We've all seen the school-at-home schedules as the Covid-19 lockdown came into shape. There is no right or wrong way, so what are the options for parents of school-aged children? Josephine Franks and Warwick Rasmussen report.

Auckland mother Natalie Donaldson has spent the last 17 years homeschooling her five children.

Her children,now aged 13 to 21, are part of the fraction of Kiwi kids less than 1 per cent who are home educated on a normal school day. But when Term 2 officially starts on April 14, the school gates will stay bolted and all of New Zealand's schoolchildren will be learning from home.

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Nalize Tozioz Browne says when she started homeschooling her son Jesse, 11, she had to realise she was a parent, not a teacher.

For parents juggling video meetings and new home office setups, it's a daunting prospect. Making your kids your first priority could actually play out in favour if you want to get work done, Donaldson said, especially if they are primary aged.

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"The younger they are, the more they just want you to spend time with them." She said parents were better off acknowledging this need and setting aside time in the morning for reading aloud and talking about how the child is feeling and what's planned for the day.

"If you try to do your things first, the children will get more upset.

"You're their safe person in this time and once they're content you'll be more able to do work."

Teenagers needed a different tack to manage their desire for independence with the reality of lockdown. It's helpful to discuss early on how much time they'll have to themselves, how much talking to friends on social media, how much time helping out around the house, Donaldson said.

Making sure they buy-in early on means they're more likely to stick to their responsibilities, she said.

Principal of Auckland's Hobsonville Point Secondary School, Maurie Abraham, said what the next few weeks needed was a "paring back" of expectations all round. His students will have a timetable to follow, but 80-minute blocks of learning will become 40 minutes, projects will be postponed, NCEA assessment put on hold.

Students will have four scheduled sessions each day, where they will log in to Google Classroom to see the work that's been set and go at their own pace. While the internet provided the jumping off point for each session, home learning wasn't just about sitting in front of a screen, Abraham said.

A PE lesson might mean completing fitness challenges around the house, or jogging to the highest nearby point, taking a photo and finding out its altitude.

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The homeschooling Donaldson family: L-RJohn, Mark, Emily, Bethany, Natalie, James and Jeremy.

Or students might be given an idea for a meal they can plan and cook with whatever is in the pantry, and then be expected to interview family members over dinner. Students will also be journaling, reflecting on news they've consumed, how they can tell it's trustworthy and how they feel, expressing themselves using art, poetry or whatever medium they feel most comfortable with.

Abraham said he was aware of some schools running full face-to-face programmes online, but he was keen to avoid that.

"It's not schooling as normal, just online.

"We've got to stop thinking about how's their maths going, how's their English going, how's their science going?

"We've got to concentrate on wellbeing."

The reality was that some families would find it easier than others to keep learning going at home. For some, the next few weeks might bring job losses, financial trouble or illness, and schoolwork would not be the priority, Abraham said.

AMY BAKER/STUFF

Maurie Abraham, principal of Hobsonville Point Secondary School, says recreating school at home isn't the answer.

But if the lockdown only lasts four weeks, he said the impact on students' learning wouldn't be that great, especially as two weeks of that time was already scheduled holidays.

For parents wanting extra resources for learning at home, the Ministry of Education has launched two websites: Learning from Home and Ki te Ao Mrama. Parents can find activities to do with their children, sorted by age group and year level, including maths games, science experiments and a graphic novel on Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Nalize Tozios Browne homeschools her 11-year-old son Jesse, but when they made the transition from mainstream school three years ago, they spent three months "unschooling".

That meant 12 weeks of doing nothing academically. Instead, they chatted and played, and Browne watched her son and got to know how he learns.

It's helpful for parents to see the next few weeks through that lens, she says. She spent those months realigning her expectations, realising she was a parent and not a teacher - even though she had taken on her son's education.

She runs a graphic design and website building business from their Auckland home, and says while it's a challenge balancing the two, it is possible if you're flexible.

Parents shouldn't feel bad if their work takes priority though. "If it's not working out for you to teach your child, let them draw or paint, or discover things in the garden.

"Even if they don't learn anything in a day school-wise, it's not time wasted."

Christchurch-based neuroscience educator Nathan Wallis said while the initial impulse for many parents was to set up a school-like schedule at home for theirchildren it wasn't the priority, especially in the early days of the lockdown.

"The thing they need to focus on is play. The children are really stressed out and the last thing they need is more stress from parents who might teach their children with a 1920s model rather than a 2020 model."

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Neuroscience educator Nathan Wallis.

He said that could mean rotelearning and scaring children into learning when many are already stressed out.

There is no 'one size fits all' approach. The key was making the learning child-led, rather than enforcing a rigid schedule.

"It might make the parents feel good, butit's not necessarily as important for the children.

"I would focus on play, I would focus on connection, I would focus on self-care."

There were also practical tasks that can be worked on.

"Can these kids make their bed, do they know how to make their own sandwiches?"

Wallis said parents didn't have to choose betweenroutine orfree play as "they are really two sides of the same coin".

It was good for childrento havepredictable parts of the day, such as consistent breakfast and bed times,but a big chunk of the day should be open-ended and free play especially for younger children.

"It's about listening to what your child initiates. If they're putting on their school uniform, and saying, 'have we got a bell' maybe they need that routine and predictability, and I would respond to that.

How parents and families approached the time locked down was crucial, Wallis said.

"If we all expect everybody to go crazy and get cabin fever then that's what will happen. If we all expect to get a much stronger sense of connection, and for us to finally learn to slow down and be present with our loved ones and give them our full attention then that will happen too.

"I think we can frame it positively and think maybe in four weeks we've got much stronger family units who communicate much better because they've had this time to connect and work through things and really be with each other. I think it's an experience that children are going to remember for the rest of their lives."

While this was the ideal scenario, Wallis said that would not be the case for everyone.

"In reality, there will obviously be the whole spectrum. Just coming together and being in an intense space for a family that is already dysfunctional, and then you have restricted the access to alcohol, that's often a dependency. That's a recipe for domestic violence. But I don't think we need to think that way for the whole country. I think the majority of people will in fact get a stronger sense of connection with their family and their loved ones and that will be a positive experience."

The thorny issue of screen time for children during this time was even more prominent.

"I think a practical, sensible approach iswhat the research tells us. Kids shouldhave a clear, predictable two-hour window every day where they'll be device-free. That two-hour period takes the kids out of the risk group of associations with anxiety and depression, where there is a correlation. I don't want parents to interpret that as the kid can be on it for 22 hours a day, I mean within a normal scheduled day, with the kids on and off devices.

Having the lockdown in March and April may be a minor blessing as far as getting outside more, but that didn't matter too much, Wallis said.

"Kids can actually get outside when the weather is complete s..., too. Embrace that. You can still put a jacket on."

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Coronavirus: Education beyond the classroom and what to do with school-age kids - Stuff.co.nz