As mothers, we are often faced with dozens of impossible questions before breakfast: do the laundry or the dishes first; which child to wake up first; how to get all the groceries from the car to the fridge in as little effort as possible.

Today, I’d like to share some of my personal tips and experiences with you, and hopefully you’ll feel a little bit less alone if you are also struggling to keep up with an incredibly long to do list.

To give you a bit of background, I’m a mom of two girls (7 and 9), also the mom of two dogs, the wife of one husband and the owner of one very small business (which currently consist of me trying to grow and expand).

Here is how I try to get everything done as a mom:

Working from home – how to get actual work done

When I first decided to work for myself, I thought having the freedom to organize my day any way that felt comfortable would be an improvement on the 8-to-6 working hours I previously had.

I was very wrong.

While I can certainly pace my day how it best suits me, I now have to factor in what suits all the other members of my family as well.

The first valuable piece of advice I can give you here is to do two things: start bulking tasks and create chunks of time for work.

I try to do the same kind of work in different chunks: I start with anything creative that needs to be done (I’m a writer, so this is usually planning, research or actual writing), then I move on to emails or calls, and I do all the mindless work (invoices, charts, etc.) at the very end. Start with the most important bulk first, and work your way up to the less important things later.

The time chunks are there to enable you to ensure the kids don’t need you while you are at work. If they go to school or kindergarten, try to get most of the work work done then, and leave housework for when they come home (as they may be able to help or at least keep you company). If you are homeschooling, try to get work in while they are working on their own tasks on their own or having some quiet time.

My second important tip is to accept and get comfortable with the fact that things will never go as planned. You’ll feel more tired than usual, one of the kids will have a toothache, things will just not go according to schedule. As long as you are okay with this and don’t lose your temper over the disruptions (which is what makes them so stressful), you will be okay.

Schoolwork – how to be there for them

While we have all gone through a bit of homeschooling recently, I realize now, in hindsight, that the same general rules apply in our household whether the kids are going to school or learning from home. Here is what we have found works best for us:

• Set aside time for school and time for play – I understand the draw of having a flexible schedule, especially when you are trying to get hundreds of things done in the space of a day, but having set times for learning and playing (and everything else) usually work better. Kids love routines and it will help them prepare for what is to come, especially in terms of school.

• Designate a learning and a play area – while we have certainly tried doing homework on the sofa, I find it’s always better to do schoolwork at the same spot every time. For us, this is the kitchen table, as we don’t have space for two separate desks in our home. It feels a bit like school too, as the three of us sit down together and are able to discuss the work we are doing if we need to.

• Use extra materials – schoolwork can get pretty dull sometimes, so adding something fun and extra into the mix can often be a great way to reduce their sated minds and introduce a new but beneficial activity. We’ve recently started working with reading comprehension worksheets that provide plenty of talking points and seem to be going down well. Try to find something similar that helps your kids engage with what they are learning in a different way.

Housework – a family effort

When it comes to housework, try to remember that while all of those chores like ironing and washing up do need to get done, they are not the end of the world, and if the dishes end up sitting in a sink a couple of hours longer than usual, you are not doing anything wrong.

The thing I find with housework is that we all put too much emphasis on it. Of course we need to do it, but it does not have to take over our lives and stress us out.

Try to get the entire family involved, especially the kids. You’ll find they actually love doing some of the chores, especially if you turn it into a game or a competition, and not a boring activity that needs to get done. It’s all about the way you present the activity to your kids.

We have a chore wheel in the kitchen that gets spun every day, and we have a limit of 2 chores per person per day. That way, nearly everything (or actually everything) does get done every day.

When the kids are not old enough to get involved, make sure they are still present in some way. Iron while they are playing with their blocks or cook while they are sitting at the desk – you don’t have to work only when they are napping.

Working on yourself – and why it’s so important

Finally, let’s add one more thing to our list of “everything” that needs to get done – self-care.

Everyone tells mothers how important they are and to take care of themselves, and I wholeheartedly agree. It’s just the way you practice self-care that I have a bone to pick with.

