HAMPTON ROADS, Va.— If you’re struggling to keep up with your kids while keeping up with your job, you’re not alone.
Coronavirus has put a new burden on parents who are working from home - and now teaching from home now that schools are closed in Virginia for the rest of the academic year.
Kim Teixeira is the owner of Sylvan Learning in Chesapeake and Suffolk. She says harmony in the household can be tough to maintain without structure. She suggests parents come up with a schedule and write it down for the kids to see.
“Like on a poster board or even on a whiteboard on the refrigerator— write out, ‘From 9 - 10, we are going to do math,’ and, ‘From 10 to 10:30, we are going to do jumping jacks and run around the den.’”
Teixeira says after you’ve come up with a schedule, identify a distraction-free space for your kids to do their work every day.
“It helps make them more productive. It gives you a longer stretch of time to work as well. That way, they’re not coming and going, ‘I don’t have a pencil. I don’t have an eraser.’”
Teixeira says boredom can lead to hunger, so prepare a snack bag with healthier options where kids can go if they want to eat outside of the confines of breakfast, lunch and dinner instead of coming to you countless times throughout the day.
“They’re constantly making those trips to the refrigerator, into the pantry and it’s just going to drain us and frustrate us if we don’t set those boundaries.”
Teixeira says the best way for you to get your work done is to make sure they are getting theirs done, and she says sometimes the allure of a reward will do the trick.
“They’ve got P.E. and recess and lunch, so maybe extend your ‘video time’ a little bit but tied into the context of, '[only] if you get your job done.'"
For parents who would like additional help, Sylvan Learning offers virtual tutoring sessions where instructors can virtually asses student's needs for things like homework help.
