Albuquerque, NM, April 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- One of the unexpected consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is homeschooling. Many parents have been forced to figure out educational standards, choose curriculum and cover all the topics their child needs to succeed in high school, college and beyond. Add to that the now very stressful situations of having to either work from home, search for a new job, or homeschool while working away from home.
Rebecca Woodbury Keller, PhD and CEO of Gravitas Publications, Inc., a national publisher for home schooling textbooks and materials, offers some practical advice for parents who are suddenly teachers.
“Teaching is a profession that requires skills, degrees, and experience, but providing an environment where kids can learn is something anyone can do with little to no experience,” Dr. Keller explained. “There are ways to home educate and preserve your sanity, get your kids to LOVE learning and keep your kids’ academic goals on track; meeting standards and preparing them for their future.”
Dr. Keller offers these tips:
- Shift your perspective. You don’t have to become “the expert.” Rather, you need to be the facilitator for learning from home.
- Let your children ask questions. Then, provide support for them to answer those questions. Children learn better when they ask and answer their own questions. More information can be found at RightQuestion.org.
- Instead of giving lessons, provide learning quests. Present a question and let children initiate a quest to discover answers to the question through book study, online resources or a good old-fashioned experiment in the yard or kitchen. Your role is to supervise like a wise graduate advisor – not to answer their questions for them or do the work.
- Set up a routine. Start the day giving your child the daily learning quest. The rest of the day leave them alone. Be available for support and guidance only. At the end of the school day, spend 10 minutes having them explain to you what they learned.
- There are a lot of resources available to help you.
- Go to your school, district or state to see standards;
- Purchase curriculum that aligns to state and national standards (for science material, look at www.realscience4kids.com);
- Ask the teacher for the standards or goals they want to see your child achieve, and adjust your learning quests accordingly;
- To test this learning style, try CoronaQuest, a 16-day challenge. This free educational resource can be found at www.realscience4kids.com. Join the CoronaQuest Facebook group to connect with other families who are also on the quest. https://www.facebook.com/groups/rs4k.coronaquest
“Taking these steps you’ll see that your child will be eager to study math, history, economics, and science. And it will only take a few minutes of your time each day,” Dr. Keller added.
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