School is on and, yes, it's stress­ful! But think about this. Wouldn’t we be even more stressed if our chil­dren fall ill? If they stopped com­mu­ni­cat­ing? Or if we got so sick with stress that we can’t hug them any­more? So hang in there and make the most of this sit­u­a­tion.

Here are some help­ful tips that work for me as I jug­gle a full-time job, on­line school and do­mes­tic chores with the help of my sis­ter Lin­da and my hus­band, Kris­t­ian.

Alexandria De Silva does online classes.

Kristian De Silva

1. Don’t stress the kids. If they don’t feel like work­ing, try not to yell. In­stead, find a way to mo­ti­vate. In my case, a “charge-up” of hugs work won­ders to re­ju­ve­nate them. We al­so give in­cen­tives at the end of the day and the end of the week. They get re­ward­ed for their pa­tience so they’re hap­py to work again the next day. Re­mem­ber not to com­pare them be­cause each child has dif­fer­ent abil­i­ties and will learn in dif­fer­ent ways.

Anastasia De Silva does online classes.

Kristian De Silva

2. Cre­ate a com­fort­able “school” en­vi­ron­ment for them. Just stick a cou­ple of charts, stick­ers or draw­ings. Do what­ev­er you can to make them a school space that they love. It doesn’t have to be ex­pen­sive. Let them choose stick­ers for their books. And re­ward them with stick­ers too.

3. Wake them up with love. My kids have to wake up at 6 am be­cause class for the youngest starts at 7 am. I spend ten min­utes singing spe­cial songs for them so they will wake up in a good mood.

4. Give them chores that they love. Pick­ing up the toys, wip­ing ta­bles and coun­ters and even vac­u­um­ing goes a long way in keep­ing the house tidy.

5. Do ear­ly school prepa­ra­tions for the day. Print and stick your child’s school­work be­fore­hand. Out­line what has to be done. Use pret­ty coloured pa­per with in­struc­tions, so they can fol­low along and learn to work in­de­pen­dent­ly. I let them write the dates on their var­i­ous sub­jects on the timetable be­fore school starts. One less thing for them to do dur­ing the day.

Liam De Silva does online schooling.

Kristian De Silva

6. Give them a time out to play so they can do what they love to do–en­joy car­toons, play on YouTube, swim­ming, foot­ball, what­ev­er they like so they can de-stress at the end of the day. They are peo­ple too.

7. Pray with them and lis­ten to them while they are pray­ing. Re­al­ly lis­ten. You will be amazed to hear what's in their tiny hearts. Give them a chance to ex­press them­selves.

8. Fi­nal­ly, no mat­ter how hard it is for you, re­mem­ber the kids are your re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. What­ev­er you sow now you will reap lat­er. If you want them to be kind, then you should al­so be kind. They are a re­flec­tion of you. They did not ask to be here, so buck­le down and get your­self to­geth­er and do your best for them.

Re­mem­ber this! School days were nev­er so hard when we were grow­ing up. So ease up the kids when they strug­gle with on­line school. They will al­ways do well if you raise them with love, pa­tience and virtues.