The restrictions announced by the Prime Minister on Monday night means that all of us have had to radically adapt our way of life with little notice or time to prepare. We are all finding our own ways through this constantly changing landscape.  There is no one route map; there is no one way of coping. The restrictions have unique implications for every family in the country.

In amongst concerns about health, jobs and finances, parents are also having to cope with the challenge of looking after their children alongside working from home. While schools are setting up work to be sent home and arranging methods of distance learning, it is important to remember that in this transition period, there is no immediate need to home school.

Your children will be very anxious at this unprecedented state of affairs. They need reassurance and to feel safe and connected before they need to learn. They will not be ready and able to learn if you are stressed or tired or need to take the time to make arrangements for your work or to keep finances together.  It can be useful to think of Maslow’s hierarchy of need in this situation.

So what can you do to create feelings of reassurance and safety?  Here are some suggestions you may want to try.

• Maintain a routine – especially for getting up in the morning and going to bed at night.
• Get dressed in the morning! (Even if that means changing one set of pyjamas for another!)
• Limit time watching the news and on social media. It’s vital to stay informed about what’s happening, but rolling news can build our anxiety. There is a lot of misinformation and “fake news” circulating so try to stick to sites and accounts such as gov.uk, BBC etc.
• Encourage your child to read or read to them/with them. If you have no time to read to them, download Audible – they are making lots of children’s books free to listen to.
• Find time to exercise – there are lots of online workouts available for adults and children!
• Play with your child – board games, dressing up games, building Lego, or hide and seek – your imagination is the only limit!
• Colouring and drawing are wonderful calming activities. The could draw a rainbow poster for the window – many neighbourhoods are doing this for children to spot when they are out for their walk.
• Engage your child in cooking, baking, small household tasks – allow them to be active participants in family life and in keeping everyone together and safe.
• If you can get out safely for exercise, do so. You can hold a scavenger spotting hunt (you don’t collect things, but tick off if you see them). You could count how many rainbow posters you can see!

We recognise that there are a range of resources online to support children and young people manage change to their familiar routines. We have collated a Mind Map of free educational resources and activities for children of all ages and will continue to update this over the coming weeks.

It can be difficult to balance your children’s needs with the demands of homeworking.  Here are some tips that might be useful.

 

 

If you have a concern about the safety or wellbeing of a chld, here is a list of useful numbers.