Anyone with children at home will be starting to think about juggling homeschooling and home working as of today. My advice to you as a fellow parent, coach and educationalist is the following:

  1. Be prepared, create a timetable, set out your expectations for learning  and behaviour and start each morning with a plan of what everyone is going to be doing each day. Things will and should change as you follow the scent of your children but a plan never hurt anyone. This will also stop you from chasing your tail all day.
  2. Be kind to yourself and don’t set your expectations of the workload to be completed by any family member too high. As you work together in your new environment this will increase over time.
  3. Have fun whilst learning and working, we all learn better when we are having fun and feeling happy.
  4. Ensure you stop for food and water breaks. Be true to yourself and know when you just need 10 minutes away from the children to reframe and breathe.
  5. Incorporate movement and exercise into your day.
  6. Be flexible, it’s great having a timetable for the children, however if they are really engaged and learning during an activity continue with it, don’t stop it because the timetable says to move on. A timetable is only a guide.
  7. Set Goals (however small they may seem to you) for your children and yourself. We all love a good goal and it will help to keep you on track. Celebrate daily goals achieved by all family members and look at providing additional support for gaols not achieved or amend them as needed.
  8. Make the most of all of the free fantastic online learning offerings (you can find these on my BLOG)
  9. Dance in the moment, be in the now, enjoy the extra time you are having with your children, be present during each daily learning activity, you will enjoy it far more. Be true to yourself and if you can only support for an hour a day as your workload is too big, that’s fine, just ensure that you are congruent with your children and fully involved during that 1 hour. There is nothing worse than sitting on the outside watching everyone else having fun! Get involved, bring out your inner child and be curious, inquisitive and creative like you once were.
  10. Reflect at the end of the day to make note of what worked and what didn’t. Ask your children what they enjoyed and what they would like to change. If something didn’t work, put a plan in place to change it.

This is written from the heart and will be my daily mantra for the foreseeable. I am happy to chat to anyone who wants to talk anything through, as a Coach, Educationalist or Friend.

Hayley x