As a lot of parents, our family discovered homeschooling
when COVID19 school closures hit us in early 2020. I still remember my last day
in the office in Addis, Ethiopia, when I received the message that schools
would close the next day.
Completely unprepared I quickly printed out some of the
Montessori preschool activity sheets I had stored on my computer before heading
home. The next day I started totally improvised homeschooling with my
preschooler 3 years old at the time and my first grader.
Since then, almost 2 years have passed and I can say it has
been quite a steep learning journey to figure out the best format and setting
for them. So, here are my biggest learnings and a step-by-step guide to help
you review your homeschooling set-up. Whether you are currently stuck in
online-schooling, considering homeschooling by yourself or just want to support
your child´s learning at home complementary to school, this is what I would
recommend you.
The starting Point: Parents are not teachers
Let´s start with an important truth (which you probably already figured out). As parents we are not teachers. Children have a completely different relationship to their teacher than with us as their mom or dad. This means that we cannot replicate school at home and need in consequence to find different ways to get our children motivated to learn.
Let´s also be realistic. Learning with children at home is an exciting, but also intense and exhausting experience. As parents, you need to take care of yourself so that you have the energy and patience your child needs. Your attitude and approach have a big impact how your child is learning. Effective learning at home therefore starts with ourselves as parents and not our children.
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Step 1: Create a space for concentration
To help your child concentrate, a good place to start with is setting-up a space where your child can best learn.
Whether you have an elementary child, a preschooler or a toddler, your child should have a shelf (or a space in a shelf), with all current learning resources are displayed and accessible. Less is more. Only put there the work and materials your child currently works with. All the rest can be stored somewhere else. Try and keep this space separate from other toys and games.
I would also recommend having a space where your children can access general supplies, such as pencils, scissors, scotch, paper, crafting materials, watercolors, etc. Again these should be freely accessible for your child and safe to be used (if you have a toddler, only display the materials he or she can use independently).
Older children often enjoy having their own desk. But most children actually like doing their work in the family space. A big table in the living room or kitchen is often then most convenient place. Try and keep that working space free from other clutter and most importantly screens if not necessary for online learning. Children can much better concentrate if they only have one thing to work on in front of them.
Step 2: Observe your child’ s attention span and productive hours
Try and figure out when your child is most productive. Some children learn best early in the morning, others at the end of the day. A good starting point here is to observe for a couple of days when your child is most concentrated and gets work done easily. You can then adapt the schedule to fit into these productive hours. Also remember that the attention span for an activity for toddlers and pre-schoolers is still very short. So do not expect them to focus for more than 15min. For older children on the contrary, it is important that they have sufficient time to fully get into and complete their work. Try not to avoid interrupting them if not necessary or rushing them into the next activity.
Step 3: Make a plan for accountability
Effective learning at home needs one or another way of
accountability. Your child should learn little by little how to set goals and
objectives and how to monitor and respect them. For smaller children you can
start by discussing with them, what they would like to do and you support them
in their concentration to complete and clean-up their work before starting
something new. For older children you might want to have a weekly planning
discussion with them, where they write down what they plan to do each day. Put
this somewhere visible either on the fridge or on their desk. Your child can
then check at the end of each day what he or she has done and what is
remaining. Take stock at the end of the week and discuss what went well and
what your child might want to adapt. This is how your child will learn
step-by-step to take charge of its own learning.
Step 4: Interest driven learning
Children learn best if they are interested in what they are
learning. Try and observe what your child is passionate about. Independently
whether these are cars, unicorns, dinosaurs or gardening, you can connect any
center of interest to meaningful learning activities. If your child is
currently doing online schooling, try and connect the tasks they struggle most
with to their centers of interest. For example, use cars to solve math problems
or play a story with Lego figures before asking your child to write it down. This
can relieve a lot of your and your child’s pressure. Be assured that children
also learn a ton of things while playing. So do not underestimate the important
learnings your child will take away from intensive playing.
Step 5: Bank on everyday learning opportunities
Finally, learning is much more than doing worksheets and spelling tests. Your child does not have to sit at a table to learn. Especially when your child is lacking motivation, try involving him or her in meaningful everyday activities such as cooking, gardening, building something, grocery shopping, travel planning etc. Your child will practice important life skills, but even better you can connect literacy and math problems to these activities. For example, grocery shopping is a great way to practice writing a shopping list, performing different math operations and calculating with money.
Finally, share your passions with your children. Our children can learn so much, when we get them involved in interesting discussions and explorations as a family.
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