If I asked you what homeschooling was two years ago, you would tell that it’s a thing in the Elizabethan era.
However, COVID- 19 has showed us that the rest of this year would probably be a matter of homeschooling your kids. And you would not like to see them skip another grade like they did last year
Therefore, we thought of guiding you with some homeschooling tips for your little one until this pandemic settles down.
Let’s first get rid of the negativity around the concept of homeschooling,
1. PARENTS CANNOT BE TEACHERS – WRONG
Parents are the best teachers who have been for their kids in every milestone of their learning. Therefore, if the school has not activated a proper plan for doing online schooling, why not start teaching your kids your way.
It does not matter what but it matters that kids don’t just play at home the whole day. As parents it is your responsibility to make them learn as best as you could. Complaining about not having a phone or having poor connectivity does not mean you should stop teaching your child.
Spare at least 3-4 hours everyday for your child’s studies and you will see your child turning to be a better person than they were.
2. HOME IS FULL OF DISTRACTIONS FOR HOMESCHOOLING – YES THAT’S RIGHT
However , we recommend you to keep a separate room/space ready for homeschooling your kids. When they enter that space in your house they should know that it means ‘school work’.
3. IT WILL BE HARD TO DO HOMESCHOOLING – WRONG
Everything we feel that is easy now, was hard some time ago. Therefore, remember to get the help from school teachers with the syllabus and the areas to be covered. If it’s your therapist they will give you online guidance, to help you to develop your child.
4. CHILD WILL NOT STAY IN ONE PLACE – WRONG
This is something we hear on a regular basis when it comes to speech therapy. But as parents, it is vital for you to know that this is the nature of children.
Therefore do not let go of your child just because they don’t stay in one place. Our online speech therapy sessions will give you tips to keep your child attentive during the time you keep for speech therapy. Likewise you can use these tips for homeschooling as well.
5. ADULTS ARE BUSY- YES THAT’S RIGHT
Yes of course, it is true that as adults we have to get up, sort out the meals, clean the house, wash clothes and do all the adult-life work.However, while you do all this, adults need to play a role in educating the kids.
If not the mother, atleast the father has to take that task in the house and keep the kids up to date.
Many say homeschooling isn’t effective, but if done in a proper manner your kids knowledge will be up to date and they should be able to move to the next grade without a worry by next year.
For this we are sure that if you dedicate a little bit of your social media time for your child, it will work out fine…
6. SOCIALIZING THEM CANNOT BE DONE – WRONG
Children are not machines. They are designed to learn new things while learning to interact with different faces, different age groups , etc.
Many thinks school is the only place that can help a child to socialize but house is the first socialization point in any child’s life. Therefore, socialization can be taught by interacting with mother, father, siblings, grandparents, other relatives via phone calls, zoom calls, etc.
Moreover a child can learn to socialize at home by introducing them to pretend play. While the child pretends to go to work, go to supermarket they start pretending to act like they are talking to others in those set ups. This could be the foundation to a child’s socialization process.
Therefore, encourage your child to dress up, build their own pillow homes, go out and play with pets, etc.
7. CHILDREN DOES NOT LIKE LEARNING – WRONG
They do like learning when it’s fun. Therefore, we need to be creative as much as possible. They should learn by becoming a part of nature, they should learn when the parents do tasks, etc.
Engaging them in your daily tasks is critical for your child’s overall improvement. Do not force them to be with their books or only the online classroom sessions done by school. While making teaching fun, to get your child to listen you should always have a strategy. Rather than blaming the child for not learning and for not listening to you, try praising the child.
Reinforcement can take the child a long way and encourage them to work more. So give high fives, value their piece of drawings (you can have an exhibition at home), reward them when they do something better than they did earlier by giving them chocolates, etc.
Always make them realize that they will only get something they like when they learn something new.
8. CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS CANNOT BE HOME SCHOOLED – WRONG
This is a common misconception among parents. They think a kid who needs special attention cannot be taught at home. This depends on the efforts parents put in.
However, we admit that it’s not an easy task to handle them. You need to have patience, inner motivation and love for whatever they do.
They don’t like set ups, so we might not be able to work with them like we do with other kids. But they do their part if we adjust according to them and keep giving them more attention.
9. THEY DON’T WORK ACCORDING TO A TIME TABLE WHEN HOMESCHOOLING-WRONG
Well it took time for us to adjust to a routine as well, so we cannot put the ball in child’s court.
So what we need to do is practise a schedule for 21 days to ingrain it in child that this is how homeschooling will work and just as they attend school, they need to work at home too.
10. THEY GET GLUED TO THE TV – WRONG
This is a common scenario in all houses and children go to extremes when they don’t get to watch their favourite cartoon. So if your kid is smart enough to go and get the remote you should be smart enough to keep it away from them or take its batteries off.
As we already know, screen time is not child friendly. It can give affect your child’s health, therefore have a set time for their TV or do not on the TV at all. This will give more time to work with them.
I know it’s easier said than done, but if we are willing to make a change for the better in our child’s life ; we need to groom them in our household to face the future!
Will you take the challenge or not?