The first time I heard the word homeschooling, I thought Why in the world would anyone do that? It seemed so foreign and unnecessary. I never imagined that would be me homeschooling my five children a few years later. But it wasn’t without hiccups. And struggles.
Each year, we assessed, made changes, and adapted our home school to the needs of each of our children. After 20 years of teaching at home, I wracked up a few lessons learned.
Suddenly, homeschooling has become synonymous with the COVID-19 quarantine. Are we living a bazaar Truman-like Show? A dream —- er, rather nightmare?
While we’re all in this together (well, actually, separately), I thought I’d share some practical tips for a successful home school. Some require thought and assessment but may give you insight into your child and help smooth some of the rough edges of suddenly having your children home long term with lots of free time. Whether your kids are regularly homeschooled, or will eventually go back to public/private school, these strategies may help.
Know the learning style of your child.
Is he a visual, audio, or kinesthetic learner? Molly St Louis of Inc[dot]com explains the differences and how to spot them. My girls are visual learners and thrived when handed a workbook with plenty of pictures and diagrams. My boys are kinesthetic learners, needing to move around a lot and get their hands dirty. Sitting at a desk for long periods of time was a real challenge. On our best days, Science took us outdoors, Language Arts took us to the library for dramatic readings and visual aids, and math included adding and subtracting treats. Obviously, this isn’t always possible. But I tried to include kinesthetic learning as often as possible. Google and Pinterest are great tools to find activities to augment any lesson.
Understanding the different types of learners and making concessions for their learning styles will improve your communication and help prevent frustration or misunderstanding.
Molly St Louis, Inc.Com
Be organized.
Whether your child’s teacher is sending work home or you are trying to come up with activities, put a schedule in place. Screen time should be limited and offered as an award for the completion of the day’s educational work. If your child has too much time on their hands, problems will arise. A simple hand-written chart on the wall will help structure the day. Be sure to block out downtime. A thirty-minute interval for everyone to take a nap, read a book (or look at picture books), or some such quiet activity. This will help the adults maintain their sanity and give everyone healthy time and space to decompress.
Feeling anxious? Read my review of Max Lucado’s book Anxious For Nothing, Finding Calm in a Chaotic World.
Teach your child to self-motivate.
A To-Do List of all the day’s assignments will allow your students to not only see what they need to complete but also feel accomplished as they complete each assignment. Make a simple list of all subjects including chores or other tasks to be completed. I’m a list maker and love checking off boxes. I get excited to see how much I get done in a day. Your child may be no different. Being in control of their schedule and knowing they will have free time to watch tv or play video games (or whatever they enjoy) after all their work is done will encourage them to get busy and start checking off items. I also love the discipline this teaches in preparation for high school and college. Professors will not babysit students to ensure work is complete. Maturity will dictate if students can stay on top of due dates. This can be a real challenge for some college freshman, and often the reason they fail out. Parents aren’t around to insist their student(s) study. Hovering parents get vilified as helicopter parents. It’s a double-edged sword. Teach your young children to be responsible for their assignments now and you shouldn’t need to monitor their work when they are older.
Create a learning atmosphere.
Set quiet hours when work is expected to be completed. In our home, from eight a.m. until noon was school time. That meant everyone needed to use indoor voices and focus on their course work. I didn’t answer the phone or allow outside interruptions of my attention or break the learning ambiance in the home. Usually, by lunch, work was done. Anyone who hadn’t finished continued with their subjects to completion. Others were allowed to play quietly until school was officially finished by everyone. If you’re working from home, you will need to set the ground rules, instructing kids to focus on their own work while you do the same with yours. Communication is key.
Be consistent.
Whatever rules you establish for your home school, follow them. Write them on poster board and tape it to the wall. Reference them when the kids forget. It’ll be up to you to enforce and maintain a new norm while everyone gets through this arduous period. Requiring work to be done before playtime is tough. Breaks during school hours can be helpful, allowing the kids to play with educational toys/games, grab a quick snack, or jump on the trampoline can be exactly what they need to refocus. It should be limited and done so as not to disturb other’s work/study. It was okay with me if siblings took a break together but for short periods and again, done quietly. The student(s) could make that determination, promptly returning to their lessons in order to be done by lunch. Otherwise, class time gets extended past lunch.
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In conclusion
These tips are meant as guidelines. Use them as a foundation, adapting them as necessary. But as some school districts have canceled classes for the remainder of the semester, laying the groundwork now may prevent you from wanting to pull your hair out later, perhaps, if bad habits are formed. None of us know how long the quarantine will last. Implementing some of these techniques into your daily routine may lessen tension and conflict by ensuring everyone knows what’s expected of them.
At my house, my college-age kids are home and maintaining their own schedules, my husband teleworks, and I’m organizing closets, deep cleaning, and writing. We’re watching movies, playing board games, and getting fresh air as needed.
What are you doing to stay busy during the quarantine? Tell us in the comments. And if you have a suggestion on how to help other parents navigate schooling their kids at home, add it to the conversation below.
Stay healthy! And stay at home.
Blessings to you all!
