest and work for another two or three hours. 

Dealing with technology – Bring education technology home

Another challenge parents are experiencing is understanding education technology. Teachers use specific items or devices to teach children. There are specific technologies created for education. The parent needs to take time to learn how education technology work and bring education technology home. This could be in terms of education applications, online libraries, and science learning kits. 

Dealing with disruptive kids – create routines

Kids love to play and often demand attention from parents. When a parent is working on their laptop, the kid may want to do what they see them doing. The solution is to create workable routines. A routine is a habit that will help you and your kids to get used to a certain way of doing things. You may fix breakfast time to be at 7 am, morning lesson at 8 am, playtime at noon, and so on. Stick to that habit until your kids get used to it. 

Talk and discuss with your children

No matter how young kids are, they will follow instructions if you become strict. But before the rules, create awareness. Discuss with your kids to help them understand that you are working from home. Let them understand that you get the money that you use to buy them goodies from the work you do. Let them also understand why it is important that they get an education. Your aim should be to help them leave you to work and be available when the time for their lessons comes. 

Show that you are a caring parent

Disturbing you while at work is part of kids’ growth progress. They are intuitive and want to learn everything. You can affect their growth if you keep rejecting or rebuking them every time they show up in your home office. When they come, give them a warm welcome and give them attention for a few minutes. 

Find a way out to send them away wisely. Avoid creating a situation where they take offense or feel like you are hostile to them. They will slowly avoid you and will eventually be distant away from you even if they are still under your care. 

Create study and office spaces

To teach your kids the difference between office and classroom, create different rooms for work and study. Avoid working from the living room or bedroom. Have a separate room that you call the office. You even put a sign on it. If your kids are in different grades, create a separate space for each of them. Let them have their lessons from their space or room. 

Conclusion

Technology is changing the way people work. More and more parents are working from home. District schools have introduced a homeschooling curriculum. Parents have to learn to balance between remote working and caring for their homeschooling kids. Different strategies will help the parent to create a balance. They can create flexible schedules or create more time and routines that kids can stick to. They should show love and care to children while training them to leave them alone when it is office time. 

Author Bio:

Charlie Svensson is a fast, engaging freelancer working in the custom essay writing field. He is skilled in content writing and blogging and currently works for a professional writer service. The favorite topics for his blogs include education, social media, sales and marketing, motivation blogging and self-growth. He is excellent at tuning his skills to reach a diverse audience.