Parenting in a Pandemic: Tips on How to Handle Homeschooling

Article first published through The Ladder Method.

Author Kimberly Didrikson

Supporting communities is incredibly important to us at Learning Motherhood. When The Ladder Method reached out to us for some tips to provide for their parent community who are working full time while supporting their children’s education virtually we were thrilled to help.

what is the ladder method

The Ladder Method is a proprietary Meta-Learning method created and developed by founder Candice Lapin. Her statistically proven learning techniques and executive functioning strategies were developed over years while attending The Buckley School and later while attending the prestigious Cornell University in New York. Her staff of Academic Coaches, Executive Functioning Coaches and Private Instructors help students reach their highest potential, gaining confidence while reducing the time spent studying. Click here for more information.

Now let’s review some helpful tools to support working families while navigate online learning with our children.

THE REALITY OF NAVIGATING WORKING FROM HOME

The reality of navigating working from home while homeschooling our children has presented a strain on working families across the country. The requirements on a school perspective differ vastly depending on a number of factors. The one consistent thing is parents are stressed. Expectations of what we did prior to the pandemic have to adjust we can’t do it all nor should we.

We were never meant to work, parent, and homeschool our children all at the same time.

As each week turns into months, the thought of just surviving until school opens again isn’t ideal either and ultimately our mental health will suffer. As the pandemic continues there has to be a space for working parents to step above survival and work towards thriving again.

UP YOUR COMMUNICATION

To start moving out of the trenches, elevating our communication between family members, work, and your child’s teacher can be the best way to understand expectations while supporting what is truly manageable.

DEVELOP A ROUTINE

Developing routines that support the family related to the household requirements of work are an important foundation in creating space of some form of predictability. 

The schedule itself most likely will vary, but the routine of the day can support the idea of everyone knowing what happens next. This is ultimately created by understanding the rhythm of your household and by far one of the most important parts of generating a less stressful environment.

BE GRACIOUS

Lastly, give yourself grace when it feels like you should be doing more remember how many hats were put on your head with no notice, no planning, and without the backing of your support system. This situation is less than ideal and if it feels like you should be doing more you are probably doing too much.

At the end of the day, you truly are enough and what you can do is literally all you are able to give right now, do not underestimate the value of the effort you are putting into each day.