When “Continuing Education” takes on new meaning: Work-from-home with kids

Monday, April 13, 2020
By Yvette Zingery, Partner - Interior Design / Business Development
In Community

You’ve probably seen the viral video of the man on a BBC television interview via Skype, when out from the background pops his 4-year old……followed by baby brother…..and then finally, their frantic mother to corral them away. We love this video, yet secretly fear that someday soon this will be us.

Now through week four of the Corona Quarantine, our children have been at home under our exclusive supervision for nearly a full month. As you know, we’re an office with a large percentage of young families -- two-thirds of our staff are currently home with pre-k to college age children. That said, many of us have been learning to adapt to work life with our new “co-workers”. In the last four weeks we’ve gone through various stages, ranging from shock (what, no school?!) to acceptance (it’s just an extended spring break) to grieving (wait, you want us to stay home another month?!) and a range of emotions in between. While educators are suddenly tasked with delivering engaging and effective content online, many of us parents are trying to figure out how these super-humans manage to do it. Every. Single. Day.

We also have another “job” to manage: ordering groceries online, since our little ones are fueled with endless snacks from morning until night. But aside from keeping them fed, we must keep them busy and in many cases, current with online schoolwork, which continues to move at its usual rapid pace despite the stay-at-home order.

We have several young families for whom homeschool is the norm. For perspective, we spoke to the Lallathins, who constantly amaze us with their ability to “have it all together.” They’re in their fourth year of homeschooling a fourth-grader, a third-grader, a second-grader, and a first-grader, while little sister (almost two) tags along. Andrew’s wife Sarah says one of the keys is variety; she says every day is different, and she doesn’t bother worrying about the “long-term” (next month, next year, etc). Instead, she takes in everyday and tries to truly enjoy it with her kids. She points out that children do not all learn the same, so it’s important to think outside the box and be creative. She also applies ‘practical life’ activities to everything they do – from baking, to unloading the dishwasher and putting away laundry. With dad (Andrew) suddenly at home full time, he’s gotten in on the fun too – from hosting early morning chats in his “office” with his first-grader, London, to popping in on activities when he ascends from the basement for a snack.

So the rest of us can handle this for a few more weeks, right? We’ve got this!

We asked some of our working-from-home parents how they’re managing this new “normal” and here are some things we seem to all have in common:

Tethered to tech

Not only do we rely on technology to do our work, our kids are now more heavily reliant than ever for their school work. Screen time has sky-rocketed, but who can blame us?! We are all dependent on our devices to stay connected in work and online learning. If nothing else can be said of this time, we’ve all picked up on a few useful apps or YouTube channels. A great one that the Lallathins recommend for creative projects is Art for Kids Hub.

Spring has Sprung – we think?!

Ohio springs can be slow-starters (and cold!), but other than a few storms, a tornado warning, and some lingering snow last week, we’ve had some comfortable temps and sunshine. We’re all aware of the benefits of getting outside, and while we can’t hit the nearest playground with our children yet, we can certainly get out for “recess” everyday, or a nice long walk around the neighborhood.

Keep on learning

You’ve probably seen the pleas on Facebook….parents looking for help with their children’s math homework because they’ve long forgotten all of it. We’re forced into brushing up on all kinds of topics, and re-learning subjects that we haven’t thought about in years. But it’s actually pretty fun!

Giving ourselves Grace

It’s a crazy time. This is not the time for perfection at home, but rather a time for survival. We fully recognize how fortunate we are to have to “juggle” our jobs and kids from home right now. Yet even under challenging circumstances, we will probably look back on this extra time with our children with great appreciation. Before we know it, we’ll be back into our old routines and missing this leisurely pace. It was not so long ago that some of us were up to our eyeballs in schedules. Taking the kids to school or daycare. Rush to work. Rush to pick them up. Race to the next activity. In my house, we have been relieved to just SLOW DOWN for a minute. And it’s okay to be thankful for that.

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