Northamptonshire team set up new website to help parents with home schooling during coronavirus crisis

A new website to help parents with home-schooling has been set up by a Northamptonshire directory for things to do with children.

With no one going out thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the owners of Toddle About magazine have quickly switched to giving advice for parents now at home with their kids.

The Family Life at Home website provides good, reliable educational resources as well as help for how to entertain children at home.

Founder Tim Freed, from Towcester, said: “The coronavirus has caused many businesses to have to reinvent themselves overnight, and Toddle About is no different.

"We have instantly given all of our clients that advertise with us the ability to list their virtual and online classes, and also built and launched a brand-new website for Family Life at Home, which already provides lots of great online resources for parents and carers all in one location.

"It’s been a hugely emotional couple of weeks, but I’m really excited to see how this will develop over the coming weeks and months to help support all families and their children."

Tim and his wife, Ruth, are no strangers to home-educating as all three of their children are taught by Ruth who is a former primary school teacher.

However, with schools close due to Covid-19, this has become a reality for the vast majority of parents who may be terrified at the thought of having to teach their kids mathematics, science and English.

Family Life at Home has been realised, built and launched in less than a week by Tim and his business partner Alec Wadey.

Parents can search the listings and refine results by the age of their child, the subject they need help with, or the kind of resource they are looking for.

The site also has an ‘online classroom’, giving parents a place to ask specific questions and get help with particular problems from teachers and others in the wider parenting community.

Ruth and Alec's wife, Claire, who also has a teaching background, have been busy adding all of their favourite resources to Family Life at Home in an effort to get as many on the website as quickly as possible.

The new online resource is constantly on the lookout for businesses that offer educational or entertainment resources online for children that would like to be added to the Family Life at Home website directory.

Alec said: “This is very much a project to help the parenting community, and we’re hoping parents will help us to build the listings - by sharing the site with their friends and the businesses they know that should be on there.

"Businesses can add themselves to the Family Life at Home website for free by creating an account, or parents can recommend resources to us that they like and we can add them and contact the businesses directly.”

Family Life at Home is already proving to be very popular, according to the team, with a directory that is growing by the hour with an instant overnight following on Facebook and Twitter.

To find out more about Family Life at Home, see the resources available or add your business listing, visit www.familylifeathome.co.uk or call 01327 830171.