With social distancing now being mandated no until June 1st, everyone is trying to find a new normal. Schools are closed and so are many jobs and business at this time. We are all trying to function, and we are all being thrust into situations we were unprepared for.
As a Home School parent, I have had the slight advantage of feeling fully equipped to handle my child’s education. However, it has not always been this way. I set out in life to be a middle school and high school English teacher. I was not prepared to teach the preschool and elementary years, let alone do it in my own home. I spent a few years sort of succeeding at homeschooling until I found our natural groove and rhythm. There were a few things though that I needed to lose, and that was the mind set of public school. While I would like to be advocating for more people to just become home schoolers now, that is not going to be the future reality for everyone. Eventually life will go back to normal and things will resume. In the meantime, though I would like to offer some assistance to those that find themselves suddenly homeschooling during this nation-wide crisis. It is time we “unite”, so to speak, and get through this together.
Last week I offered guide to help your daily routine while staying at home. You can still get that HERE.
Today though I would like to offer specific help for those Crisis Schooling. You have found yourselves thrust into educating your child and working at home now. I want to offer to help with some of the things I had to unlearn as a public-school teacher and ease the transition of schooling at home during this time. Some of these ideas overlap a little with my Daily Routine Guide, but I wanted to share how to help specifically with education at this time. In no particular order, I hope the following things help you manage your school time at home with your children better.
1. School will not and does not need to take all day. We are often done with school by lunch time (we usually start between 8:30-9 most days).
2. Give yourself and the teachers you are working with from your child’s school Grace during this time. No one knows exactly what they are doing, and some are making it up as they go along. Be gracious if something is not working out, and don’t harbor attitudes that will affect your child during this time.
3. Get into a daily routine. Do not be regimented to times. There are a few exceptions to this. If you have work things that must happen at a certain time, or your children are scheduled to be online with their teacher at a certain keep those times. Everything else however let it take a more natural flow and sequence. Lots of people are putting gout daily time schedules. They are great in theory, but not practical currently.
4. Do not be afraid to use all the amazing free resources that are out there at this time. Don’t become overwhelmed by them but pick a few favorites to use during this time. Great audio read alouds, virtual field trips, craft ideas etc, are a great resource to allow your kids to use while you must schedule your own work time.
5. Do not try to replicate school at home. You are not a classroom of 20-30 students. This ties in with school not taking all day as well. You won’t have the activity transitions, lining up time a transporting from activity to activity that a normal school has. Your child also doesn’t have to sit rigid and still at a desk. Allow them to be comfortable sitting on the floor with a clipboard or book. Take school outside if the weather is nice.
6. Designate a little organization for your “school” items. This needs to happen especially if you have a lot of paper or books that need to be returned to the school or you have to submit work. Keep everything thing in a folder, backpack, basket etc. so that you know where everything is every day and you won’t have to chase it down the next day. You don’t need fancy bookshelves and desk or a designated room, but you do need to keep it all together so that there is some organization.
7. When you are working with multiple age level kids set them up for independent time apart from each other. (this could just mean at opposite ends of the table). There are things each age can work on, on their own, without your help so that you can give instructions to your other child or work with them on something that requires instruction. For independent work give your child clear expectations of what they need to work on. You could write a simple check list of items for them to do each day. Have them wait with questions until after you are done working with your other child.
8. If you find yourselves with babies and toddlers during this time, they can join in with you. Give them things that they only get to use or paly with during “school time”. Set them up with a coloring sheet, a free play activity etc., the table or wherever you are all working together. Pull these items you’ve set aside out only during this time. The rest of the day they play and interact as normal. Make these items feel special to them.
I could go on with more and more advice, and I may write another post later in the weeks to come, but for now these are a few things that I think will help most of you during your time of Crisis Schooling.
