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At the end of the 2019-2020 school year, parents were thrown into a whirlwind because all of a sudden they had to take on the role of teacher’s aide and in some cases teacher. Many parents around the world embraced this new role and came up with solutions on how to navigate these difficult times. However, there were those parents who were “lost in the sauce.” For those parents, many did not know where to begin.
It seems that for the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year, many of the school districts around the country are beginning with virtual learning. Even if the entire school district is not beginning with only distance learning, some parents are opting to keep their child(ren) at home because the risks are too high. Naturally, this can create stress for the parents on a few levels.
Here are some strategies that can be used at home to help parents continue to navigate through these tumultuous times. There is no need to feel like you have to navigate through this confusion alone. So many of us including those who educate children for a living are experiencing the same thing.
Practical Ideas for Right Now
- Most school start dates are still a month out. Use this time to rearrange your home so your child(ren) have an area that is dedicated to learning.
- Children learn best in clean spaces which are organized
- They need proper lighting even if they are going to work on the computer
- They need materials that can be used such as paper, pencils, external mouse with mouse pad, etc.
- Eventually, your child(ren) will have to return to the in-person classroom setting. They may still be required to wear a mask.
- Prepare them now for learning how to wear one.
- Take a couple of hours out of the day for them to have it on in the house.
- You also wear one to model for them. They are more likely to refrain from resisting if they see you practicing the same procedures.
- After a few days, have them practice talking with their masks on for short and then extended periods of time. It is one thing to have the mask on, but another to actually talk and feel comfortable with how much air to inhale.
- You practice talking to them for longer periods of time with your mask on so they can get used to listening to someone with a mask.
- Get with your child(ren)’s school and find out when is the earliest date that you can check out an electronic device and hotspot.
- Getting equipment early allows you to “play” around with it and make sure that everything works and you are able to log in to the different websites.
- Ensure your child has suitable headphones that they can connect to the devise to ensure that they can hear properly.
- Practice using Zoom, Google Meet, etc. so they know how much noise their might be or what the other person may see in the background. You might have to create a space by temporarily hanging a sheet or curtain behind your child if you do not care for others to see what is in your home.
- Starting practicing having your child sit in front of the screen now for a couple of hours at a time because they will need to get used to sitting down and being in front of a computer screen doing actual work.
- Many students have gotten out of the habit of sitting in a chair for any length of time. They will need to retrain their bodies to doing this.
- At the end of last year, many districts were lenient with the workload, but starting this year it will not be like that for the majority of school districts.
- This allows the students to also begin mentally preparing to return to the school/learning life.
Have the students get on educational websites that will enhance their knowledge, but can be fun as well.
Fun, Educational Websites (Free Sites)
- www.kahoot.com
- www.noredink.com
- www.freerice.com
- www.coolmathgames.com
- www.pbskids.org
- www.starfall.com
- www.icivics.org
- www.typinggames.zone
There are so many more. My suggestion is to do a search for Free Educational Websites and a host of other web pages will come up for you as well.
If you follow these strategies, you and your child(ren) will begin the 2020-2021 school year with a running start.
