Alice advises on community-based early childhood programs in places like the Solomon Islands or the highlands of Papua New Guinea, helping parents, communities and governments implement best practice learning for little ones aged 0-5 years.
She shares with us her top eight tips for busy parents and carers – now balancing work and childcare at home.
Eight tips for busy parents and carers balancing work and childcare at home
I know it’s hard right now for parents balancing so many things in such a challenging time. I am hearing from many parents who tell me they feel a lot of pressure to ensure their children’s development is not impacted – but they only have so much time.
Balancing work and toddlers is so hard, but there are some easy things you can do and strategies you can employ to give your little one the learning outcomes they need.
Even though we’re in lockdown, and it feels like the whole world has changed, your baby or young child still needs the same key things to develop and maximise their brain development.
No matter how limited the resources there are always simple activities you can recreate at home.
The first years of life are when a child’s brain is developing at an incredibly rapid rate with hundreds to thousands of connections developing in the brain every second. It’s an incredible opportunity.
The key things that drive healthy development are nutrition, learning and care. Or as we at UNICEF like to say: Eat, Play, Love.
1. EAT - Ensure a variety of different foods
Nutrition is key – having the right nutrition at the right time is really important, including ensuring dietary diversity.
In this time, a key part of nutrition is making sure you still get a broad range of foods across all the food groups and you’re still having a variety of fresh foods to meet those nutritional needs.