5 top tips to help your kids learn from home during COVID

Beginning another year in lockdown, juggling the homeschooling, working and just getting by, was not how we might have hoped to start the new year.  We may feel slightly better prepared after all those months of practice, our teachers are working hard to help and there is slightly less uncertainty with vaccines rolling out but it is still tough. 

Alexander Graham Bell said “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success”.  Talking through with our kids and partners how we can help set things up to give them ( and us all ) the greatest chance of success is always a good place to start.  Preparing the practical and physical, such as a work space and a schedule,  and most importantly the emotional, perhaps the feelings of frustration and disappointment,   teaches our kids to make the best of challenging times 

Where there is challenge there is also opportunity. Every family will have a unique situation and set of challenges depending  upon their school's expectations, whether one or both parents are working inside or outside the home and indeed the ages, temperaments and particular needs of their kids.   Despite the challenges, can we think of this time as a chance to bond with our kids as well as instil in them some wonderful life skills and a love of learning that will hold them in good stead when our new normality resumes?

The schools and teachers have done an amazing job of adapting and switching to online learning. Here is how we can help to set our kids up to succeed over the coming weeks and months:  

1. Get prepared with a Chat Through. Agree a time and sit down with each of your children away from distractions and talk through their daily schedule and your expectations. Involving our kids and letting them do most of the talking helps them take ownership and they all learn best by doing rather than being told what to do. Begin now and revisit the conversation several times so they can adjust to the change from holiday mode to school time. Use plenty of what, where, when and how questions to keep them talking. Praise them for their contributions, sensible and responsible approach. Chat throughs are great way to teach collaboration, preparation and problem solving skills. 

2. Set the timetable using effective learning segments. Children will get less work done at home than at school. To keep the motivation going, and to manage our expectations, it’s helpful to break time into shorter learning segments.  Where there is unstructured time outside of lessons, research supports the idea that we are all more productive and motivated when working for a specific period. According to the Pomodoro Technique of time management developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s (named after his Pomodoro kitchen timer), the ideal amount of time for adults to stay motivated and productive is 25 minutes with a 5-minute break with a maximum of 4 periods before a longer break. Older students can manage these segments with the time for younger kids being shorter with a longer break. Shorter segments help kids learn to concentrate, avoid procrastination and keeps them motivated. 

3. Seizing the opportunities of home learning. This is chance to prepare by shaking things up a bit and helping your kids learn in a way that is best suited to their needs. Kids with high energy benefit from shorter learning segments and lots of movement thrown in – they can walk around learning their vocabulary at home. A child who is easily distracted might chose a table away from the noise of others for short spurts or prefer to sit next to you as you work, another might prefer to use your white board to draw his ideas before writing them down or use his Lego to help with maths. We know our children better than anyone, can we help make learning fun by getting creative and being responsive to their needs?  We can take the time to look for the positives in their work and use descriptive praise to point out all the things they get right.  Instead of pointing out the things they get wrong ask them first if there is anything they think they might improve.  Looking for the positives builds self esteem and instills a growth mindset.  Flexibility is important and you may also be able to move the schedule around so that harder tasks get finished first when everyone is fresh and can be followed by something more fun and engaging and getting outside. 

4. Be an Emotion Coach. It is hard to overstate the challenge it is for kids to transition from learning in a vibrant school environment, mixing, laughing and learning with their peers where teaching is interspersed with other fun activities to being at home with only their parents or siblings for company. Kids can not learn when they are stressed. They may be feeling anxious, frustrated, sad, lonely, disappointed, angry or overwhelmed. Showing understanding, compassion and patience will help our kids get through the tough emotions. Naming the big feelings has an immediate calming effect on the nervous system and helps kids learn to manage their emotions and problem solve. We build connection when our kids know that we understand and respect how they feel. Emotion Coaching and naming to tame the big feelings teaches our kids that they can move through emotions to a place where they can be rational and thoughtful. “I can see how hard this may feel to be without all your friends.” ‘I know how important your football is to you and it is hard to concentrate on the work when you don’t have that to look forward to.” 

5. Yes, Let’s. If we all came out of this difficult time feeling closer to our kids, that would be enough. The academic learning might not be the most important part of this time we have together. Despite the hardship we are enduring, we hope that we can look back on this time as an incredible opportunity to spend time together with our kids, no matter what their ages. What can you do together that helps you all stay present, enjoy each other and feel more connected? A focus on punctuating your day with fun and slow things you can do together will help. When your kids ask “Mum can we cook? Garden? Kick a ball? Can I show you this cool new game?” Say ‘yes, let’s!’. It may be that you add a ‘when’ to your response, “as soon as I am off my conference call’ or “as soon as you have finished that worksheet” but enjoying each other, teaching life skills, feeling closer to your children may just be the best learning there is.