Self-care does not have to mean meditating with a candle, doing skincare in the bathtub, going to get a massage – self-care is what you make of it, so if you like to cook, don’t not think of it as time for yourself.

The important thing is to do something you really enjoy every day. If that’s skincare and meditation, that’s amazing! But if it’s listening to an audiobook while you are ironing, or if it’s teaching your kids how to write – enjoy that too!

The less pressure we put on self-care and the more we start enjoying ourselves in our daily lives, the better care we will be taking of ourselves.

Finally

Hopefully some of these tips will help you get everything done – and remember that everything is what you make of it, and not what anyone else thinks you as a mom need to get done in a day.

---

Read more about well-being issues for mom:  Supporting Mom Through Menopause.

The days of relying on the rows and rows of public library books for school projects are long gone. Nowadays, the internet is a one-stop shop for gaining any and all resources necessary for learning. While it’s amazing that knowledge is so readily available at our fingertips, it’s increasingly important to differentiate valuable learning resources from spam and other junk.

Whether you’re a student or a parent, here are tips to help you embark on this journey to find the perfect resource.  

What Types of Resources Are Out There?

Whether you’re looking for some extracurricular activities to sharpen your skills in a certain subject like scientific discoveries, a fully inclusive tutoring service, or learning about science, the internet has it all. The key to finding the perfect online program is understanding the area(s) that you wish to improve.

Are you at risk of being held back a year or do you just want to get a jump on highschool algebra? For help with a single subject or opportunities for extra learning, check out your school’s and/or school district’s resources. Often times schools will have a webpage for these types of learning activities. For example, one school in Indiana offers resources on learning to read and learning important math skills.

If you are in need of a full tutoring service, the search process can become a little more complex. Refining your search to be as specific as possible can make a huge difference. Instead of searching “online tutoring services” and getting a massive list of just about every tutoring service on the planet, try searching “5th grade math online tutoring services.” This list should be full of relevant sources. Picking the perfect one will then come down to a little extra research on the specific service.

Make sure to look into customer reviews, as well as prices and scheduling, in order to find the service that fits your needs. Your search will come back with big names that you may recognize, such as Sylvan and Chegg. It may also come back with local tutoring services. Be certain to check the local programs as well—local teachers often teach these programs and can relate them to specific school requirements.

How Do You Discover Your Learning Needs?

Picking whether you want an organized tutoring service or just some additional activities is a conversation that needs to happen between child, parent, and teacher. This is a critical point for students to communicate their needs. Even if you sign your child up for the best tutoring service, they might not show the improvement you hope for if they don’t want to be there and participate.

Maybe it would be better to provide them with fun activities that could capture their imagination while teaching them valuable lessons. This will encourage kids to embrace lifelong learning. Whichever route you choose, just be sure that everyone is on the same page. Communication is so important in this step, for both parents and students.  

Where to Start Searching?

When you first begin looking for information online, the results can be daunting. A simple google search comes back with billions of results in fractions of a second. If you’ve ever searched for something as broad as “learning resources,” then you know how difficult it can be to find what you’re actually searching for. By utilizing Google’s advanced search queries, you can get rid of the non credible sites with one easy trick.

Add site:.edu or site:.gov to your search query and you should end up with only credible sites, such as “5th grade math resources site:.edu”. These .edu and .gov sites are normally some of the most reliable resources on the web, but make sure to double-check the content and sources on the site just to be sure.

A caveat to this strategy is if you are looking for full-service tutoring, then you may want to include .com and .org websites, as these are often private companies that specialize in tutoring. Just be sure to check the website for credibility before you give them any personal information.

If you’re looking for a fun activity on searching for credible sources, you can find lesson plans online to help teach your students.

Picking the Perfect Program and Beyond

Once you’ve discovered the programs or resources that you want to use, set up guidelines for using the new learning program. These guidelines should include expectations on how the student will utilize the program, how they will communicate their learning to their parents or teachers, and how they will stay safe while using the internet. Since the student in this scenario will be spending more time online, it’s crucial to set up a plan for cybersecurity. Spam and other non credible websites could lead to viruses and false learning.

