With the pandemic, many of us have been led into a new way of doing things–including our children’s education. While some have opted to go for homeschooling and others decided to treat 2020 as a gap year, there are still a lot of us who chose to keep our kids in their current schools to give distance learning a shot.
Although we still have the guidance of teachers, distance learning is still a challenge to a lot of us parents. Unlike traditional schooling, we now play a much bigger role in our children’s education.
I’ve been listening to parents in our group chats, in Facebook communities, and on social media and many are saying that they feel overwhelmed. “Parang ako ang naka-enroll!” (I feel like I’m the one enrolled!)
It does feel like that sometimes, doesn’t it? All the e-mails, the schedules you need to stay on top of, everything is just so overwhelming.
But, it doesn’t have to be that way.
Being an Online Business Manager, I have always been the one who’d step into the creative mess of clients to organize, strategize, and help them overcome the overwhelm so they can move forward.
I thought, “Why not do the same at home?”
The Keys To Overcoming Overwhelm So You Can Be More Productive And Have Fun Learning With Your Child
Number one on the list is to know your priorities. Like, really know what matters most. This will make decision-making so much easier for you (hence, less mental load). In my case, my priorities are:
- Myself (I need to stay healthy in all aspects of my life so I can take care of my family)
- My Kids
- The Business
Whenever I’m faced with a dilemma that requires me to choose between two things, I simply go back to my priorities. If my kids really need me, I drop my work to attend to them.
Second, never overschedule. The quickest way to a burnout is overscheduling yourself. Know what your child’s distance learning schedule is, create a calendar for it on Google Calendar along with your other schedules so you have a bird’s eye view of how your days will look like. If you see too many overlaps, think of moving schedules around.
Here’s my son’s schedule in school:
This is how my schedule looks like if I include my work hours and Kelly’s homeschooling schedule:
There are overlaps, yes, but these overlapping schedules are simply the kids studying at the same time. While they’re busy doing their independent study, I take that opportunity to work on my businesses.
I encourage you to make use of Google Calendar so you have your whole family’s schedules in one place. If you’re a pen-and-paper kind of person, though, you can use this printable calendar I created:
My third tip is to encourage your child to study independently. Be available if they have any questions, but allow them to navigate the distance learning platform on their own.
I know it’s super tempting to hover over your kid while they attend classes or do their worksheets, but let’s trust our kids and their capabilities. This is the perfect time to develop confidence, responsibility, and self-worth — and all we need to do is trust.
Finally, take distance learning one day at a time. I remember during the first ‘normal’ week of distance learning, a lot of my co-parents at my son’s school were overwhelmed by all the modules and assignments that the teachers sent.
However, those were sent just so students have them ahead of time. It wasn’t meant to take up the whole weekend of families. So, what we did when we received all those notifications is we stayed calm and we checked Caleb’s schedule. We only reviewed the modules and did the assignments under the classes he’ll have the next school day. The rest, we did in the following days.
This way, we don’t feel overwhelmed and we still have time for the family.
I hope our tips here will help you shift from overwhelmed to productive. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out by commenting below.
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