Staying Calm during COVID

Us Brits are a nation mired and wired in good manners. So this whole lockdown easing business is causing quite a conundrum for balancing our relationships with our anxious minds.

Having been desperate to see friends and family again after so long, some people are now finding that the new rules come with new questions and boundaries that we need assurance on before jumping into social and work settings again.

Differences of opinion within households need to be established and reasoned before decisions can be made, after all, the behaviours and interactions of one member of the house affect all members of the house.

So, with children returning to school, workplaces reopening and Ikea apparently doing a roaring trade - there is clearly an appetite for ‘back to business’ from some. But a quick scan on any social media or news platform will also show you that there is a fierce rejection of this from others.

As an example; if you are working from home, your partner is having...

Working from home has many plus points - proximity to the fridge and kettle. As well as negative points - proximity to the fridge and kettle. 

Jokes aside, we've all had to adjust to make the new normal 'workable'. We're establishing some routines and habits that have enabled us to work in smarter ways. 

I've seen a friend relax her child's school hours to happen in the evening time, which better suits her work from home schedule and her daughter's natural energy peak. We've never been able to enjoy this kind of freedom before, but it takes some mental adjusting to overcome old ways of thinking to make it happen.

Finding how to separate work life from home life when it all exists in the same space is something that requires conscious action. 

This article describes how we were already skirting a fine line when it comes to personal and professional life separation before the COVID crisis. With the huge upsurge in home working, it's a more important time than ever to...

Trying to stick to a schedule that’s not working?

Don’t be bound to a sense of how things ‘should’ be done. Really, there are no hard and fast rules right now - and that goes for home-schooling too.

Lesson plans and online classrooms are a great resource, but our children are feeling the weight of incubation too.

If the day has been a struggle in terms of study, maybe share a lesson in a different way.

Explore science through meal planning and cooking. Go off-piste from the school reading list (note: George Orwell’s Animal Farm has been well received, 1984 might not be the uplifting read you or they need right now!).

The likelihood is you're already doing these things, the difference is being mindful of this as part of your children's home learning. 

So if you've not completed all of the prescribed assignments or ticked off all of the spellings - GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK. You're doing a great job!

If you'd like an extra assistant with your...