How to stay creative and keep your family sane during lockdown – from one of the world’s best teachers

How to stay creative and keep your family sane during lockdown – from one of the world’s best teachers

The UN estimates that 1.25 billion children are currently at home as a result of the coronavirus lockdown.

British art and textiles teacher Andria Zafirakou won the 2018 Global Teacher Prize and has two teenage daughters.

Here she gives some practical tips – from giving your children time to transition to homeschooling, to creative ideas – for navigating staying at home together.

This article is part if a series from the World Economic Forum's Cultural Leaders on building resilience in the pandemic.

In millions of homes across the globe this very minute, parents are juggling like never before as they struggle to teach their children while earning a living during the coronavirus lockdown.

As of 20 March, the UN estimates that school’s out for 1.25 billion children and young people, as 124 countries have closed pre-primary to higher-education institutions – impacting almost three-quarters of all enrolled learners.

With their normal weekday routines gone, many of those children will be finding it hard to suddenly have mum and dad as teachers – and many parents will be trying to control the urge not to scream at them.

If that sounds like you, take some comfort in the knowledge that even one of the world’s best teachers admits her own kids aren’t keen on being "taught" by her.

“Even teachers will say their hardest students are their own children,” says British teacher Andria Zafirakou, the 2018 winner of the Global Teacher Prize and a World Economic Forum cultural leader.

“It’s quite tough teaching your own kids because they won’t listen to you, and you have no tolerance or patience. So rest-assured, we’re with you!”

Before schools closed in the UK on 20 March, Zakirafou was teaching art and textiles in-person to her students at Alperton Community School in northwest London, where she’s also the Associate Deputy Headteacher. In addition, she runs Artists in Residence, which brings artists into schools to inspire children and young people to seek a career in creative and cultural industries.

Now she’s at home with her husband and setting work for her two teenage daughters – as well as setting remote work for her students, who range from ages 11 to 18 and come from diverse, often poor, backgrounds.

Here are her tips on how to stay creative and keep your family sane when you’re all at home together.

We’re all having to be more creative

I’m finding it really tough not going into school, because your classroom is your learning environment and your work environment. It’s hard not having that human contact with the children and picking up on things. And I can’t just go to the stock cupboard, so I have to think about what the students have at home, what access to materials they have, and try to create lessons based on that.

I know that not every household has got access to paints, so I’ve been doing collage and lots of drawing activities. I’m really mindful that I want them being creative and doing things away from the screen. I want them out in the garden, if they have one, to draw what’s there. So it’s about how I can get them to remain creative in their own environments.

Parents can encourage creativity by...

1. Asking questions: Creativity is all about questioning: How can I? Why should it? What would happen if? How can I make this, or how can I change this? It’s about making sure that children are always being asked those questions.

2. Keeping everything: Do not chuck anything away. Keep a bag with all the egg boxes and toilet rolls in a corner, because that’s going to be a mine of incredible craft-making materials.

3. Setting challenges: What kind of musical instruments can you make today from what’s in the bags over there?

4. Giving them time: The beauty is that the parents are in control of the time, for once. So you can give your child two hours to get on with a wonderful creative task, and they wouldn’t have that in school.

5. Finding online resources: Use sharing resources like Twinkl, BBC Bitesize. And then there are the entrepreneurs, like Joe Wicks doing kids’ exercise classes. There are also artists and designers sharing resources.

6. Being creative with space: Think about the space in your house. What can you change, what room could be theirs? What space is not utilized? What can you get rid of to make them a work area or for their equipment? That’s a very easy thing to fix.

7. Thinking outside the paintbox: Creativity is not just about arts and crafts, it’s also about the kitchen. What kind of lunch can they make for you while you’re working?