With the Coronavirus pandemic, children might enjoy the perspective of having the chance to stay at home all day, but you might wonder: how do you manage the new responsibility to teach from home? Luckily, we prepared 3 great tips for homeschooling!
With the pandemic of the Coronavirus impacting everyone’s life there are many uncertainties and stressful situations. Without a doubt, one of the biggest challenges that parents face is looking after their children and teaching them from home. Having looked at advice from different educational websites and news channels, here are a few tips and tricks on how to become your kids’ home teacher for the foreseeable future.
With the Coronavirus pandemic, children might enjoy the perspective of having the chance to stay at home all day, but you might wonder: how do you manage the new responsibility to teach from home? Luckily, we prepared 3 great tips for homeschooling!
A timetable is your new best friend
Even as adults we realize in these unprecedented circumstances that it is crucial to return to or stick to previous routines to be able to function at home. The same holds true for children. Thus, it is a good idea to build a timetable together. Older children will already have a better understanding of time and what their usual timetable looked like. Here, parents can have a brainstorming exercise to come to an agreement on how to structure the days. Younger children might prefer a certain activity over another. It is a good idea to keep such preferences in mind when developing a timetable.
In general, it makes sense, to begin with, easier exercises before moving on to more difficult ones.
At the same time, it is important to have a variety of different activities and subjects. For example, there should be tasks that require spoken and written answers.
Remind your child to take breaks
Anyone who is doing work from home or conducts meetings via electronic devices knows that we are more quickly exhausted compared to completing the work in an office environment. To stay focused and productive more breaks might have to be scheduled than usual. Each child is different, and it is recommended to take breaks in accordance with a child’s level of concentration.
As a rule of thumb, pre-schoolers should have a break every 20 to 30 minutes if they have very productive tasks.
Breaks should allow children to get up from the chair, to leave the room and get some fresh air outside if that is possible.
Finding the right place and time
It can be tricky to find a quiet space in the house or flat, and a time that is suitable for teaching. You should find a place where children are able to concentrate. This can be the table in the kitchen or living room as long as there is no noise in the background such as a TV. Usually, children have all their toys and games in their bedrooms which can easily distract them. If the dinner table is not an option but there is a desk at home, try to remove all items that could distract the kids.
Give them a free space to learn
Sitting or standing next to them for every exercise might create unnecessary pressure or stress. If you have the feeling that no work gets done when you are leaving the room, try checking in with them every so often or ask questions. The best time to teach is when you find the time, the background is quiet, and the kids can concentrate.
It is not realistic to keep up the normal school routine at home. Therefore, rather than trying to put pressure on everyone to fit within the static timeframe, see which time works for the whole household.
But keep in mind the concentration levels of the kids.
It is worth remembering that most if not all parents face the challenge of homeschooling. And even if some are more equipped than others it is an extraordinary task, so our tips for homeschooling are useful to everyone. There may be days when the plan does not work out and that is absolutely fine. At least, there is the certainty that this situation will pass at some point. Try to enjoy having the opportunity to spend more time with the kids and playing an even more active part in their education.
