Support Networks

Expat families have come together to support each other, both those who have stayed here in Hong Kong and those who are overseas temporarily. We hear from a few readers about their experiences.

Community spirit

We’ve been sharing the load across two families – working out a way to manage the schoolwork and our full-time work-from-home (or office) commitments as we go. In our building, there’s been a real community spirit; some of the older kids are running PE group classes to get all the kids moving. These kids are adapting so well and we are grateful to our wonderful teachers.

We established a homework clubs for kids in the same year at primary with a few families in our building. It’s really helping because each mum takes it in turns to do two hours each day. We try to get through two to three key items on the timetable. It’s challenging to keep the kids’ attention, but it means that each mum only does one day in three, which really helps with the sanity and allows us all to get some of our professional work done.

Having a whale of a time!

Four expat families gathered together in a house in Sydney’s Whale Beach. Each morning they completed home learning tasks before heading to the beach in the afternoon. It wasn’t without its struggles:

We had eleven children in one house with terrible Wi-Fi, and trying to get them all to buckle down was hard going. Some of us were working remotely, too. After a few weeks, though, our families were working independently.