By Br Solomon Morris
It isn’t that they cannot find the solution. It is that they cannot see the problem.
––G.K. Chesterton
Dear Principals, Teachers, Parents and Students,
In response to Mohona Sukumari’s request to provide some possible solutions to the problems faced by our children due to the ongoing pandemic, I would like to suggest a few practical solutions.
1. Have some form of Physical Classes
Open schools for children ensuring safety protocols, maintaining social distance, using masks wherever needed, encouraging children to wash their hands frequently and teach them to take care of their cleanliness habits. Physical attendance is a must even if it means half the class comes one day and the other half on another day. It calls for meticulous planning by the school management and staff and greater cooperation from the parents and students.
2. Call on Counsellors & Play Games
Get the Counsellors to train the Teachers and Parents to read the signs among children which indicate that children are under duress and struggling mentally. Watch out for signs like loss of appetite, disinterestedness in engaging in conversation, lack of sleep, getting irritated quickly, showing aggressive signs of behaviour, lack of communication, spending too much time on the phone, procrastination, and lack of physical activity.
Take the children out for outdoor activities, engage them in physical games, play family games like carroms, scrabble, ludo, monopoly, snakes and ladders, etc.
High Fives & Low Fives: At the end of the day, get your children to tell you the High Fives they had during the day and some of the low moments they had and listen to them. They may not have Five lows to share but even one or two would do.
3. Establishing routines at home
Children need structures in their lives – rising time, sleeping time, working time, meals time, recreation time, prayer time, and of course, study time. It is the duty of parents to establish and set up a daily time table for their children. The time table that you set must be practical and realistic and must be followed by everyone at home except the babies! And with the time table one needs to be consistent and ruthless too.
4. Control of screen time – how?
· Model healthy electronic use – Parents, Teachers and Care-givers need to be models for our children by setting examples.
· Educate Yourself on Electronics & Technology
· Create Technology-free zones in your homes (like the No-Smoking Zones)
· Set aside times to unplug as a family
· Use parental Controls – to filter and save your children from accessing damaging contents on the net.
· Explain and educate your children as to why you are controlling their Screen time
· Ask your children to share their passwords with you.
· Encourage your children to participate in outdoor activities that don’t require screens.
· Try not to reward your children with extra screen time. Have a fixed time for screen viewing.
· Talk to your children daily about things happening around your immediate locality, city, State, Country & the World. There is a lot you can talk about!
5. Family Time
· Have your meals together as a family. Insist that all are present for the meals at least for dinner when everyone is at home.
· Pray together at a particular time when all are at home. Insist all are present for this important period. A family that prays together, stays together!
· Occasionally, probably twice a month at least, try to get out as a family and recharge your batteries!
· Get your children to handle household responsibilities – washing dishes, watering the plants, tidying up the house, helping in the kitchen, laying the table. Make sure the roles are defined for the children and hold them accountable if they dodge or miss their duties.
6. Talk with your children
· At the end of the day, ask your children about their day – how did they spend the day etc.
· Take interest in their studies – ask them about what they learned that day; ask about their difficult subjects; ask about their friends; ask about what they are struggling with. If they don’t answer, it is fine but at least you showed them that they matter to you.
· Check on their work and encourage them to sit with their books daily and consistently. They need to learn to sit still.
7. Physical Rest
Sleep is so important. Get the children to sleep early. There should be a time when lights are turned off in the house especially when it comes to managing teens. Parents just have to be very strict when it comes to this point about sleep. Children require at least 8 hours of sleep.
8. Be firm, be fair and be patient with your children.
They need to know that you care for them even if you are strict with them. They like it when you discipline them and especially when you are fair to them. Challenge their behaviour but do not hurt their person.
Dear Parents, I hope these simple solutions are practical. They are easier said than done, but certainly not impossible to attain. All the best and let us work together to help our children enjoy and embrace their childhood and adolescence.
(The writer is Principal, St Edmund’s School. Email – [email protected])