Distance Learning - Homeschooling Tips & Resources

 

How do we care for our kids during this time? Read through some helpful tips and resources for developing your kids. While this season can seem challenging for many families, it is also a unique opportunity to make our relationship with our kids more special.

  

Where to Start: Helpful Tips to set a solid foundation

 

  • Open the Day with Family prayer. 
  • Regulary solicit clear direction from your child's education institution. This keeps you in close proximity to your child's education process, but it also holds institutions accountable for developing effective plans of action
  • Build a schedule that’s workable for your family
  • Have strict bedtime and wake up times, just like your normal school routine.
  • Start each day with quiet time and Jesus: The Orange Kids curriculum, Imaginative Prayer exercise, Bible Reading, Prayer Requests and Praises, The Bible Project Videos
  • Start school time with the hard subjects for your kids, they have the most capacity and focus early in the day
  • Expect bad days to come and have grace for that. Focus on making sure your child feels heard, understood, loved, and cared for.
  • Remember: Interruptions can be places and times for beautiful things to happen, so welcome this interruption and expect God to meet you and your kids in it.
  • Start somewhere and try it for a few days, don’t worry about finishing something that isn’t working, try something new. 
  • Have lots of grace for yourself, you’re new to this and nobody is expecting you to teach your kids like their teachers do!
  • Include opportunities for kids to reflect on their school experience.  This task can be super simple. For example, at the end of each day ( or week) simply ask your child what went well and what did not go well.  You can also have them rate each day ( or week) from 1 to 5 [1=really bad to 5=Super Great  ] Asking kids to evaluate their educational/learning process bring buy in and empowers them to take ownership in it.


Managing Daily Schedules

 

 

  • Kids thrive on schedules and instruction, while having a schedule takes time to develop, it will ultimately help your kids know what to expect each day. When kids know what is expected of them, they are more willing to press in and do work knowing that free time is coming.
  • Prioritize relational time with kids – this is the best gift we can give them in this time.
  • Build in time for spiritual formation during their school time, start each day with Jesus and bring that theme into their studies.
  • Customize your schedules to meet your families needs and enrich your child's development.
  • For many elementarty grade students instructions is from 9am-12noon. You aren’t doing anything wrong if you finish early or a few minutes late.
  • Unplug:  Incorportate daily quiet time midday to recharge for parents.
  • Prioritize Sabbath. 

 

Resources

  

For Kids Aged 2-7

 

The Other Goose

Adventures in Odyssey Club – free 28 day trial

 

All Ages

 

An all inclusive list of free resources.

 

 Scholastic Learn at Home

 

 Rainbow Resource – affordable Christian/Secular curriculum you can purchase, forums you can engage with other parents on, and a lot of other articles you can check out.

 

Novel Effect app – plays sounds while you read books aloud on your phone.  noveleffect

 

 Khan Academy – Teaching videos for many subjects, is really helpful with Math/Sciences, he explains it in a different way that can help students understand when you are stuck in explaining a difficult concept.


A  fun way to learn SPANISH Jessiefeliz-  JessieFeliz

 

 Raddish Kids has posted some free recipes on their websites. Try turning mealtime and baking into education, recipe planning, math, etc

 

 Read Aloud Revival – great book lists broken down by genre, age, wordless, etc.

 

Smarter Every Day – Kid friendly, science YouTube videos – have them listen and then tell you what they learned, trying to remember actual terms

 

 Mark Rober – He will be live streaming science classes on his YouTube page every Monday/Wednesday/Friday at 1pm PST.

 

 Museum of Natural History’s interactive website


 Language Arts Teaching – Three free weeks of intensive teaching for kids Grades 3 – 12 on all things grammar.

 

 Social Emotional Learning – As our rhythms get disrupted and many normal distractions are stripped away from our routine it is common for social, emotional, and mental health issues to start popping up in our kids lives. This online resource is helpful for equipping parents with tools to engage with their kids and to allow them to process through this difficult time.

 

 

Supporting Kids and Teens Through COVID-19

 

How to talk to your child about COVID-19 (Unicef) – Good general guidelines to use when preparing to speak to children about COVID-19.

 

Talking to Kids about the Coronavirus (Child Mind Institute)

 

Managing Anxiety and Stress during COVID-19 (CDC) – Gives a list of behaviors that children or teens may exhibit due to stress from COVID-19 and ways to help before seeking professional help.


 How to talk to your kids about the Coronavirus 

 

Parenting during the Coronavirus (Focus on the Family) – If you scroll partway down this page, you’ll find tips for parents including parenting effectively during the outbreak, educational activities for kids who are stuck at home, practical resources for teaching kids from home, how to talk to kids about COVID-19, staying sane while working from home with kids, and showing grace when in close quarters.

 

How to handle increases in sibling fighting (Raising Children – A parenting website). Includes resources around what to do after a disagreement or fight. With older elementary students, you can teach them to go through this process themselves, although some will continue to need guidance.

 


 

Managing Mental Health when in quarantine – This resource isn’t child specific but speaks in general about how to address mental health concerns, and how to manage it if you or a family member already struggle with mental health. Remember that 19% of adults at any given time, and 13–20% of children experience a mental health illness during a given year (statistic from the CDC).



MISCELLANEOUS RESOURCES: More Great Helps

ENRICHMENT: CULTURE AND HISTORY  HELPS 

African-American/PanAfrican

  

Filipino/Phillippines
 Mexican/Latino  

Enrichment: kids learn money management skills 

 

High School/College: Scholarships and Planning Tools. 
Every parent of a High School/ Junior High student should check out these links.