Posts Tagged homeschooling

10 Suggestions (+ 1) For Suddenly Homeschooling Your Kid(s)

By on March 20, 2020   /   COVID-19, Homeschool Resource, Oh MG News  
Homeschooling in covid19

Hi Mixed-Up Filers. We’re working on filling our blog with resources and lesson plans to assist you as you navigate homeschooling amid Covid-19. Before I became an author, I was a teacher, and I spent the last years of my career creating and facilitating a program that worked with homeschooling parents. So, I figured I’d brush off some that experience and share some simple strategies to help those of you who have suddenly found yourself not only trying to work at home but trying to homeschool your kids as well. I hope some of these suggestions prove helpful to you in the weeks (and months) to come.

10 SUGGESTIONS (+ 1) FOR SUDDENLY HOMESCHOOLING YOUR KID(S)

1. Breathe. This is a strange and stressful time for everyone. It’s okay to not be sure how to navigate all the things being thrown at you. Take time to decompress, get extra sleep, and go easy – on yourself, first. Then you can go easy on the rest of the family.

2. Take a break from the academic pressures – theirs and yours. Focus on creating a calm home environment. Take some time to find your family’s rhythm in all of this. Help your kids adjust to being home and help them understand your needs, too.

3. Set up some soothing and fun family-time activities. Play games. Work on a puzzle. Watch a movie. Do some reading aloud. Anything that brings you together in a non stressful, non productive way.

4. Figure out a reasonable chore structure. Give every family member a job that helps keep the family healthy and organized. A sense of control is important for people of all ages. Help everyone feel they are doing their part and that they are assisting in maintaining the well being of your family.

5. Do a good thing for someone else. Maybe someone at home with you. Maybe a neighbor or family member who lives elsewhere. Set up a video chat, a phone call, drop a note or picture into email or text, help someone order grocery delivery. Send someone who is isolated a fun gift from an online store if you can afford it.

6. Do the parts of school your kids like. Read. Draw. Play trivia games. Solve fun and silly math problems. Do a science experiment. Build something. Plan the family meals. Cook. Play an instrument if you have one. Make an instrument if you don’t. Learn a new language. Explore a topic your child has a deep interest in. (Now is the time to do that deep dive into dinosaurs or movie making or the physics of flight). Take pictures. Read a whole book series or everything by a particular author. Create a home art gallery. Write and perform a play. Start a blog/vlog/YouTube channel. Write a story. Write a book. (Camp Nanowrimo starts April 1). Make some art. Learn to knit or crochet or whatever other craft sounds like fun. Grow something: Flowers, vegetables, sprouts, it doesn’t matter. Just grow something you all can care for and watch thrive.

7. Move your bodies. Incorporate dance breaks, room run-arounds, scavenger hunts, and exercise of any kind into your day. Try to get some sun and fresh air if you can do it safely.

8. Once you’ve sorted out the family’s rhythms, gradually set up a schedule for your day. Be prepared to be flexible. News, stress, etc. is going to take a toll. There’s no use forcing anyone to study if they’re not going to retain any of it. Sometimes the best thing at the moment is to watch a movie; sometimes the best thing is to take a nap; and, yes, sometimes the best thing is for everyone is to stare at their screens and zone out. It’s okay.

Just be sure to break up your schedule with fun and rest and movement, and set up some rewards for completing your task/job. Even small rewards can make a big difference.

9. If your kid’s school sent work home, you’ll need to figure out how your child works best. Some kids adjust readily to moving from traditional school to online. They simply work through the subjects with breaks in between just like a normal (but often shorter) school day. Other kids struggle. Again, flexibility is key. See what works for your kids and start moving them in that direction incrementally if at all. You don’t have to do it all in one day (or one week).

Another option is to treat work sent home like you do homework at first. Your family probably already has a system in place for that. Just break up the work and time the way you do with regular homework (especially weekend homework). If you’re overwhelmed by all of it, setting it aside is okay, too. This is new to everyone. Teachers will understand. If you’re overwhelmed by all of it but really want some structure, try to stick with the reading and the math. Math tends to be the place kids fall behind, so if you can keep up the math facts/problem solving skills you’ll be ahead of the game.