Follow these simple online safety practices and you’re sure to maximize learning while minimizing risk. Stay up-to-date with your child’s learning and always encourage clear paths of communication. This simple step will help the student feel like they have a support system and make you both feel more secure in the digital world.

Author Bio

Chandler Clayton is a freelance writer, specializing in education and safety. He draws upon his years of teaching environmental education to empower learning in children and adults of all backgrounds. He has been featured on sites such as SafeWise and Newsday.

---

Are you doing research on a report or paper?
Find out how Simple Wikipedia can help.

These days, if you want to find out about someone, all you need to do is go on to Facebook and search for his or her name. With a bit of extra information, you’ll be able to know that person’s address, birthday, relatives, educational background, work experiences, previous travels, and even what he or she ate this morning.

You don’t need a private investigator these days—all you need is social media. It’s one of the reasons why Internet privacy is a hot potato right now. After Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal and the implementation of EU’s GDPR initiative, concerns about internet privacy have skyrocketed. The fact that people spend an average of 2 hours and 24 minutes every day on social media has only highlighted the need for keeping the user’s data private on social media.

What type of information is shared on social media?

Your profile

Most social media platforms allow their users to create online profiles that are very detailed and complete.  Although these details are not required, a lot of users feel the need to complete their profile to make it easier for their friends and acquaintances to easily identify their account. Some of the profile information gathered includes gender, age, family information, interests, address, phone number, educational background, and employment.

Your status updates

Social networks usually allow users to their status updates to be able to communicate with friends quickly. Although you can choose to restrict access to your status updates, however, it is still visible to Google and other search engines.

Your location

Social media networks are designed to broadcast your actual location, either as part of your profile or as an update available to authorized contacts only. When you check in to a local business or attend a local event, you are sharing your current location with other people.

Your shared content

Social media is all about sharing content about you, about what you do, and about the people around you. Photos, music, videos, and links are some of the common types of content shared on social media.

All the information that you share on social media reveals information about you, including contextual data that you might not even be aware of. By sharing them online, you are providing enough information for advertisers to track you or the government to monitor your activities.

How Is Your Information Used?

The data that you share on social media, whether publicly or through authorized contacts only, can be used by different entities for their own purposes. For example, an advertiser could aggregate your publicly available information, along with your browsing history, to perform targeted advertising. If you’ve seen a lot of sponsored ads on your Newsfeed related to the items you searched or purchased on Marketplace, then that’s part of their behavioral advertising campaigns.

Third-party applications, such as games, quizzes, polls, and other apps like Kik Messenger and Tik Tok, that you grant access to your profile might be getting more information than you realize. This is actually how the British political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, got access to millions of Facebook profiles and influenced public opinion.

Government agencies and law enforcement officers can also monitor your social media networks for valuable information regarding an investigation. Social media has become a vital part of law enforcement investigation because of the abundance of information that can be gleaned from the user’s account. Authorities can also work with the social media platform to get detailed information that is not available to the public.

And for those applying for employment, most recruiters now include looking into the applicant’s social media profiles when doing a background check.

How to Protect Your Privacy on Social Media

How do you keep your data safe on social media? The bad news is that there is always a risk that your information might fall into the wrong hands as long as you use social media. It’s because when you use social media, you’re automatically sharing something to the public.

And let’s admit it: it’s hard to imagine living without social media, especially for people with family members away from home. The good news is that there are some ways to help protect your privacy and mitigate the risk while using social media.

Delete accounts that you don’t need

The #DeleteFacebook movement is a good example of people going to great lengths to protect their data. This might be a good idea if you are living with your family and don’t need to use it to communicate with other people. Or if you have several Facebook accounts you previously created for some reason. If you find yourself not using a social media account, it would be better to shut down your account and delete the application from your devices to cut off any chances of inadvertent data sharing. You might not be aware of it, but social media apps can theoretically access information and data on your device.

Limit the number of social media networks that you use and don’t create new accounts just to gain more coins for your games or to stalk someone on social media.

