Our children have had their CNY holidays. Due to the coronavirus, all schools in HK are closed till Mar (maybe) to prevent community spread. School has sent out virtual learning on Monday and parents, we have to take up the role of facilitator, not teacher, no matter if we are working or non working parents, this role has been thrown upon us. Thanks God, I have my family’s support to help me through this uncertain time.
Well, the reality is that temporary homeschooling is a whole other animal entirely. Let me share the light of it first, it can take the very best elements of childhood, the love of learning for learning’s sake, combined with the comfort of a loving home and create a transformative experience for parent and child.
I would like to encourage you if you’ve become frustrated because I feel you. I can’t go about my day without getting this ‘task’ done. Here are my top 9 tips I’ve gather for home learning. Food for thoughts.
1. Just forget trying to duplicate a classroom environment, school schedule, and curriculum in your home. There’s nothing sacred about sitting at desks, having set amounts of time per subject, or using only textbooks.
2. Teaching empathy, self-control, patience, generosity, and other desirable traits. Our kids will learn how to treat others and how to respect themselves by watching and modeling our words and behavior. We are always our children role models. This is powerful.
3. Our role will be as a facilitator to our child’s learning. There’s no need to lecture, and very often we’ll find ourselves learning something new right alongside our child.
4. Use technology but don’t become dependent on it. Paper, pencils and colour pencils will do fine.
5. If something, anything, isn’t working, give it one more try and then move on. There’s no use being a stubborn idiot about it.
6. Get your feet wet gently. Begin with just one subject for the first day. Take a 15 minutes break or snack time and continue to complete one subject. The next day, go on to the second subject for an hour then take a break and continue. Do the same for the first 3 days or more, depending how your child feels. Add another subject or two on the fourth day by taking breaks after 60 minutes. Breaks may include art, music or even cooking and baking fun.
7. This may go against our nature, but there’s no need to do every subject every day! Keep in mind that schools offer music and art once a week. Science is taught only two or three days a week, and the same goes for history, geography, social studies and more. You’ll kill yourself trying to fit in six subjects every day.
8. You’ll be surprised by how few materials you need to teach. I taught my son to read using the book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. The lessons were ghastly boring, but my elder son is an astonishing reader now! I can’t over-emphasize the importance of reading and math. They’re the keys to everything else your kids will learn. Do everything in your power to develop strong readers and little mathematicians. I would read aloud Chinese stories to my boys through their entire life and they would read after me if they feel like it. Daddy is in charge of English. This is a fabulous and often an overlooked method to help them to develop strong vocabularies and the love of reading.
9. This is YOUR school. If you want to spend an entire day playing math games and going for a nature walk, do it! The flexibility and spontaneity are part of the adventure.
I’m not promising that your homeschooling month/s will be filled only with sunshine and unicorns. You’ll have days where you sit and cry from fatigue and frustration which I have already experienced. It’s not EASY but it’s beyond rewarding and will create a lifestyle you will love for its flexibility, fun, and everyday discoveries. Remember, you are not alone, we are in this together 🤗
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