A majority of Parents are still working at home and parenting. Now that it's summer, our kids are liberated from Zoom school, but chaos is still likely to ensue on any given day because that is how real family life operates sometimes (all the time?). Harvard Business Review offers a simple solution for a weekly family meeting, informed by the Agile Meeting model. Who would have thought to look to an engineering model for a family meeting?
3 Questions to Ask at a Weekly Family Meeting
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Youcubed.org was formed by an award-winning Stanford Math professor to give teachers, parents and students the resources they need to excite students about mathematics. They have devoted a link in their website to fun Math tasks that make at-home-school a little more engaging, if you feel like the Math by Zoom is less than inspiring for your children.
Youcubed.org at Home - Math Tasks that Excite
Please visit other BP Home Base content with 5 categories of interest. Feel free to adapt and share with other team members or customers.4 Ways to Help Your Anxious Kid(s)
Simple things like learning to breathe really work for almost any age kid. The professionals interviewed for this article discuss 4 ways parents can help anxious kids during Covid-19. They suggest we first acknowledge what is happening, then resolve our own anxiety, give kids mindfulness tools (age appropriate), and create a schedule with pictures. My college student still uses deep breathing exercises that we taught him as a 5 year old. It is a remarkably simple tool for attaining a sense of calm and well-and it works for parents too!4 Ways to Help Your Anxious Kid(s)
Please visit more BP Home Base content and see what we have across 5 categories of interest. Feel free to adapt and share this with your team members or customers.Book Reviews by Age, by Common Sense Media
Stories have the power to calm us, to entertain us and to take us on journeys for hours at a time. Reading may just be the key to getting some time to focus on your work while you are home with kids. Common Sense Media is a wealth of information about all things kids media, including age appropriate reading. This must-have resource link provides an interactive age selector and book titles with reviews for the age you have selected. When kids are little it seems like we read the same books over and over again for hours and then magically one day that changes. I'll never forget the day our then 5 year old walked through the kitchen nose-to-book lost in a Magic Tree House story. Think about scheduling independent reading time daily, so you can plan important calls or a project that requires more focus during that time. Reading time together before bed or curled up under a blanket on the sofa is still blissfully happy for kids and important time together. The independent reading time you schedule during the day is a Work-From-Home hack that is very rewarding for kids who are reading and huge help for you.Book Reviews by Age, by Common Sense Media
Visit BP Home Base for more Work-From-Home resources to help you during Covid-19.A Letter to All Parents from Dr. Debra Jedeikin
This is an image of my then 8 year old enjoying a pajama day, under the watchful eye of his Dad. He was building a ball toss machine for impaired Grandparents to use when they want to play catch with their dogs. To me this is an image of a more carefree time when the idea of dangerous Pandemic was not on our radar screen. It's a Saturday in the backyard working on a 3rd grade Science Project together. In her letter here, Dr. Debra Jedeikin tells us that we can capture some of these gentler more carefree moments while we adjust to being under one roof with our children and our pressing work priorities.A Letter to All Parents from Dr. Debra Jedeikin
Dr. Jedeikin (Dr. Deb as many refer to her) is a highly respected professional in our region and someone I've known personally as a friend for 20 years. Her insightful support, pragmatic action-steps and empathetic straight talk is refreshingly simple and extremely hopeful for parents who are all at once trying to do their work and providing some childhood magic at home 24/7 right now. From one parent to another, I hope this helps us all think about how to help our kids. Warmly, Leslie Bridges, CXO Visit BP Home Base for other content to help you with the unique challenges of Working-From-Home during Covid-19.
If you are professional parents working from home for the first time, you are in good hands with this guide from the Harvard Business Review Press. I have found their content to be clear, concise and digestible. They are well researched and understand they are talking to consumers of content who need and want knowledge that can be used. We have a Biology major at home involved in the experiment of online University. But we remember what it would be like if we had to take on home schooling in addition to our jobs. For those of you who have smaller children, this is a really good guide.
HBR Guide for Work-at-Home Parents - Published, March 2020
Visit BP Home Base for other content to help you with the unique challenges of Working-From-Home during Covid-19.