How am I working from home with a 3-year-old?

As many companies move their operational work practices to home-working, this will leave many with the added challenge of remaining productive with kids at home.

At CH Solutions, we are no strangers to working from home however having kids around 5 working days instead of the usual 1 is definitely needing some adjusting and planning. Our kids will, of course, be very excited to have mummy or daddy at home to ‘play’. We, on the other hand, want to ensure we are balancing some quality time as well as keeping productivity levels high.

If we all manage to create a balancing act between our kids and our work then this could make for a really wonderful few weeks/months ahead.

The success criteria for this is: Be organised, have a little fun, keep the little ones engaged and getting them burning some of that insatiable curiosity and energy they all have!

I’d like to share some of my hints and tips as to how I will be managing this change:

1. Co-design an activity board.

• Sitting and talking about the activities that she likes to do by herself (jigsaws, drawing, play dough)
• Talking about activities we can do together (cooking, hide and seek)
• Talking about our relaxing activities (yoga, dancing, rhyme time/singing)
• The colour-coded circles: Draw them out together on a whiteboard or paper and separate into different circles

2. The Sticker Station.

• Explain that when she picks an activity that she does by herself, she gets to pick a sticker/stamp
• Write out a sticker chart with a goal at the end of the day if they get 4 stickers, they get a small reward ie. marshmallow!

Some great links and tips for you:

• Cosmic yoga on YouTube: A kid-friendly yoga experience & fun for adults to get involved: https://youtu.be/LhYtcadR9nw
• World Zoos and Aquariums are offering virtual tours on Facebook. Taronga Zoo, Brisbane Zoo and Monterey Bay Aquarium, US
• themathsfactor.com is usually a paid model but is free at the moment and is for ages 4 – 11

I hope this has given you some ideas? I’d love to hear from you. Please reply if you have any other thoughts and let’s connect through LinkedIn!   

Pamela Caldwell

Director