If you work from home, and your kids are there too, getting work done can become challenging.

As the summer holidays have arrived, the war paint is applied and the crucial strategy begins to create a calendar not only filled with meetings and deadlines, but an intricate web of (what feels like) never ending childcare blocks to fill with family and friends, mixed in with the endless hours of mandatory entertainment through clubs and activities.

And just when you think you’ve nailed it, and every hour is filled, something inevitably falls through. So, what then?!

Well, the good news is you don’t have to panic, because we’ve created a fool proof strategy to work at home, with your kids under the same roof and still get stuff done.

Schedule Playtime

Quickly think of what time in the day you are most productive. Now think what time of the day your kids get bored the most. These are the times you’re going to create your power hour – or hours depending if the two overlap – by setting up an activity your kids can achieve by themselves. If you’re really short on time, set the activity up on a rubbish bag and you can throw the mess away at the end in one foul swoop. For maximum quiet time, keep what the activity is to yourself, point them in the right direction and let them discover it for themselves.

Here are a few ideas of activities you can set up:

  • Pavement Chalk: Set the kids up with any form of paving stones and let them go to town. To mix things up, set-up masking tape shapes to create an abstract design on the way round and let your kids colour each section. When they’re finished, remove the tape to reveal a wonderful work of art.
  • Puzzles: Puzzles are the perfect entertainment for kids of any age. Whilst younger children can assemble smaller puzzles, older kids can challenge themselves to a more complicated 1,000 piece.
  • Bubbles: Set up a large bucket of bubble solution with a few different bubble blowers, and let the fun begin! You can make bubble solution from washing up liquid and water. Don’t have blowers? Challenge the kids to make a blower from some string and some sticks.
  • Solitaire: Perfect for older kids. Forget the screen version; teach your kids to play in real life with a deck of actual cards. This game is a time-tested boredom buster.
  • Build a Tall Tower: Set up a station complete with a variety of materials you’d find in your house (cardboard boxes, Lego, blocks, toilet roll tubes, etc.) and watch how high the tower gets.
  • Pipe Cleaners: Even the littlest of fingers can play with pipe cleaners. Let them create their own inventions or set and idea of things they could make.
  • Colouring: Whether it’s colouring books, or blank paper, drawing and colouring is a go-to classic for a reason.
  • Teddy Bear’s Tea Party: Pull out the plastic plates and cups and let your child invite all their fuzzy friends for a teddy bear tea party.
  • Paper Airplanes: A few simple folds in a sheet of white or coloured paper can provide endless fun. Head to YouTube for inspiration beyond the obvious.
  • Playdough: Playdough is good for long periods of open-ended play. You can easily extend this activity using playdough tools like rollers and cookie cutters. Swap to salt dough and you can bake their creations, opening the door for a painting or decoration session the following day.
  • Beading: A big bucket filled with a variety of beads encourages kids to get creative. Beading is an activity that kids can do independently once they’re past the choking hazard age.
  • Water Play: As the weather gets warmer, take your work outside and set up a water play station for kids. A simple bucket filled with sponges and containers or turn on a sprinkler to keep them entertained for a while.

Trade Off

If you can, you can trade out supervising during power hours with your co-parent to optimise sections of your working day. For example, you could take the morning supervision shift, whilst they take the afternoon. If you don’t have any co-parents in your home over the day, try and arrange a playdate with other parents who work from home and trade off over lunch.

Define Work and Play Space

It’s important that both you and your children feel like you have a designated space. If you have a playroom or designated play area, then let your kids use that space while you work. Alternatively, you can break up sections of the same room, using the dining table as ‘work zone’ and a rug area as ‘play zone’. Ensure the space you have chosen for yourself allows you to work and focus comfortably. This separation of space creates boundaries, making it easier to “draw the line” between work and home.

The Tech Wildcard

As we all know, kids love screen time! But too much and the novelty quickly wears off, so use it wisely! Whether it’s extra time on their favourite video game, downloading new and novel content, or zoning out to a series or movie, a little screen time can go a long way to getting things done. Plus, there is so much educational content to be found, you can feel guiltless doing it.

Focus on the Priorities

In an ideal world, kids will run around like clockwork happily playing and skipping inside when it’s time for lunch. Reality can look entirely different. So, when working from home with kids, focus on both your work priorities and what’s a priority for them. Are the kids safe, fed and watered? Check. Have you made your important deadline? Check. Have you missed things that can wait until you’re back in the office tomorrow? Absolutely. Don’t forget, your only human, so be kind to yourself, and keep expectations low, that way you can only be pleasantly surprised.

Set up a Food and Drink Station

Imagine a world where you don’t have to get up every 10 minutes to get an endless rotation of snacks and squash. Setting up a food and drink station, with packeted snacks, a jug of squash and cups in a format your kids can help themselves to, not only helps teach them to be more self-sufficient, but alleviates the time you have to put down your work for ‘just one more snack’.