Tips
Tips for Parents/Guardians:.
Establish a routine. Children and Adolescents thrive on structure even though they sometimes resist it. Set a schedule for when things are to happen. When doing school work, allow for brain breaks.
Set up a structure for how and when school work should be done. It is ideal for this to be a place that is non-cluttered with few distractions.
3. Use screen time as a reward for completing school work and chores.
4. Monitor leisure screen time. 45 minutes at a time should be the limit, 2-3 times a day. Dopamine levels increase with screen time, making it more difficult to disengage from the technology.
5. Spend time together as a family looking at old photo albums or old family videos. Talk about the memories from those events.
6. Set up systems in which kids have independent leisure time not directed by you. Togetherness is wonderful but everyone (including you) needs time away from one another, especially in circumstances in which we are required to stay home.
7. Engage family members in discussions involving feelings about what is happening. We need to model for our kids how to talk about things, especially the hard things. Young people have lots of questions during times like this. You may not have the answers, and it’s okay to admit that, but it is important for family members to have open discussions.
8. Encourage your child to engage in empathic activities through actions such as making greeting cards/messages for elderly neighbors, offering to do chores or tasks that don’t require close physical contact, shoveling snow, sweeping the sidewalk, raking the yard, running to the store to get something for someone who is shut in, even a phone call to say hello.
9. Monitor what your child is doing on social media.
10. Remember to give yourself and your family grace during this time as this is new to all of us! Let’s model resiliency for our children and work together to get through this crisis. WE APPRECIATE YOU!!