Limit your friends

You’re not obliged to accept everyone who sends you a friend request. You might argue that social media was meant for making friends and connecting with people, but it is not advisable to connect with total strangers. Keep in mind that your list of friends will have access to information that you don’t normally want the public to know, so make sure you know your friends. Don’t hesitate to reject connection or friend requests from users you don’t know or have dodgy profiles. Review your friends list regularly and unfriend those who you don’t know.

Change your privacy settings

Most social media networks provide users with the option to change their privacy settings and manage the way their information is seen. Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have made it easier to decide who can see your posts and who can follow you. You can look around your social media account and look for the Privacy settings.

Facebook, for example, allows you to control who sees your profile and timeline, who can see your email and other contact information, who can tag you on posts, who can send you messages and friend requests, and other information. Other social media platforms also have this option, all you need to do is dig around the platform’s settings. And make sure to check your privacy settings regularly too, because sometimes they get changed suddenly and mysteriously.

Be careful what you post online

You don’t want people to use your own posts against you or ruin your reputation. If you don’t want something to be associated with you, then post it. Reckless posting can come back to haunt you when you least expect it. Never post anything that you don’t want other people to see. So before you publish your posts, double-check and triple-check.

Keep in mind that everything you publish online could easily be seen by your employers, family members, friends, professional contacts, and anyone else who can see your profile. And though you can always delete the unwanted posts later, you don’t know who has taken a screenshot of your unwanted post. The same goes for your conversations.

Don’t share everything about yourself

Social media users like to use their real names, addresses, and other personal information to make it easier for friends to recognize them. Professionals, too, like to add their employment details on LinkedIn to build a good reputation and easily connect with other professionals in the industry. However, giving out these details make it very easy for cybercriminals to guess your other important information, such as your work email, to launch targeted phishing or online scams that seem credible. To be safe, don’t share all your information online so hackers will have lesser data to work with.

Don’t share family photos on your social media

We know you love your kids, but you don’t need to post everything they do on social media. Cyber predators can grab photos of your children and stalk them on the internet. And since you put your address and your complete name on your profile, it is easier for these online predators to locate your house and probably put your kids in danger. Posting pictures of your children online makes them possible targets by sexual and other cyber predators.

Don’t use your social media profile to log into other websites

These days, it is easier to create new accounts by simply using your social media profiles to log in. For example, you can use your Facebook or Twitter profile to log into other services. Instead of typing in your information, such as email address, password, name, and address, all you need to do is click the ‘Login with Facebook’ or ‘Sign up with Facebook’ option, then everything will be filled out for you.

However, sharing your data across different platforms is very dangerous because you’re pooling all of your data in one location. Once any of these platforms is breached, then all of the accounts associated with your Facebook profile will also be compromised.

So don’t be lazy when creating profiles. Take a few minutes to set up your account using the signup form instead of relying on the ‘Sign up with Facebook’ function.

Wrapping Up

With social media becoming a very important tool for communication, it is becoming harder to stay private and keep your personal information safe. Hopefully, the tips above can help you protect your privacy online while enjoying the benefits of social media. It might be a good idea to receive additional training in online safety to be aware of all possible threats and how to be protected against them

The time we used to spend outdoors, in cars, shopping malls, or just hanging out with friends, we now spend indoors watching TV or using smartphones much of the time. Adults have a hard enough time as it is to limit their screen time, so what about the children?

Such a routine is not ideal for young eyes. Their screen use has increased drastically. Online sessions have replaced classrooms, and the time they used playing in the grounds is now spent watching online videos, playing games, or Face-timing with friends.

Although it is understandable that parents currently have their hands full with remote working, homeschooling, and running the household, they are sometimes guilty of using digital devices as a babysitter. And although parents need a break too, they must establish limits regarding acceptable limits regarding screen time.

Reducing your child’s screen time can significantly lessen digital eye strain symptoms that include blurry vision, tired eyes, and headaches. Here are some ways you can take control and reduce screen time during times at home.

1. Reduce your Screen time first

Yes, it has to start with you. Kids look up to parents, and if you don’t reduce your screen time, you cannot make your children do so. There are some software and apps that you can install on your phone, and monitor how much time you spend on your phone and other digital activities. Some phones come with inbuilt features and monitor the overall usage and time you spend on individual apps.

