Press release -

How to spend time with your kids during the COVID-19 lockdown

Families all over the world are now facing a brand new everyday life. Most parents have dreamed of getting to spend more time with their children, but this is probably not what they hoped for; having to balance jobs, children, and householding at the same time. “It’s alright to be an imperfect parent during these times. Structure and quality time can help you cope with the new situation,” family expert explains

During the last couple of weeks, most families’ situation has changed dramatically. Parents are now spending more time with their children than ever before - involuntarily though. The dream of more family time probably isn’t quite how they imagined it to be and according to author, clinical psychologist and parenting coach Dr. Rebecca Schrag Hershberg that makes perfect sense:“I’ve spoken to parents who say “This is what I’ve always wanted, why am I not enjoying it?”, and I tell them, this isn’t what you wanted. You didn’t want to be trapped in your home with no time for yourself having to balance work, parenting, and householding at the same time. This family situation is forced, so of course, you are feeling the pressure.”

Dr. Rebecca Schrag Hershberg believes that one of the most important things right now is to be okay with imperfection:
“It’s challenging to balance all our responsibilities. Right now parents are full-time professionals, full-time parents, AND full-time teachers. Naturally, that’s an impossible task. So right now it is important to figure out how to shift, how to get even a little bit of structure and how to be okay with imperfections because none of us have ever had to do this before,” she explains underlining, that taking care of yourself is taking care of your family in this situation:
”One thing that you can do is just to put your hand on your heart and give yourself a tender acceptance instead of being too hard on yourself during these - for all of us - challenging times. Take the extra time to take care of yourself. Whatever you need to do as a parent to help make you stay calm is important, because your state of mind will affect your child and the rest of your family.”

Focus on child/parent relationship and quality time
Dr. Rebecca Schrag Hershberg believes that we need to maintain some structure during this hardship as it will allow us to prioritize breaks, time for ourselves and quality time with the kids.“Right now I believe that it is important to prioritize the parent/child relationship. Because that strong connection is what is going to protect your child against trauma. We can make the best of this extraordinary time by trying to provide some kind of structure or routine. If you can do projects with your kids in the spirit of fun and joy instead of focussing on getting them exactly right, the relationship with your kid has an incredibly strong opportunity to flourish. Because kids love doing projects with their parents,” she argues and continues: "It is alright, and unavoidable for many families right now, to let your child have more screen time than usual. If giving your child an iPad for a period of time will allow you to get enough done so that you can then spend an hour of quality, truly focused time with your child, then that is a worthwhile trade-off."

Start a project with your child
Many parents are now looking for stimulating projects they can do around the house with their children now that many sports and social activities have been shut down. The sudden rise in hours spent indoors will undeniably make parents and children spend more time in front of the computer screen, but if you ask the founder of Gentle Guitar School for Kids, Inga Hope, the screen can be the perfect starting point for the family to engage in quality time, where you learn and have fun at the same time.
“We all remember how great it was doing different projects with our parents growing up. These everyday tasks and projects really strengthen the bond between parent and child. That’s why Gentle Guitar focuses on the teamwork between you and your little one. Our experts are simply there to guide you via a live conference call.”

Inga Hope - a musical talent, who has many years of experience in teaching the young ones - founded The Gentle Guitar School, an online music program with one-on-one lessons, games and learning through written and academic activities. Unlike other online learning platforms, Gentle Guitar believes in the importance of involving the parent every step of the way. This also means coaching on how to support the child.
“We don’t like the idea of the parent waiting in the car until a lesson is over. We believe that the parent is vital in keeping the child motivated. Music makes us happy as well as doing activities together as a family, which again nurtures the children's creativity,“ Inga Hope explains.

With Gentle Guitar Inga Hope and her team aspire to inspire “the performers of tomorrow” with a thorough foundation in music theory and literacy, while supporting and nurturing creativity and talent among the children.
“The situation in the world is chaotic right now. A couple of focussed hours can be exactly what you and your child need to somewhat normalize the situation without just wasting time indoors,” Inga Hope explains and carries on: “Many parents are at first skeptical that our online lessons work so well and are so much fun for the whole family, but the world is changing and the way kids are learning is as well. Modern education is not about conformity and a one-fits-all approach to music. It is about nurturing the creativity within each individual child.”

The Gentle Guitar School has been providing long-distance one-on-one lessons in nine countries, including all over the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and even South Africa taught by teachers from Denmark, Canada, and New Zealand since 2015. “We’re not an online platform with hundreds of subcontracted teachers,” Inga reflects, “We’re a small close-knit team of dedicated teachers who love to teach music to kids.” The online platform teaches kids in the age from 5-8 and 9-12.

Topics

  • Art, Culture, Entertainment

Gentle Guitar™ offers guitar lessons for kids, in the comfort of your home.
Kids learn to play guitar online, at home, with a live teacher!

We connect via live video conference call using Skype or FaceTime.
Children under 12 years old must be assisted by a parent or another adult.

Contacts

Inga Hope

Press contact Founder +45 30 48 94 04

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