How to Support Your Student This School Year
As a busy mother I can relate deeply to the struggles many parents, especially single moms are facing in this season. There are a lot of things to balance and a ton of expectations. It's common to feel spread thin. Many families are experiencing a great deal of uncertainty these days. We have a lot of reasons to be concerned and a lot of reasons to be excited or nervous. You may be wondering:
Will schools reopen? If so for how long?
Is homeschooling the best option?
How do I effectively homeschool my kid(s)?
Will my child get behind in school?
How can I become the teacher when I never wanted to be a teacher?
Is the second wave of the quarantine coming?
What does schooling look like then?
How long will things be this way?
This is a unique season for schooling which also makes it a unique season for parenting. There is a lot of pressure that is put on us as parents to not only balance our jobs but to also balance schooling for our students. From an educator’s perspective, I want to share the top ten ways to best support your children in this season.
Create a routine.
Children thrive off of routine and consistency. As challenging as that may be in this season, it’s imperative that you work to create that structure. With this routine though schedule downtime as well. If you’re expecting your children to go go go all the time this will burn them out and make them less effective in their schooling. Build in downtime where they have things to look forward to or simply relax.
Make communication a priority.
Be sure that you’re communicating with both your children and the school regularly. One thing that I do is daily check-ins with my eldest to see where, if at all, she is struggling and how I can help. I know for some people this isn’t realistic so consider doing a check-in at least once a week to prevent your children from falling too far behind (younger children may need this closer to daily).
Help your children to take care of their bodies.
Make sure they are getting at least 8 hours of rest (more for younger kiddos), eating healthy and well-balanced meals, and moving their body regularly. This could be as simple as walking the dog for five minute, or helping to add broccoli to a meal by microwaving it, and scheduling all of their BIG activities early in the day to allow for good rest in the evening. Taking care of ourselves is always important, but especially during this season.
Notice changes.
This is so important! Our children are going through a lot this season. They are away from their friends, they are witnessing adults being stressed due to the pandemic, job loss, and the like, and they also have one level of consistency they are counting on which is school and that’s currently in flux. Pay attention to your children. Are they becoming more distant, or they no longer enjoying what they loved, etc. These are telltale signs that your kids may be dealing with a lot. Consider getting additional support for your children.
Get support for your children when they need it.
Make sure you’re connecting with your children’s principal, teacher, and counselors in this season. They want to help you so take advantage of that support. If you’re worried about scheduling, teaching, support for your students, etc. You’re not alone so there are likely a lot of resources for your family.
Consider new learning experiences.
Are their new and creative ways for you to teach your children in this season? One thing I am big on is LIFE SKILLS. So my children and I have practiced cooking, budgeting, and cleaning. These are great lessons that can also be merged with actual school subjects. For example, budgeting requires planning, adding, and subtracting which is directly relatable to math consider how you can involve your children.
Allow for social opportunities.
Is your child talking to friends and family via phone/FaceTime/zoom,etc. If not consider how they can have more safe social time. Also, many schools are offering different things (for example a virtual lunch bunch groups etc.). I know of families who have done picnics 6ft apart from other families, but it’s a great social distancing playdate. I recently enrolled my daughter into virtual girl scouts. I have no clue what that will look like, but I am grateful for the social opportunities. Kids need them!
Create an environment that allows for success.
I know sometimes this can be difficult if you have a smaller home, or any children in remote learning at once, but the goal is to find a safe, comfortable and distraction-free place for your child. The truth is there will be many distractions (social media, TV, messy areas, thoughts, etc.) As best as possible try to find a place conducive to learning that will help your child to focus and engage as much as possible.
Teach your children that while they cannot control everything they can change their response to it.
For example, we cannot choose what season is, but we can be sure to wear sandals in the summer and a coat and boots in the winter. It’s the same with remote learning we can’t change that this is our current reality, but we can change how we view it and respond to it (i.e. by finding fun and creative ways to learn at home). One activity I adjusted from The Big Journal: Ask your child to close their eyes and imagine a shape- whatever shape they want. You can then follow up and say, "It looks like you were able to direct your mind to imagine the shape you wanted. Just like with that activity we can direct our brain to focus on what we desire to focus on. The more we practice directing our brain the better we can get at it and it will help a lot when things aren’t going your way.
Take care of yourself.
Think of the airplane phenomenon. While I know this analogy is probably overused it applies perfectly in today’s day and age. When you’re on an airplane they always tell you to make sure you put the face mask on yourself before putting it on anyone else. This is so important because if you’re not taking care of yourself ultimately you’re no good to anyone else either. So consider how you can build self-care into your schedule during this season. I always say that you should do 30 minutes of self-care a day and if you have a super busy schedule you should double that! Self-care needs to be a priority even when it seems like a last resort or way too inconvenient. This also brings me to my final point, self care also includes providing yourself grace. There will be some days you do everything on this list perfectly and other days you do absolutely nothing. Some days your calm and patient and other days you’re losing your cool. Forgive yourself and move forward. This is a tough season treat each day as a fresh new start. And know that we are all in this together.
