To start a thread where you can only share absolute genius hacks for getting through lockdown working with kids or other responsibilities.

[Amithetoxicone]

The best one I have is you set a timer for ten minutes and they have to stay in their rooms for ten minutes and tidy between five and ten things away. You go in after ten minutes and if you can guess what’s gone then you get a point and if you can’t they get a point.

@Serin

Pick a country and do a project on it. Including geographical features, main industries, political system, language etc. Draw pictures, paint a giant flag or make a big sewn wall hanging. Make costumes. Make typical food. Put on a play about its history. A few years ago, we did this with ours and used Canada, it went so well, we repeated it with Wales.

Sorry but this is a thread about hacks on getting through WFH and kids - who on Earth has time to make costumes

@AGnu

Prodigy Game - my DC are obsessed with it. It's a bit like Pokémon, but with maths. I think my lot would play it all day if I let them!

Thanks so much! My youngest dc (5) is now sitting quietly playing this! Life saver!

Lunchboxes with snacks in for the day all laid out in the kitchen. They can help themselves once they’ve finished them, that’s it. No pestering you for more! Mine started saving things for the next day. Fruit didn’t count, so the snacks were things like bags of mini cheddars, a couple of biscuits, a pot of cheese cut into cubes and something extra treaty like a bag of haribo.

What I meant by fruit didn’t count was that there was open access to the fruit bowl, I didn’t put it in their boxes.
And it meant they could get food without asking me.

Love the exam paper idea.

These ideas are all great BUT!! The reality is you sometimes often don't have the mental energy for all that after the first week.

I'm in Melbourne, we did 15? weeks....I think..... and it's hard on the kids. First week it's novelty but it gets hard after that. Forgive them and yourself!

My DD watched a LOT of documentaries during lockdown. Generally she finished her school work by 12, she had to read for an hour, then watched documentaries of her choice (vetted by me) until school hours finished. She knows a LOT about deadly animals now. Khan academy is great.

She's come out of it mentally healthy and that's all I care about. We had a couple of weeks of meltdowns where we tried all the good ideas and I'm just NOT cut out to be a teacher. Do what works for you and your family.

Thanks for starting this thread, op.

Haven’t RTFT but snack boxes. Each child has a Tupperware box with snacks in which has to last through the day until dinner time. They can take what they want, when they want, but once it’s gone it’s gone and there can be no asking for more, useful not to have them asking for a snack whilst you’re on a work call!

@babybythesea great minds think alike!

Also lunches, you could if you wanted make up lunchboxes in the morning as if they were going to school. At lunchtime everyone just gets their box out of the fridge.

Mindfulness colouring, you can print it out online. So many good ones for slightly older kids.

Accept that screen time is ok and completely necessary.

With kids aged about 5 upwards, they can have a list of jobs to do whilst you’re working. Can earn little rewards or pocket money. Kids are very reward motivated!

I’m a teacher bit but have to provide online learning to my class and teach a key worker bubble so have limited time to actually help my own kids.

I feel terrible saying this when I know how much time teachers like myself are putting into home learning resources but what has really helped me is investing in some good quality text books for the kids in each subject so when I haven’t got the time or the ink to print off / download / check home learning resources then I can just throw the books at them until I can find time to actually sort out their proper school stuff.

They have lots of evening zoom activities for Brownies, football etc so they have things to look forward to each evening and they FaceTime their friends so that deals with all the guilt about socialisation that so many seem to be agonising about.

I make sure they get up early for a long early morning walk with the dog to loose some energy or they are bouncing off the walls. I also use bribes liberally - if they do what I want we do something cool.

I have also refined the don’t fuck with me teacher look over many years so my kids actually know to leave me alone if I look pissed off. That helps. That helps a lot.

I tried the lunchbox thing but they they still try and get more food. They wait for me to be on MS Teams then descend like vultures on the snack cupboard while they know I can't shout at them. My year 8 child is in school this time as she has an EHCP so only have to manage the year 6 child. The school are actually giving them work this time. She will do the work set as best as she can and I will throw money at a tutor when this is all over to make up for our inadequate teaching. As parents we are really good at topic stuff but rubbish at the core subjects.

@YouBoughtMeAWall

The other one was buying carpet stain remover. For some reason they both became obsessed with using the Dr Beckmann stain remover that comes with a brush attached. There was something really satisfying for them in seeing the stains vanish. Plus it was one less thing for me to have to do in terms of housework

This is amazing! It really amuses me the strange things children really love!

Considering one of them is a teenage boy, I was also amazed! I kept finding them on their hands & knees in different rooms, watching the miracle happen... I might have to go round the house 'accidentally' spilling coffee down the stair carpet during this lockdown

Give then a tissue, tell them they have to hold it against the wall with their heads. First one to move and drop the tissues looses and the winner gets £1 (which they can’t go out to the shops to spend).

Tell them you have some washing to sort out in your bedroom and once you’ve done that you’ll come and find them so they can tidy their room. They’ll leave you to do that “washing” undisturbed for hours,

Tell them you’ve hidden 12 pound coins in the garden but they have to dig them up with spoons, winner keeps all the coins. Don’t hide anything, works even better if the ground is hard and frozen.

Tell them Boris has announced that the queen will be doing random zoom bedroom inspections and they better get cleaning.

I might have to go round the house 'accidentally' spilling coffee down the stair carpet during this lockdown

😂😂😂

You gotta do what you gotta do!

@PurplePickleJuice

Love the exam paper idea.

These ideas are all great BUT!! The reality is you sometimes often don't have the mental energy for all that after the first week.

I'm in Melbourne, we did 15? weeks....I think..... and it's hard on the kids. First week it's novelty but it gets hard after that. Forgive them and yourself!

My DD watched a LOT of documentaries during lockdown. Generally she finished her school work by 12, she had to read for an hour, then watched documentaries of her choice (vetted by me) until school hours finished. She knows a LOT about deadly animals now. Khan academy is great.

She's come out of it mentally healthy and that's all I care about. We had a couple of weeks of meltdowns where we tried all the good ideas and I'm just NOT cut out to be a teacher. Do what works for you and your family.

We did a good few months of this back in March in England too. This isn’t our first rodeo!

Hide and seek. Get them to hide and count to 20 thousand.

Placemarking to come back to for ideas in the morning.

@grassisjeweled

Get them into skirting board cleaning

This is all getting quite Viz like

😂😂 this is my kind of parenting

@PinotAndPlaydough that's absolutely brilliant!!

I must admit I do the same

Right boys were going to clean your rooms just after I've put the washing out, I found my heat from them for hours either 🤣🤣

Don't hear from them for hours

God it's late I need to go to bed

Shamelessly placemarking in the futile hope I can adapt some of these for a two year old. The carpet cleaner one is brilliant (but she’d definitely try to eat the toxic cleaning fluid too).

I’ve taken to playing the following ‘game’ with my kids:
I stick a tea towel in my waste band and get on with work in one room, kids start in whichever room is furthest away and have to try to sneak up and grab it from me without me spotting them. Anytime I see/hear them, they have to go back to the other room & start again...basically just get on with work & randomly shout “I can see you” every now and then at them. Keeps them out of the way for ages

@omg35

One of my school mum friends told her kids she'd give whichever of them went longest sitting quietly on the carpet not bothering her would get a pound. Her 9yo managed 4 hours

Kinda sad that at 9 years old they didn't game her out of a few quid there.

"Love this one. My tip is to use procrastination to your advantage. Send them upstairs to get dressed - guaranteed to buy at least 30min while they find all sorts of other things to do. Likewise with tidying bedroom / clearing out of toys."

Genius!