Retrieved June 24, 2020, from https://hslda.org/legal, HSLDA. Common Sense Media. Making sure others respect your time is actually easier than it might seem at first. With everyone rushing around trying to figure out what they are going to do for the fall, it is important to also pause, step back, and consider how the plans you make for the fall fit into your future educational plans. To this day, we stand by that rule and have had very few issues. Are you comfortable sending your children to school in the fall, as long as CDC guidelines for schools are followed (CDC, 2020)? You will need to decide, based on your family values and rules about electronics and screen time, your work schedule and flexibility, ages of your children, and learning preferences and styles, what modes are best for you for each student and each subject. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from https://welltrainedmind.com/a/what-are-the-non-core-subjects/?v=7516fd43adaa, Common Sense Media (n.d.). Marc Zao-Sanders (2018) wrote an informative article on TimeBoxing, accessible here: Organizing your space is another aspect of your current situation that you have total control over. Literally blocking it off on your calendar and communicating your schedule with your bosses and colleagues will make sure you are all on the same page and that everyone will respect that time. Instead of trying to convince your kids why they should be quiet and calm during your conference calls and hoping for the best, you might try giving them specific activities to keep them busy during these times. This is not true, legally. Just take a few deep breaths and enjoy the time you have with your kids, because they really do grow up so fast, and this pandemic and chaos will eventually pass. If you are teaching more than one child, you will need to decide, based on their ages, maturity levels and possibly reading levels, whether you need to plan separate work for each, or whether you can plan once and have them all working on the same work. Others may be planning their own lessons and activities. The two most commonly tested subjects in standardized testing tend to be math and language arts, so when we homeschooled, we put the most emphasis on these two subjects, integrating the others as appropriate and as possible. When I started homeschooling and working from home, we had one preschooler and one toddler. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from https://www.connectionsacademy.com/, CRHE. (n.d.2). Making it clear that it was a big kid privilege to sit at the table with us to work on schoolwork was also helpful in motivating (relatively) quiet focus. (This is a big deciding factor that can save or cost you a lot of time and stress. Grownandflown.com. (n.d.). Free Printable Homeschool Planners. The answer to this question can provide further guidance for what choice might be best for you and your family, on top of the obvious comfort level with sending them to a physical school building in August or September. (Parents, dont be jealousyou can make forts, tooand even take your conference call from inside your fort, if you want to.). Retrieved March 25, 2020, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/about-us/our-mission/about-our-ratings, Common Sense Media. If any of you are like me, you started your working and homeschooling balancing act by trying to explain to your children how important work is, and how you have to focus (and they have to be quiet) while you are on work calls. (n.d.). (2020). Another point to consider is that you have every right to make the time spent educating your children as high a priority as any other meeting, so schedule it. While you are determining how much time you want to dedicate to your work, also consider if there are specific days or times of day that you have regularly scheduled meetings, deadlines for regular work, or other time-specific restrictions. In fact, they have created a launch page for the current times, accessible here: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/resources-for-families-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic, Common Sense Media. We homeschooled in many different locations, including a multifamily house where we had a full room dedicated to homeschooling, my parents house where we had an area in the basement, our family members kitchen counters, and even an RV, when we traveled around the US. Just take one step at a time and focus on one goal at a time. What if schools are opened in a virtual-only format to start the school year and transition to blended or alternating schedule formats, or even full capacity later in the school year? All movies, for example, have ratings from Common Sense Media, as well as a kids rating and a parents rating, but even more helpful are the details provided by Common Sense Media behind their specific rating. We also chose to provide our girls with education regarding proper behavior online, rather than feeling the need to constantly police them and their online activities. (n.d.). As homeschoolers, they worked at their own pace in different subjects, which was great for their education and learning, but made the transition to an age-based grade-level determination a challenging one. 2) Block off the appropriate time for schoolwork on your work calendar and communicate these expectations to your manager and coworkers. Although Im not fully convinced that this is the best approach to managing your time, the concept of Timeboxing is similar to the approach Ive recommended above. To avoid things becoming disorganized, piling up, getting dirty during meals, etc., it is best to dedicate a shelf or whole bookshelf to the schoolwork, books and all related equipment. With some states canceling in-person schooling for the rest of the academic year and others extending the closures for additional time periods or indefinitely, but messages coming from politicians that we need to re-open the country, we are in a state of wait and see. Greater Good Magazine. (n.d.). Youre Probably Homeschooling Way More Than You Need To. There are also many online tours of national parks, zoos, and aquariums. It is important to remember this. This includes finding appropriate websites, movies, games, and applications, teaching your children about online safety and digital citizenship, and knowing how to distinguish between free, safe content and free, unsafe content. SheKnows.com. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from https://www.roblox.com/, Wiess, S. R. (2020a). You can research options for full-time online schooling, which some states offer for free (Digital Learning Collaborative, 2018). The state regulations say that families MAY submit a Notice of Intent to homeschool and participate in portfolio reviews. A few of the things that are currently within our control are: 1) our reactions to the current situation, 2) our attitudes, 3) our schedule and 4) our space. These can be accessed here: https://www.headspace.com/covid-19. Then, your stress levels went through the roof when it didnt all go smoothly with calm, quiet kids and dedicated focus for you. There are so many options available to teach every subject, and many are free. However, with everything clearly defined and with trust, constructive conflict and commitment, holding each other accountable for their respective parts becomes much easier, and does not need to involve finger pointing or other negative non-constructive behaviors. In my classroom, I start my classes off by having my students volunteer to Tell me something good. The good things could literally be anything, and they have ranged from I had a good breakfast this morning, to My football team won last night. If you want to add variety or switch things up a bit, the Bestow Team created a list of 30 gratitude games and activities for kids, accessible here: https://hellobestow.com/blog/gratitude-games/. Either way, you will need to allocate time for schooling for your children and for your work. With the quick pivot to distance learning in the spring, and the large disparities with technology access and related issues, the schools and districts are still working to get some students caught up on their work from the spring. The activities in the basket could be anything from printed mazes, cut and paste activities, manipulative for counting, coloring books, etc. If you are unsure, Common Sense Media is a great place to start. https://medium.com/taskworld-blog/lencionis-5-dysfunctions-of-a-team-330d58b2cd81. Common Sense Media provides two different options for digital citizenship education. (Various factors played into our decision, but one major factor for us was for the girls to have the option to participate in sports, clubs and other activities, and we were living in a location where they were districted into good schools.). Retrieved March 19, 2020, from https://www.steamsational.com/free-printable-homeschool-planners/, The new challenge to keep the kids occupied during conference calls is: FORT MAKING!!! Also, be sure that you are fully informed about what activities are offered or not offered for any who opt into remote or distance learning through the school, as this likely differs on a district by district or school by school basis. The second consideration is the subjects you wish to teach. Scholastic Learn at Home. How School Closures Can Strengthen Your Family. The options are so abundant that it can often be overwhelming, especially for those new to educating their children at home. Coronavirus Closed Schools: 27 Activities to Keep Kids Busy During School Closures. Retrieved March 16, 2020 from, Center for Disease Control (CDC). When we homeschooled, for earlier years, where I had many conference calls, and the kids were younger, we used videos for most of the elective subjects and studied each subject almost every day. Other paid options exist for states which do not offer state virtual schools, like K12, ConnectionsAcademy, although many others exist, as well (Connections Academy, 2020; K12, 2020). (n.d.). It is also very important to note, especially when you are reading and researching your options, that there are two extremes to the homeschooling debate or conversation, especially in Connecticut, but it is likely evident elsewhere, as well. Trust that everyone is working toward a common goal, for example, is one type of trust. For those who are not experienced or knowledgeable about publishers used for K-12 education, the National University Library System has a list on their website, accessible here: https://nu.libguides.com/CommonCore/ccss_publishers. Examples of delivery modes include DVDs, online learning games, online video lessons, printable lessons, workbooks and textbooks, fully online classes, and instructions posted online that allow you to create your own. If this was or is you, trust me, you are not alone. Parents need to be able to bring concerns to educators and administrators when things arent working for them and their children. Below, I will provide a few options and considerations for finding content for your children that is age-appropriate and safe for them, as well as being safe for you and your computer. Without clearly defined roles and goals, it is difficult to hold team members accountable for their contributions to the team and to the teams success. Harvard Business Review. Having a dedicated space will allow you to put everything away in a neat and orderly fashion after every day, so that it is available and easy to access the following day. Best of luck with this years educational adventures. No year, and no day, to be honest, looked the same for us, even when I tried to plan it to be the same, and my kids turned out just fine. (Remember to make the award something you can make, give or do with them at home, and that they can have or do after your conference call is over.). Roblox. 5) Understand and be honest and open about what you (and your student) can and cannot reasonably take on and complete given everything you have going on outside of school responsibilities, and be open to working with your student and their teachers and school administrators. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from https://www.sheknows.com/parenting/slideshow/2173553/coronavirus-school-closings-keep-kids-busy/1/, Wiess, S. R. (2020b). Retrieved March 19, 2020 from https://awakeandmindful.com/best-kids-yoga-videos-on-youtube/, Bestow. (2019). Retrieved June 24, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/schools.html, Connectiond Academy. When you get stressed or overwhelmed, just remember that surviving is all you and your family need to do right now, and the rest will all work out eventually. Write a list of the equipment you used to make your fort. They already do for other meetings and for lunch, right? (2020). Many of our kids had packed schedules of school, sports, and other activities, with barely enough time to grab a sandwich in the car for supper. The one thing that all of those spaces had in common was a dedicated space to store all of our supplies and work. We cannot control what this pandemic has become or is about to become or the ripple effects it may cause. Yours will too. You dont have to wait until plans for the fall are released to figure out what you are comfortable (and not comfortable) with. Thats all any of us can do, and the only way we are going to figure out what will work is for everyone to be comfortable communicating and providing constructive feedback when things are not working. Always be appreciative.). Schedules created and posted in a common location provide clarity to everyone involved and help the parents avoid questions like what are we doing today? and what subjects are we working on today? There are many free printable planners and schedules available online. ), 3) Do you think you might want to send your students back to school in person either some time this year or in future years? Our girls were homeschooled since Kindergarten, and I chose materials for each individual subject for each girl, and planned the curriculum and lesson plans myself throughout this entire time. One is that everyone (or nearly everyone) you work with is in the same boat right now, so they understand the need to balance, and you shouldnt be shy about sharing what you are trying to accomplish. Kid-Safe Browsers and Search Sites. I present to you the conference call activity challenge for today (03/17/2020): Conference Call Bingo (with your kiddos)!
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