Due to pandemic and lockdown situations in many states and countries, most of the people are working from home. While for some people, it is a blessing as there is no commute for them and they may have more sleep, on the other hand, it is tough for the parents who have young children, and their work has been doubled. They must take care of their children, all day along with schooling and feeding responsibilities at the same time as doing the job or take care of the normal routine. I salute these parents who are working hard and switching their roles to a chef to an educator to their job titles and helping kids with activities which they like. As a parent of young kids, I have developed a few ways which helps me to maintain a balance between all things.

Scheduling

I have created a daily schedule for my daily tasks, and I follow it as much as I can. I have also shared it with my wife, boss, and team members and booked my calendar accordingly. I have allocated the time for sensitive tasks when my kids are taking nap, or my wife has a break where she can take care of them. So I can completely focus on the sensitive tasks or meetings which require complete attention. I and my wife have scheduled our breaks and lunches in a way that we are not taking them at the same time. This helps a lot in taking care of different things.

Family Time

Yes, our daily routine is very tough (me and my wife). However, we take it as a blessing while working from home that we are with each other and with the kids. We do have our moments however we are creating memories with the kids. Turning to a Chef role or have fun with kids as a family is priceless. We are enjoying seeing kids growing up and see all the small things which they do and have fun. Things get a little bit easier when we stick to our schedule. 

Designated Space

We have become creative in our house spacing and designated the area for the home office and online classes for kids. We have scheduled the kid’s classes in a way where one is taking an online class and another child is sitting on another desk doing his homework or some other work. We have set up two different tables also for our office area in a room to create a feel of the work environment and school.

Find Ways To Teach And Have Fun

There are many ways which we use to keep our kids busy with different things. My wife is excellent in Math as she is an Engineer and loves, teaching kids. She prepares some fun math sheets as per their grade level every week and kids do these sheets during the week days. They are also enrolled in Gems Squared math program for kids. Their math lessons not only cover the school curriculum but goes beyond it. Their lesson included word problems and IQ questions. They are fun to do, sometimes I also work with the kids on these problems and we have fun together.

They also take the coding for kids classes every week and they look forward to this class especially. Gems coding program for kids is designed uniquely. They work on foundational concepts first and develop these concepts through developing simple games. Their lessons have different levels of challenges and the teacher teaches kids in a way where they understand things easily. My kids love doing coding homework which they get from the coding class teacher. It keeps them busy as it has easy to difficult tasks. Sometimes, I help them with their homework however mostly they don’t require any assistance in doing coding homework.

They also love playing chess so as per their interest we have enrolled them in the chess for kids program. During the pandemic, they are taking online classes. Both are on different level classes and two different coaches who work with kids very well and they have FIDE Master titles. During the class, they get a lesson from the coach and play online tournament games on the Gems online chess platform. Coaches who watch their live games on the chess online platform recommended the move during training sessions. 

We also try to keep them busy with some physical activities. Usually, we do these activities in the evening as we go for a walk if weather permits, play some basketball on the driveway, etc.  

Finally, I would like to say, it is very hard to manage work and life both now a day however these days are giving us also opportunity to know our kids much more, see them grow, create memories and if we stay positive then this could be our golden days which are spending with our family and not focusing on things. We will remember these moments and will enjoy talking about them.

Resources – Coding for Kids: Parent Guide