10. Don’t try to fill the teacher role. Be the parent. That’s more than enough work for anyone. Trust me. The last thing you need is to add a teacher/student struggle to your relationship right now.

+1. Finally, hang in there. There will be bumps and tears along the way as everyone tries to sort this out, but there will also be a whole lot of connection and a whole lot of love. Embrace those parts. In the long run, those moments are what truly matter – not the lesson plans.

 

As always, feel free to comment below with questions or with ideas and resources that have been working for you. We’re all in this together, so let’s share what we can. <3

 

Back to Top

Twenty Virtual Field Trips to Take with your Kids

By on March 18, 2020   /   COVID-19, Homeschool Resource  
adventures in familyhood

Looking for lesson plans that get you out of the house but maintain social distancing? Feeling a little house-bound? Try this website: from Adventures in Familyhood.

Virtual Field Trips

0You’ve got access to 20 virtual tours of museums, zoos, and aquariums all over the world, plus lesson ideas, activities, and book suggestions to help you frame your lesson plan.

 

adventures in familyhood

Have fun! Let us know about your trip!

Back to Top

Movies Inspire Reading!

By on November 4, 2019   /   Articles, Common Core & NGSS, Curriculum Tie-in, Diversity, For Teachers, Teacher Tips  

Bringing Books and Movies Together

Robyn Gioia

Teaching today’s students is a different ballgame than twenty years ago.

Even ten years ago. This is a generation of visual learners. Students in middle school down through elementary have grown up on cell phones and tablets. Visuals accompany almost everything they read. There isn’t a day go by that my students don’t say, “Can we see a picture of that?”

In the forefront are movies, moving visuals that provide setting, plot, memorable characters, action, and a storyline that comes to life in a different era.

This provides a great opportunity to take advantage of the stage movies produce.

Heroes stand out. It is from their hardships and the trials that follow that make history. One such hero is Harriet Tubman, a slave and political activist, who escaped captivity, and returned as a “conductor” to lead slaves through the “underground railroad” to freedom during the 1800s. She did this repeatedly, even though it put her in grave peril and she carried a bounty on her head.

Enter the Harriet Tubman Movie:

teacher's guide

A tremendous opportunity for children to understand what these women worked so hard to accomplish—one succeeding and one coming close. —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Give students rich opportunities to learn more. Set the background. Provide students with information that provides historical depth and broadens the movie’s perspective.

Go beyond the internet. Teach your students the value of book research. Provide the class with a broad collection of books, both informational and historically based. Encourage them to be detectives. Encourage them to find the clues that tell us more. (Adjust as needed for your level of students.)

Brainstorm with the class. Discuss the different aspects of the movie. What questions do they have? Was the movie historically accurate? What was correct and what was fiction? Were the characters true to life? Did the plot follow the facts?

Examine the bigger picture. What drove the economy? What kind of  society was it? What was happening politically? What were the customs? How did these things contribute to Harriet’s plight?

Divide the class into topics that were generated from their discussion. Let your students discover the answers through research. Teach them how to use the book index and chapter headings to speed up fact finding. Groups love to share what they’ve learned with others. Provide time each day to let them tell their favorite fun facts. Help them become experts.

Make an Experts’ Bulletin Board: At the end of each session, have students post fast facts and visuals from their book research. Provide a parking lot for questions. Let the specialized experts research the answers and post them on the board.

Have a Socratic Seminar: Pose thought provoking questions and let students discuss the answers citing evidence from their research.

Stage a Debate: Students choose an historical issue and debate the pros and cons.

Read historical novels.

Below are some of my favorite activities for Book Reports or/and Research Projects:

  • Write a Readers’ Theater.
  • Produce a historical newspaper with student journalists.
  • Write a picture book for first grade.
  • Create a Jeopardy game.
  • Design a board game of the Underground railroad. Create a schoolwide simulation.
  • Make a Slideshow to teach others.
  • Write and perform a skit.
  • Design posters.
  • Produce a new book jacket cover.
  • Design an informational brochure.
  • Produce a video clip.
  • Create trading cards.
  • Write a story using historical evidence based on a different perspective.
  • Write and perform a song.
  • Create a dance.
  • Write a poem.

 

Back to Top