Three Ss to reduce the stress of “homeschooling” our kids: Simplify, Structure, Support

With nationwide school closures in effect, many parents are now monitoring homeschooling while at the same time trying to make a living in the midst of an economic crisis. In this environment of broken routine and uncertainty, chances are your child is showing big feelings and challenging behaviors. In my work as a school psychologist, I’ve been hearing from parents that despite their best efforts, their children are struggling with meeting homeschool expectations. Kids who never showed behavioral or emotional challenges are experiencing issues, and kids who had some struggles before are showing an uptick of challenges. Here are three ways to support your child (and manage your own stress) during school closures that parents I work with have found helpful. 1) Simplify If you’re a parent suddenly trying to balance remote work and homeschooling, your household might look a bit like mine right now. As I am writing this, I am also toggling back and forth between helping my third-grader with Google Classroom, trying to set up my kindergartener for some independent writing work, and fielding questions every few seconds (wait, what is the difference between scalene and isosceles triangles again?!?). I’ve come to realize in these past few weeks that being super productive with my work as a school psychologist AND giving full attention to homeschooling my children is not possible right now. Turns out, being a parent, teacher, and school psychologist are three different...
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Education & Lifelong Learning behavior empathy homeschooling problem-solving skills psychologist reduce stress school-psychologist social-emotional skills Source Type: blogs