Homeschooling the Village

Many parents face homeschooling their multi-aged children with understandable anxiety and fear. Wrangling children is difficult enough, but how do you deal with children of different ages and needs beyond what the school may or may not be providing? Flexible Scheduling While many educational professionals promote routine, a flexible routine often decreases anxiety and allows for more success. Consider the day as a series of blocks of time (1-2 hours) and divide the blocks into types of activities: physical activity (play and exercise), reading (quiet time for language and literacy activities), math, science, social studies (which can be adjusted as age appropriate) and art. Consider five hours a week for each subject (which can be adjusted for age and the subjects that need to be covered given your school district), but allow yourself the flexibility to change the time you a block during the day depending on your children’s attention, interest and activity level, as well as your own. Sunny day when the kids are very energetic? Have them learn about plants, animals or natural phenomenon outside, make that a 2-block session and do more social studies on a different day. Raining day? An additional block of reading and language studies may work best. Setting weekly goals, as well as allowing for daily flexibility, can decrease everyone’s stress.  Hands-on Activities Educators know that elaborative learning, deep understanding versus an ability to memorize and repeat by rote...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Children and Teens Parenting Students coronavirus COVID-19 homeschooling pandemic stay at home order Source Type: blogs