Headliners from a crash course in virtual nannying!

At the beginning of lockdown one 2020, Koru Kids spent time researching how to virtually care for, entertain and educate kids. If you’re stuck at home trying to work and occupy your children I hope my learnings are some help to you.

Key Takeaways:

1. Choose a regular 1–2hr time slot, ideally after meals and exercise
2. Have a professional or trusted adult plan and run the sessions
3. Make sure the kids have the materials they need or can access them (e.g. art supplies, devices & chargers!)
4. Clearly give control over to the virtual carer/educator and leave the room
5. When time’s up come and admire what the kids have been up to — give them a chance to show off!

It’s a no brainer but the quality of the session itself is hugely dependant on the nanny, entertainer or educator. So tip number one with younger children especially is find a professional, if that’s not possible a trusted adult known to the kids.

1:1 or 1:1 household sessions did work best and kids, their parents and carers all ranked these sessions as the positive and productive. For occasional or ‘party’ style virtual events this wasn’t as important as the skill of the carer or entertainer in keeping lots of kids engaged and the energy levels up.

It’s unlikely that one individual can manage to plan and deliver content for children virtually for more than 2–4 hours a day. How long a session can be is contingent on your child’s age, prior relationship to the carer, what, if any, homeschooling they’re trying to follow — you know them best but there’s no harm in trying! Try to organise your day so that your focus time overlaps with when the kids are being cared for virtually or look at a provider like Vesta, Nannyfy or Oppidan who have a virtual ‘timetable’ that even younger kids can engage with for longer stretches of time.

Tips & Tricks

You can see the full Koru Kids guidance and sample activities I wrote for virtual nannying in the activity centre along with Arts & Crafts, Outdoor and Cooking activities. Childcare support bubbles and nannies are permitted in all tiers and if you’re interested you can sign up for free to find a local nanny to work exclusively with your family on their site.

What did nannies think about virtual childcare?

About a third of Koru Kids nannies thought virtual nannying might work in their arrangement and sure enough just over a third of all the hours reported in April-May were for virtual childcare.

From the uptake, repeat booking and feedback it was clear that nannies felt they knew their kids well enough to judge whether a virtual format could work and that kids and their parents alike saw real value in it.

Given that nannies who I worked with were often not educators or entertainers, they based their assessment on both the kids’ ability to concentrate and their ability to engage a child (i.e. variable experience in nannies means that some kids would be fine with a different nanny in a virtual setting).

Insights from test sessions

• They tended to be surprised how well the format worked “This session has proved me wrong; I didn’t think it would work but it really does!”
• Improv and freeform are very draining for a nanny, noisy for the child and often disturb the parents and I suspect aren’t valued by the parents as much as activity or educational calls as a family member or friend provides the same entertainment for free.
• 2–3 hours uninterrupted sessions with younger kids doesn’t seem likely possible, multiple single hour sessions over the day do (looking into this more with matched nannies already virtual nannying successfully today).
• 1–2hours however, does seem to work. Depends hugely on the child and under 7s should stick to single hours or craft driven activities.
• Whilst it’s not as good as in person nannying but is better than parents other options as all our nannies had little problem engaging children aged 6+ for an hour — 90mins.
• Kids 7+ have plenty of school work set that parents are feeling the pressure to run through with them but don’t have the time for. Google classroom was the most common medium. There’s plenty of scope for nannies to help supervise this remotely.
• The kids are super excited to see their nannies or to meet a new one. Meeting other kids online is really rewarding in social interaction but means they’re even more difficult to control for a nanny.
• Kids are often using hand me down tech that is a bit out of date or where they can’t locate the charger/wifi password etc.
• All the kids (ages 3+) were perfectly comfortable dealing with minor tech issues (phone falling over, camera not seeing them, accidental camera turn offs etc.) and pick up Zoom/Hangouts fast.
• Parents who leave the room early and hand over authority to nanny set up the nanny for success on the call.
• Nannies with pre-existing relationships have a big advantage in knowing where things are / what the parents parenting style is and what the rules are in a home.
• With new nannies or other children kids are super excited to show off their handicrafts and toys / environment.
• Parents don’t tend to have safety scissors or prit-stick — whilst most were okay with their kids using normal scissors and whole bottles of PVA glue it’s worth thinking about investing in some less risky alternatives if you’re not in the room.
• Younger kids with elder siblings who could help were more than happy to join in activities that might otherwise have been a bit beyond their level.

Which software best supports sessions?

Zoom or Hangouts were our winners: