Making sure others respect your time is actually easier than it might seem at first. Common Sense Media. SheKnows.com. They also expect to have to make up for missed learning in the fall for this last spring, especially for the younger students in lower grades. Smoothing the transition in our new reality. Here are a few suggestions of where we might start: 1) Develop (and ensure everyone knows and understands) clearly defined goals. What can your student do to promote these team functions also? You can use an existing bingo card, plenty of which are posted for free online. The rule for our girls was that they had to look at all movies, games, and apps up on Common Sense Media and bring them to us prior to asking the question of whether they could play, watch or download something. While you are on a conference call today, have your kids stand next to your whiteboard or sit next to you coloring or doing some additional activity, and work with them to complete a bingo card based on what is said or done on your conference call. schoolwork has to follow the school day/week schedule, the schoolwork has to only include academic subjects, the kids have to be working on academic work the entire time, socialization is an afterthought when homeschooling, the kids are responsible for schoolwork and parents need to continue all of the housework. Headspace, a mindfulness and meditation app, is providing a series of their meditations for free in the midst of the current situation. (n.d.). Then, your stress levels went through the roof when it didnt all go smoothly with calm, quiet kids and dedicated focus for you. Retrieved March 19, 2020, from https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html, STEAMsational. 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. More details about the rating systems used for the Common Sense Media ratings can be found here: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/about-us/our-mission/about-our-ratings. Best Kids Yoga Videos on YouTube. These can be accessed here: https://www.headspace.com/covid-19. The public school administrators where we are were extremely helpful in working with us to determine the best placement. Yours will too. (2018). (n.d.). (2020). (n.d.). Montana requires a notice of intent to homeschool to be submitted to the local Superintendent of Schools, but does not require any other forms or portfolio review, etc. 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. With style and practicality their first priority, Anne Klein bags will soon become your go-to. Retrieved March 25, 2020, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-compass, Common Sense Media. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from https://hslda.org/legal, HSLDA. Scholastic Learn at Home. You dont need to go crazy buying organizing supplies. 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. Your next steps are: 1) Identify the age groups of the children you are educating and whether they need to be planned separately or if the plan and content can be the same. The third consideration is the mode you wish to use to teach the subjects you have selected. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/schools.html, Connectiond Academy. Carter, Christine. If you have chosen to homeschool instead of opt into distance learning through your school, and the option is temporary, you may wish to file the notice of intent to homeschool and proceed to work closely with the school to ensure the smoothest transition back into the school when the time is right. At this point, state and local boards of education are doing the best they can with the little information they have to plan for something none of us have ever had to deal with before. 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. 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. Bauer, S. W. (2016). Well, the best approach comes down to whether this is a temporary or long-term/permanent option for you and your family. (These are usually set at the state-level and enforced at the district or school-level. (2020). Write a list of the equipment you used to make your fort. Some states and districts are surveying parents to find out their comfort level with the options listed above (or others, depending on the state and district). Trust that everyone is doing their best (whatever their best looks like on a given day) and trust that everyone has the childrens best interest at heart are a couple of others. There are many options for finding safe content online for kids. They already do for other meetings and for lunch, right? (Note that this is not a comprehensive list.) If you are unsure, Common Sense Media is a great place to start. At those times, my kids were at the ages where they needed more hands-on help and their school workload was higher, so it worked well for us. Uncertainty and lack of direction and why can cause unnecessary stress and a lack of commitment. Everything else is a bonus. Retrieved March 25, 2020, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/resources-for-families-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic, Earthcam. What is Montessori Education? Administrators have never run schools, districts or boards of education during a global pandemic. Find a fort posted by someone else and draw a picture of their fort and estimate how many people you think could fit in their fort. Game Reviews. For other jobs, like when I administered analytics servers, I had more flexibility to design my work day around the desired school schedule. Retrieved March 16, 2020, from, Zao-Sanders, Marc. This is when choosing distance learning through the school, working with the school on curriculum or even taking advantage of optional portfolio reviews, or employing a certified teacher in a pandemic pod could work out better than doing what we did with creating a custom curriculum. These are legally optional. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-reviews, Focus on the Family. Retrieved March 19, 2020, from https://www.headspace.com/covid-19, Khan Academy (2020). It is important to be fully informed of all legal and regulatory requirements prior to making your choice, so that you are making a fully-informed choice. 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. There are many misconceptions about homeschooling, in general, but especially with working and homeschooling. We cannot control what this pandemic has become or is about to become or the ripple effects it may cause. (n.d.). Your child or children will be perfectly fine with a couple or a few hours of school-related work and other fun, educational activities while you focus on work. How Timeboxing Works and Why it Will Make You More Productive. The best resource we have found for determining age-appropriateness of movies, games, applications and some websites is Common Sense Media, accessible here: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/. Best of luck with this years educational adventures. (n.d.). (2020). Retrieved March 25, 2020, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-passport, Common Sense Media. Decorating Amazon boxes and used soup cans make great arts and craft projects and excellent organizers! (n.d.). When I started homeschooling and working from home, we had one preschooler and one toddler. If you have decided that you are not yet comfortable physically sending your kids back to a school building, thinking through some of the following questions might be helpful in deciding between distance learning (assuming this option is available/offered through your school) and homeschooling: 1) Do you want to choose your own curriculum, make your own lesson plans, etc., or do you want to assist your children in completing teacher-assigned activities? For example, Connecticut only requires a notice of withdrawal, legally, but does recommend (only a recommendation, not a legal requirement) a notice of intent to homeschool and portfolio review. K12. 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. 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. See how you can bring the wow-factor to your look with an Anne Klein bag. 3) Identify the delivery mode you want to use for each subject and each child. You can research options for full-time online schooling, which some states offer for free (Digital Learning Collaborative, 2018). Make a fort out of anything you like (Amazon boxes, sheets, blankets, etc.). One combined list of these is accessible on EarthCam.com, here: https://www.earthcam.com/events/animalcams/. The traditional homeschooling community is extreme in their desire to be unregulated and to have full freedom to educate their children however they wish, with minimal or no governmental intervention or oversight. A lesson I learned the hard way many times is that they cant both be done (effectively) at the same time. In work environments, especially when working on projects, everyone has clearly defined roles and responsibilities which are laid out on a project plan. It is also an opportunity for us to find ways for our kids to help around the house and to teach them new life skills that are no longer taught in schools. A template for this can be found on many of the CT homeschooling group websites or Facebook pages. 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!!! The first consideration is the age levels you are teaching. Science and art took the most preparation because we conducted experiments and made a variety of art and craft projects, so we split these days, so that they were not back-to-to back, allowing for some planning and preparation time in between. Starting your day with gratitude and calm activities has been said to start your day off on a positive note. There are so many different aspects and layers of trust, as well. In the middle of the fall, we collectively decided that it was time for the girls to attend public school. Others split them into pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten, grades 1-2, grades 3-5 and grades 6+. Weathering the Storm. You will need to determine the best balance and schedule for your family based on the ages you are teaching, the subjects you have selected, and the modes you have chosen to use to teach those subjects. The first major hurdle for the transition was figuring out what grade they should be in. You will need to determine, based on the number and ages of children, your work schedule, and any other constraints, what subjects you want to teach and can manage to do so with minimal stress. A big lesson learned in this transition is that no matter what homeschool curriculum you choose, there will be differences in what they learn there and what is covered in the public school curriculum, thus, some material will be repeated and there will be gaps to be filled in other places. Lets face it, we are all in survival mode right now, and trying to claim anything else would be misleading. Stay home and stay safe. While the kids play, you can plan your day(s). 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Buy a paisley printed four piece set from Anne Klein that checks both items off the list. The pause for them is a huge change and requires adjustment, but provides an opportunity for us, as parents, to teach them how to slow down and be ok with being bored or finding their own activities. Small wins go a long way. If you want to really make it fun and engaging with everyone involved, you or the meeting organizer can make up a bingo card and send it out to everyone on the call. 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. Many state and local education-related publications have language that indicates that the notice of intent to homeschool and the portfolio reviews are required. Everything you need to organize your area is probabily already in your home. Focusonthefamily.com. You dont have to wait until plans for the fall are released to figure out what you are comfortable (and not comfortable) with. 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. Khan Academy has provided help and getting started pages for their content here: https://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/611770255064350720/remote-learning-with-khan-academy-during-school, and the lessons themselves are accessible here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSZhOdEPAWjUQpqDkVAlJrFwxxZ9Sa6zGOq0CNRms6Z7DZNq-tQWS3OhuVCUbh_-P-WmksHAzbsrk9d/pub, Scholastic has provided schedules and lessons here: https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html. If you decide you are not comfortable sending your child to their current school in the fall, what options do you have? Retrieved March 16, 2020 from, Center for Disease Control (CDC). 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. 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. ), Have your parent/guardian take a picture of your fort, with the list of equipment used and post it to Twitter using the hashtag #fortchallenge and tag @HomeschoolWork. (2020). You are the parent, and you know what is best for your children. Youre Probably Homeschooling Way More Than You Need To. You usually go for a boring bag thats big enough to fit all of your belongings but desperately lacks in the fashion department. The key is not to be happy or unhappy about the approaches, but to be informed. that you will be bound by? When you are living out of your suitcase, its crucial that the case itself can, A: fit all of your dresses, jeans and shoes (hey, its better to have too many options versus too little) and, B: stand out from the sea of traditional black luggage. To this day, we stand by that rule and have had very few issues. Retrieved April 19, 2020 from https://grownandflown.com/soft-skills-for-teens/, Minecraft. The reality is that we need to accept that nothing is going to be perfect in this imperfect situation, so for the perfectionists out there (like myself), if we are surviving and our families are surviving, we are doing the best we can, and that is good enough. An alternative is to make your own bingo card that might be more age-appropriate, like one with silly words or um and uh, for example, that might be easy for little ones to pick up on during the call. For example, if you choose to homeschool or opt for distance learning to start with in the fall, will you want to send your children back to school (this year or in the future)? 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. Accountability involves all levels, including our children consistently being held responsible for their work. In sports psychology, life coaching and other venues recently, youve likely heard the term locus of control or phrases like control the controllables. Situations like the pandemic we are currently experiencing bring to light the true meaning of these phrases, as there is so much that is truly out of our control. Greater Good Magazine. In all honesty, because we got sick of answering the question of Can we watch? questions, we came up with a specific rule to guide their choices. The fourth consideration is the schedule of the subjects you have selected to teach. What Are the Non-Core Subjects?. 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. It is important to understand the risks and the comfort level you have with those risks, and, depending on the approach taken, the health risks for your children and for you (and for everyone in your household). (Dont forget to include what you used to keep your fort together tape, staples, clothes pins, etc. Administrators need to be able to raise concerns when they see inactivity and absences, to agree or disagree with reasons behind them, and then for everyone to be able to constructively discuss options for solutions, and even test out different solutions (and yes, sometimes fail and try something else). Before you start, identify an award they will earn if you get a bingo and/or if they black out the entire card by meeting the criteria of each bingo square on the entire bingo card. Or, are you not comfortable sending your children to school at all until there is a vaccine, for example? 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The standard subjects tend to include math, language arts, science, history or social studies, art, technology, health, physical education, and music. Given the current closure of public schools, many publishers are providing content online for free, as well. Florida is more strict, but does have umbrella schools that allow for smoother navigation of the requirements. It is important to remain aware (and equally appreciative for any help they provide) that the schools and school districts are not required to assist homeschooling families, and that submitting an intent to withdraw (and/or an intent to homeschool) does have a direct impact on their budget, as they are funded on a per-student basis. If you plan to homeschool long-term or permanently, focusing on this alignment might not be quite as important or impactful. So, what options are there? The CRHE and HSLDA do a great job of keeping up with the current state regulations and how they are implemented (along with your legal rights and options as a homeschooler) (CRHE, n.d.; HSLDA, n.d.). We made a decision years ago to provide some independence and ownership of content decisions to our kids, specifically for movies, games, and apps. (n.d.). KEY POINT: You do not have to replicate your full workday and the full school day, so give yourself a break and get rid of that expectation right away.
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