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Raise your hand if this Covid-19 thing has you stressed!
Social distancing, staying home from work (or, alternatively, going to work), crisis schooling your kids...
Yup. My hand is waaayyyyyy up.
Ya'll. If I had the ability or desire to homeschool my kids, I'd have been doing it already. But I know my limitations, and they begin with common core math.
Don't get me wrong, there are few subjects I excel in, and that I think I could do a damn good job at - English and Literature for example. But with three teachers in my family, I can safely say that I prefer to leave that job to the professionals. I put my trust in the education and hard work professional instructors have put in to provide my monsterlings the best education.
If you're like me, then facing the rest of this school year with the knowledge that a good chunk of your child's learning experience is in your hands is a scary thought.
Luckily, I DO have a family of teachers to reach out to, and they were able to provide me with a series of tips.
- Set a schedule that works for your family, but stick to it. Schedules will help create normalcy in a tough time.
- Do smaller increments with more breaks for smaller kids
- Do tougher subjects first, if possible.
- For parents who still work during this time, subjects that need extra help may need to wait until the parent is at home.
- For the older kids (6th grade and up, expect to spend about 45 to 60 minutes per day, per subject.
- Elementary kids up to 5th grade will range from 15 (Pre-k to Kindergarten) to 20 (1st and 2nd grade) minutes per subject, with the 3rd - 5th graders doing the longest time (30 minutes)
- Little ones should focus on Math facts and the ability to read
- Khanacademy.com and virtualnerd.com are great to help with Math and Science
- Dave Ramsey offers some great beginning financial classes for kids
- If you want to supplement the curriculum, look at skills such as how to balance a checkbook, or cooking, both of which involve math (cooking is excellent for fractions, and is actually how I personally learned fractions). Foreign language is a good addition as well (my two younger girls use DuoLingo to learn languages)
- Make room in your day for art, crafts, physical education, and music.
- Don't be afraid to ask for help.
I purchased both a Happy Planner classic planner and a Happy Notes notebook specifically for this new part of our lives, and scheduled computer time for distance learning as well as "Teachers Aide" time for the older kids, and break time for everyone. Each child has their own color code, to make things easier for me. The schedule is input into Alexa so that they will get reminders of what to do while I am at work. I let them choose what time of day they wanted to start, and we discussed what time that would mean they were done each day. I also let them choose the order of activities. Fridays will be used to making up work, getting extra help, and for Art/Crafts, music, etc, as I am home by 1 pm on Fridays and can lead activities.
As of right now, the proposed schedule looks like this, though it can be adjusted as we go (in Oklahoma, everything starts on April 6, as the kids are on an extended spring break):
11:00-11:30 Reading
11:30-11:50 chores/free time
11:00-11:30 chores/free time
11:30-11:50 Math
11:00-11:50 Lessons
11:00-11:50 TA
11:50-12:00 Break
12:00-12:30 Science/Social studies
12:30-12:50 free time
12:00-12:30 free time
12:30-12:50 Reading
12:00-12:50 TA
12:00-12:50 Lessons
12:50-2:00 Lunch
2:00-2:30 Writing
2:30-2:50 Free Time
2:00-2:30 Free time
2:30-2:50 Science/Social studies
2:00-2:50 Lessons
2:00-2:50 TA
2:50-3:00 Break
3:00-3:30 Math
3:30-3:50 chores
3:00-3:30 free time
3:30-3:50 chores
3:00-3:50 TA
3:00-3:50 Lessons
4:00-4:50 Lessons
4:00-4:50 Lessons
This schedule, obviously, won't work for everyone, or even for most people, and that is ok. I think that, as we are going through this, we need to adapt our schedules to what works not only for our parenting situations but also for what our kids are most comfortable with. In our case, I'm home by 5 (a vast improvement over my last job, where I worked til 9 pm) and their dad goes to work at 8 pm, so by having all the work done by 5 they have downtime while I cook dinner. By starting later in the day, we can stay up and spend time after their dad leaves for the night watching movies or playing board games.
The key to this, I feel, will be having a plan in place every week, so everyone knows what is expected, paired with the flexibility to move things around if something isn't working. As an avid #PlannerBabe, my Happy Planner never leaves my side. For this new endeavor, however, I decided to upgrade to a second (well, technically, a third) so that I can outline the week's schoolwork and schedule and leave it for the children to access if needed.
With a bit of work and a lot of organization, we'll all get through this together.
As a side note, friends, please be extra nice to your kid's teachers. The way they teach is flipped upside down, and they were already undervalued. Teachers are now being expected to put in 12 hour days, making themselves available Monday-Friday from 8 am to 8 pm in many cases so that they are available to help your kids as much as possible while working around your work schedules whenever possible. They're teaching curriculum that usually involves in-person instruction and the ability to answer questions has been moved to teaching complex ideas via text message, email, or skype.
Some districts are requiring their teachers to answer emails, phone calls, or text messages on the weekends too. So give them some love and patience (and maybe an amazon gift card if you can afford it too)!
How are you planning to tackle Crisis Schooling at home? Share your ideas in the comments!
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