With virtually all European and American schools closed, most parents are
becoming teachers overnight through remote learning for their children. There
are some tips out there, but I found many of them to be overly general. I find seeing specific examples more helpful because I can customize them to meet my family’s needs. I used to teach second grade, so I
have some old skills I whipped out.
Based on some of the general principles we often see recommended (outlined below) I’ve provided more specifics about how we are implementing
these things at home. The main audience for this post is parents with more than one elementary school aged child (5-12) at home where one parent can focus on homeschooling.
Based on Tips
for Homeschooling during Coronavirus & Mum-of-four
who homeschools permanently gives tips for parents facing coronavirus school
closures
- Create a schedule
- Go outside every day
- Exercise
- Limit TV
- Expect good manners and polite behavior
- Be compassionate towards yourself and practice self-care
- Create a rewards system to motivate your kids (don’t worry sugar and money are not involved)
I’ve found that most of the recommendations can be
accomplished with a detailed schedule and an incentive system.
Create a Schedule
1.
Created laterally stacked schedules for siblings.
Put the schedule for each child side by side and then add notes for the
Grown-Up. This helps create
realistic expectations for what the Grown-Up can do and will help you schedule
things you know that your kids can do independently while you prep lunch,
snacks, clean up lunch etc.
i. Pair Labor Intensive Tasks for one child with tasks the other child can do independently. As you get used to the type of work the teachers
are sending, adjust the schedule so that the subjects which are more labor
intensive for the grown-up (for us it’s English and Math) are done at different
times for each child. For instance, I do English with my son while my daughter
is doing her online phonics (Teach Your Monster to Read). This way I’m less
likely to be interrupted while helping my son.
ii. Manage energy not just time – think about
the amount of energy, both physical and mental that each subject entails.
Create a schedule that helps manage your energy and your child’s energy based
on how taxing each subject is. Intermix exercise and down times for brain brakes
(choosing time) throughout the day. If it’s stressful for you to teach your
child math, consider scheduling it before a break time. This will give you down
time and space to move into a more patience zone for the next subject.
2. Exercise and Outside Play time are not
optional. Unless you are sick or it’s chucking rain (my new
favorite British word for raining cats and dogs) you will play outside.
Being in nature has been shown, time and time again, to be good for our mental
health and chances are that if they are playing outside they are also getting
in some exercise. Combine them both for the secret recipe to healthy well-being
both physically, and mentally.
3. Build in down time, snack and lunch times and
stick to them. Children need structure and their tummies will get used to
eating at the same time everyday, so stick to these times, even if you swap
other parts of the schedule. Hungry children = meltdowns. Change their choosing
time = whining and potential meltdowns. So, keep those times set at all costs! We
call down time, choosing time, because that’s what they call it at our kids’
school. Choosing time is time for the kids to relax and do something similar to what
schools allow at choosing time. So, often these still have education aspects to
them, but the kids feel like they are playing and they get to choose the activity.
See the file for choosing time activity ideas. The biggest rule I have
about choosing time is that the kids have to be able to do it independently.
This is a break time for the grown-ups too, so they can’t ask for help during
choosing time! This is time for you to practice self-care and recharge your
batteries. You deserve it! In the afternoon, the kids have free time, this is
time where they can spend the points they have earned . These activities can
involve the grown-ups. Free time ideas are in the same document with choosing time ideas. Please customize
these and based on age appropriate ideas for your kids interest and ages. More
details on this system are below.
4. Be Realistic with your time. If you have
more than one child, your primary job is going to be teaching them. Don’t expect
to get three loads of laundry done and check off lots of things on your to do
list. Your to-do-list is mainly teaching, prepping lessons, and feeding your
children. If you have a spouse at home with you during this time have them help
with things like meal preparation and laundry.
5. It’s okay to flex the schedule to swap out
one subject for another, but don’t go all Montessori. As much as we’d like
to think we are “home schooling” our children, we aren’t. This is remote
learning and the teachers and schools are still being held accountable for our
children’s learning. Stick to what they send you to do and if time allows, add
in things your children are curious about and allow them to explore it. But, if
you get sucked into following all of their curiosities you’ll find it very
difficult to accomplish the lessons sent to you by the teachers.Having said that, if your child has a particular interest and you can use it to teach the same learning objective, go for it.
6. Consider adding inspirational thoughts to
your morning. You don’t need to be religious. Just find a little daily
devotional book, or look up some spiritual quotes online to share over
breakfast. Nourishing the soul is a great way to keep your children grounded
and start the day off on a positive note.
7. Sample Schedule - See the sample schedule as a guide and feel free to tweak it to suite your needs.
Create a Rewards System
Each family is unique so make a system that works for you.
I’m providing some ideas below based on what is currently working for us.
- Create a point system based on the strengths and weakness of each of your children. Give them points to encourage behaviors and tasks that you want them to grow in. For example our son doesn’t like green vegetables, so he gets a point for eating those. But, his sister is a champ with eating vegetables, so she doesn’t have that as item. Most of their items are the same, but they do have a few unique ones. If your kids don’t typically play outside on their own, give them points for that and it will encourage that behavior. There are several free rewards trackers out there. For now we are using the one built into the kids fitness tracker app - Garmin Vivofit. It's okay, but I'm looking into other options.
- Make it challenging but attainable. Make the point system challenging enough that they can earn enough points to do one thing they want every day but that it requires effort. It’s okay to tinker with the points until you get to the right motivation level for your kids. Let your kids know up front that this a new system and that you’ll need to tweak it over time to make it work.
- You must finish your chores before you can have free time.
- To earn your point for each item you must do it with a positive attitude. If you play piano and whine and complain, then no point. If I ask you to help Mom/Dad with a chore and you roll your eyes and smack your lips at me, no point.
- You can’t earn your point if I have to remind you more than twice to do it (brushing teeth, cleaning up your dishes etc.)
- Mom and Dad are the judges. We decide if you earn your point for each item.
- It’s your responsibility to record your points each day. If you forget, you may not go back to a previous day and add points.
- You only get to watch 30 minutes of TV on school days. Period. Even if you have enough points to watch another show, don’t ask. The answer will be no.
- Any choosing time activity can be done during free time at no cost. Outside time can also be substituted for free. This allows them to build up more points for another day.
- On the weekends, you don’t have to use any points. But, you can earn points just as you do during the week. So, if your child loves to read- they earn points on the weekend for this. If they want to help with chores they earn points for that too!
Other Considerations
- Set aside one or two times a day to check social media and the news. Monitor how it makes you feel and step away if it’s bringing you down.
- Be patient with yourself. Forgive yourself if you loose patience. Be humble and apologize. Show your children that you make mistakes too and we have to forgive ourselves and move on.
- Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. This advice is tried and true and we hear it a lot. That’s because it’s what is best for our bodies. It’s tempting to stay up late when we don’t have to go to work in the morning. But teaching is your work now. If you’re not up and ready to go on time, your whole school routine will suffer.
Above all else, have fun and enjoy this unique time at home with your family!
Tiffany Howell
Resources
Files
Exercise
- Joe Wicks - the Body Coach- Free 30 minute work outs for kids
- Cosmic Kids Yoga - free yoga classes with fun themes like Star Wars and Princesses
Reading
- Audible - free streaming (not downloading) for all kids books
Tiffany Howell
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