I was in a virtual chat with fellow yogis after live-streaming yoga class the other night when a mom shared how stressful it was to teach math to her homebound children.
Parents around the country have been thrust into homeschooling their children without warning. Many are simultaneously teaching the curriculums of multiple grades while also trying to perform their own jobs remotely.
We are in the midst of a global pandemic wreaking immeasurable economic devastation and totally disrupting our lives. We are disoriented, afraid and missing our normal activities.
The last thing families need is more stress — especially when they are stuck together under the same roof 24/7.
What parents need right now, IMO, is permission to ease up a bit on trying to be the perfect substitute teacher.
Teach to Your Talents
Mom, dad, how about shifting gears and teach some of the life skills that aren’t part of the typical school curriculum? Like how to sew on a button. Do laundry. Change the oil in the car. Most parents’ busy schedules don’t offer windows of time for these kinds of experiences. Seize the opportunity!
Why not take a break from studying and share some your own personal experiences and skills? Enlist the kids’ help in a home maintenance project. Play some of your favorite music from when you were in high school and tell a G-rated story from those days. Prepare your favorite recipe. Get out the guitar.
You can even sneak in everyday math skills along the way: convert ounces to cups while teaching basic cooking skills. Turn the dining room into a restaurant and print a menu with prices.
Draw a map of the places you go in a typical day — from your house to school to the grocery store. Ask your kids to guess the distance between the points and then verify with Google maps. They can go a step further by drawing the outline of their home state and guessing the distance miles from east to west and how long it would take to drive across the state.
Dream
It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the news — and the fact that there’s no end in sight as of yet for the Corona virus crisis. Instead of focusing on the here and now, we can look to the future. Ask your kids to pick a place in the world they’d like to visit and create a presentation on the destination — for older kids it could be in PowerPoint, for younger ones, a print report with pictures.
Make wish collages by cutting pictures out of a magazine.
Don’t forget to move!
Get kids involved in cleaning the house and enlist their help in chores. Turn on some music on and sing along. Stretch or do yoga. When you’re finished shake everything out!
Kids will love this move from my fav yoga teacher: lie on the floor in a dead-bug position with both legs and arms up in the air. For 30 seconds, shake all your limbs as hard as you can. You get bonus points if you also roar like a lion.
Now’s also a great time for the whole family to do breathing exercises. Breathe in as deeply as possible, filling up your belly and chest with air to a count of 10, hold it at the top and then slowly let the air out to a count of 10.
Cultivate creativity
Make a batch of salt dough. Draw each other. Invite your kids to start a journal by reminding them they are living through a part of history that people will talk about for a long time. Write a song or poem about the Corona virus and sheltering in place.
Show some goodwill
Handwrite letters to family members and friends who may be feeling lonely. Include a picture or other piece of art. I think we all agree that one of the best things about the situation we’re all facing is the community we’ve been able to create even while social distancing. If we’re lucky, the importance of reaching out and connecting will be ingrained in both our children and us.
And most importantly, de-stress. Make a laughing circle. Dance. Light candles and meditate.
If you’re a parent with school-age kid, you’ll no doubt be able to riff off these suggestions and come up with ideas that fit your family. I hope when you look back on this crisis of 2020, there will be some good memories of the time we all spent cooped up at home. Above all, I hope you and yours are healthy and safe.