Coronavirus pandemic has affected enormously to the life and health of every individual around the globe. Children cannot be separated from the crowd; in fact, they are the ones whose life routine has been affected mostly. Children may become frustrated and stressed out due to such unprecedent conditions. Their health may also get negatively affected as they may not be having their friends with them and they may not be knowing about how to spend their time alone. In such a critical time it becomes a great challenge for every parent that how to keep their child engaged and motivated. What becomes utmost important is that how to provide a healthy and safe learning environment to the children now a days. Giving them right guidelines for their future is also necessary.
So, here we are up to bring and share few important tips in order to provide learning environment to the children of all ages, so that their physical as well as mental health can be uplifted during such a crucial time.
- Scheduling daily activities.
What do you say if Sun do not rise in time? What if weather conditions are unprecedent? We are all afraid if something important do not happen in time and with schedule. It creates a kind of stress and it can have negative affect on our health both physically and mentally. School going children are the ones whose schedules are widely affected due to this pandemic.
So, how can we ignore the importance of scheduling for our child. It is the foremost task for every parent to provide a tentative daily routine for their children and keep them engaged in their tasks whatever they can do as per their age.
It is highly complex to make your child stick to a single routine during this time, as they are mentally prepared for flexibility. We may choose from different options of routines whatever might be comfortable and interesting to our child. We should try to keep them engaged in diverse activities. It may include your child’s hobbies or they may be doing different house chores or their online programmes whatever.
- Invite for free discussion
“Patience is the key” for any kind of problem. Children might be having ambiguous behaviours and it can become difficult to understand what they are really feeling. Parents have to keep patience while communicating with their children. We can invite children to discuss about any kind of issues they may be facing. Feelings have to be expressed openly with them. For that parents have to step into the shoes of their children.
It may be the possibility that your child may be having any kind of wrong or incomplete information about coronavirus pandemic and they may be feeling stressed out due to that, try to find out all kinds of details and then work upon that by showing them the right path through correct guidelines and safety details. It is not abnormal that if your child feels frightened due to any kind of flu or common cold, he or she may be catching or he may hide his health problems. Try to make him or her calm and give support for all such issues.
We can have healthy discussions with our children and should motivate them to ask any kind of query they may be having.
- Plan the learning sessions.
Parents might be too busy into their own daily activities. But they should plan for the learning which they want to incorporate into their child. We can start by giving few brief trainings to the children and then can include few longer sessions as the child’s interest starts growing.
- Internet Security for Children
An alarming issue particularly for younger children. Parents should first make themselves aware about the different kinds of cyber-crimes that are happening now a days, and then take steps to ensure the safety of their child. In the current scenario children are exposed widely for longer periods of time to the internet. They are performing their maximum activities online. What steps you are taking to ensure their safety against the cyber-crimes that are happening? Again, an important question. Parents can keep an eye on their children on regular basis when they are working on their computers and doing online activities. We can provide appropriate information about internet safety to our children. Always keep on telling them for not sharing any kind of private information and not to upload their pictures online for any purpose. We can also set up rules through mutual understanding for when to use internet and also parental controls can be set up on various devices.
- Communicating regularly with your child’s teachers and facilitators.
‘Home school at every house’ a new phrase becoming viral today. Due to widespread trend of online classes in the current scenario, there is a school at every house, now every parent has to work like a professional teacher. Getting the information about the child’s academic behaviour which they are performing online also becomes an essential task for the parents. The importance of this activity has increased today is because now parents solitarily have to check that whether their child is doing their daily academic tasks regularly or not as their teachers are not in touch with them for long time to keep a check on their learning. It brings greater responsibility for parents to make their child’s academic work hassle free and updated continuously.
For all this, parents have to regularly keep themselves updated and in touch with the teachers and facilitators of their children.
Last but not the least we can say that, the above can be the endemic discussion. All of us may be knowing these issues from the core of our heart but many a times we forget and get confused when the situation arises that how to act here. But we can say that these broader guidelines can help every parent to recap their potential to handle their child’s behaviour in this time of emergency and uncertainty.
Neha Agrawal
Lecturer
Birgunj Public College
