You can provide support for your child by:

• establishing routines and expectations

• providing a space for your child to work in

• providing a level of supervision appropriate to your child’s stage of development

• monitoring communications from teachers

• checking in with your child often to help them manage and pace their work

• monitoring how much time your child is spending online.

Resources for families during remote learning

These handouts have been developed for parents and carers supporting children and young people in the home environment during remote learning.

The fact sheets provide practical home and family friendly ideas to assist self-regulation and the setup of suitable learning spaces.

1 - Sensory Activities for Home

We receive lots of information about our environments through our senses.

Movement and other sensory activities can help a child to calm down, focus or wake their bodies up.

This handout provides parents and carers with activities, both calming and alerting, that target different senses.

2 - Movement and Regulation - Indoors

Movement and other body based activities can help a child to calm, focus or wake their bodies up when they are feeling dysregulated.

This handout provides parents/carers calming and alerting activities that can be used at home.

3 - Movement and Regulation Activities for Home

Children can find it difficult to know what their body needs to feel “just right.”

This handout provides parents and carers with activities they can complete at home, using items found in the home and incorporating family routines eg Meal times, bedtime.

4 - Education from Home: factsheet for K to 6

This handout assists parents and carers to set up a suitable environment for remote learning, including seating, positioning and movement breaks.

5 - Education from Home: factsheet for 7 to 12

This handout assists parents and carers to set up a suitable environment for remote learning, including seating, technology use and good work habits.

You should adjust these responsibilities according to the age and stage of your child.

Student responsibilities include:

• monitoring digital platforms and communication often to check for announcements and feedback from teachers

• completing tasks with integrity and academic honesty and doing their best work

• doing their best to meet timelines, commitments and due dates

• communicating proactively with their teachers, asking for support as needed

• collaborating and supporting their classmates in their learning online

• abiding by their school’s behaviour guidelines.

Depending on the age and learning stage of your child, consider some of the following questions to support their learning:

• What are you learning today?

• What are your learning targets or goals?

• How will we organise your time?

• What resources do you need? What support do you need?

• Are you okay? Do you need to ask your teacher for something? Do you need help with something to make tomorrow more successful?

Regular check-ins throughout the day may also be appropriate. This depends on your child’s needs.

You may be solely responsible for your child/children or you may also be balancing working from home or continuing work hours during this time.

Strategies to balance your responsibilities:

• Prepare a work space for yourself

• Look for opportunities to complete your work when children need you to be present but don't need your full attention

• Adapt your learning from home schedule and working from home arrangements to allow for a balance of responsibilities

• Do your best to create a culture of understanding and empathy with your children, and talk with them about what is happening at an age-appropriate level

• Where possible, divide up household responsibilities for all members to share and take turns with

• Remember this is a temporary situation, manage your expectations, know that everything is a learning opportunity, and be kind to yourself and each other.