With the majority of schools closed all around the country, many parents are left with the burden of educating their children at home. Although this may seem like a daunting task, you can tackle it with confidence by following these five innovative tips.
Focus on Building Life Skills
Make the most out of this downtime by teaching your child valuable life skills that can only be learned at home. Not all learning involves ABCs and 123s. Instead of focusing on the traditional avenues of learning, use this time to build valuable life skills for your children. You can involve them in meal planning and cooking so that they learn their way around the kitchen. If you have older children, you may want to teach them how to do their own laundry, mow the lawn, change the oil in the car, and other skills that they will need when they leave the house. Thinking outside of the box will help you to see that education extends far beyond the four walls of the classroom.
Embrace Your Creativity
This is a great opportunity to look at alternative learning avenues and embrace the creativity that will result from the process. For example, you can virtually travel around the world by picking one country or region per week and immersing yourself in that culture. You can supplement this learning by picking out recipes from that country to cook. In today’s connected world, there is a wealth of educational resources online that you can lean on to support your child’s educational experience. Board games are also a fun way to incorporate learning into your child’s day without it seeming like work to them.
Hire an Online Tutor
Formal learning does not have to stop just because you are at home. You can boost your child’s educational opportunities during this time by leveraging the power of technology and hiring an online tutor. For example, there is a reading tutor program in Frisco, TX that will help your child to master a variety of skills during this downtime from a traditional classroom. You do not want your child to re-enter school again and find that they have regressed in their reading skills. An online tutor can help to keep your students motivated and on task while keeping their skills fresh and continuing to grow. Once school is back in session in full force, you will be happy that you took the extra steps to keep your child engaged through the use of an online tutor.
Read, Read, Read
So much of learning is simply gleaned from a commitment to reading. Depending on the age of your child, you may consider nightly read-aloud with the entire family. Involving the family and making the time special by serving up fun snacks will give the kids something to look forward to while they simultaneously stimulate their mind. While many public libraries are not open during this time, they are making up for it by offering more and more titles online. This is also a good time to try out a new magazine subscription. Kids will benefit from any type of reading, making it important that you do not get caught up in the little details of the subject and length of the book. This is also a particularly good time to encourage your children to dive into a long book or a series.
Make It Relevant
There is no doubt that this global pandemic will go down in history as one of the most significant events in the history of the world. Especially for older children, it is important that they understand the significance of this period of time. You can help them grasp the significance by having them read relevant news stories, watch town halls dealing with the pandemics, and finding age-appropriate and relevant documentaries to watch. Be sure to be intentional about asking them to share their feedback, thoughts, and feelings about what they are learning.
It is clear that education looks different for children now. However, you can seize this extra time and opportunity to provide your children with a host of stimulating learning experiences that they will carry with them into the future.