If you spend two hours on an app every day, reduce it to one hour and then gradually, into half an hour. Once you do that, you would be surprised to see how much time you have for other activities. But it’s not about your screen time in the first place; you are doing this for your children.

Enjoy screen-free meals

The idea should be to enjoy meals. It has become a norm to eat meals in front of a TV or using cellphones that results in distracted eating. You are more focused on what is happening on the screen than what we are putting in our mouth.

Mealtimes are great for social interaction. And these days have provided both parents and children to spend more quality time with each other. So, tell your children that no phones will be allowed on the table during meals. Make them leave their phones in another room away from the table.

Call your friends and family

Traditional phone calls have become a thing of the past now. If you notice, you would prefer to send a text message or a voice mail than answering a call. But phone calls are important. And psychologically beneficial too. Direct voice communication can even save relationships, which has become crucial when families and friends are living in isolation.

Call up a friend or family member. Make your children call their friends or grandparents. And then assess how you feel after hanging up the phone. Phone calls are a great way to connect when you cannot be together physically. Video calls are great as well. At least your child won’t be tapping away on the screen, texting or scrolling down Facebook.

Read at least one chapter every day

Why one chapter? Well, if you haven’t read books in a while, you cannot finish an entire book in a day. If not one, go for at least two. Reading is one of the best hobbies, and you should urge your children to read more. Also, if the book is unable to capture their interest or attention, they can always pick up another one.

Ebooks and audiobook rentals are available at local libraries easily. Indulge in reading with your children. You can do various activities. Choose books to read for the week, and then ask your children what they learned from it. Also, you can take turns reading as a family.

Take a break from digital devices

The key is to gradually reduce screen time and cut it down as much as you can. But as said earlier, doing it in quarantine gets a bit difficult. You can start with short breaks and encourage your children to give their eyes and their devices some rest. Make a timetable for your children that they have to take a short break every hour. You can go outside in the backyard or garden. Explore ideas for fun physical indoors games.  Do some chore, solve a puzzle or anything that does not involve screens.

With short breaks, the focus gets better. And eventually, you would find these habits becoming addictive. When you step away from the screens for 10 minutes, it will slowly increase to 20 minutes. You would find yourself doing other things and getting accustomed to it. Now, this might be easier with young children but not with teens. Excessive screen use not only harms the eyes but spending too much time on social media has negative impacts on psychological health. Social media is addictive, and if you think that your teen is not going to break free anytime soon, you need to take some strict measures. Get a monitoring app designed for parents to keep a check on your teen’s digital activities.

The app monitors text messages, call logs, emails, locations, web browsing history, and a lot more. There are numerous remote functionalities too. If you think your teens are not following rules and using screens when they are supposed to be taking a break or doing something else, you can learn how to remotely shut or lock the device.

Indulge in a new hobby

Everyone person wants to learn something or know something they have been interested in for a long time. Now maybe the best time to experience or learn new things. Help your child finding a new hobby. It can be growing a veggie garden, a DIY project at home, beginner cooking skills, organizing, or anything else. Children are using tablets and phones excessively due to the monotonous routine during the quarantine. When there is something new to do, they are going to distance themselves from the screens on their own.

And even if you use screens to learn a new craft like YouTube. See that you watch the tutorial and then get to work.

The occasional laziness is okay

While all of the above tips work and bring results, you cannot spend the entire quarantine self-improving. Leave some room for relaxation. And it is alright if your child spends an hour more on-screen once a week. Do not feel guilty about it.

We all have a lot of time on our hands that we can use to reflect upon ourselves or relax. Enjoy nature and your surroundings. Plan a lunch or breakfast in the backyard/garden. Ask your children to come up with ideas for décor. And also the menu. You have to make use of what you have and feel blessed.

Mindfulness and meditation do not require physical activity but can boost your mental health and give you a new perspective. There are many ways you can practice these things with children and make them feel more attuned to their surroundings away from the digital world.