To my friends in the Real Estate Industry,
We are indeed in challenging times, and many of us are facing downtime at home. For many of us, this also means being home with our children trying to unexpectedly balance homeschooling with our own careers.
As a homeschooling family here are a few thoughts:
-Stay Calm – Focus on what is in your control right now and try to create feelings of safety, connection, and peace at home. Don’t be afraid to lower your expectations and make adjustments as you go. None of us, not even seasoned homeschoolers, do this perfectly. Stay connected to your breath, your body, and your kids, and let everything else unfold at its own pace. We need to be gentle and patient with our kids, as well as with ourselves, too.
-Don’t get hung up on many hours your kids are or are not studying – Even though we tend to think of school as a 6 or even 8 hour day, the fact is between lining up in the morning, roll call, recess, relining up, lunch, lining up again, free time, and so on and so forth, the average elementary school child is only getting 2 to 3 hours of education time in day. A little more for Jr High and High School. Learning at home is a completely different system and environment. Out-of-the-box thinking creates opportunities to learn daily in many things that you do at home already. Your kids will likely be able to finish their daily work at home in a fraction of the time that it would take to complete a typical school day. Let them have the rest of the day to follow their own interests, learn a new hobby, or binge-read their favorite book series.
-Don’t feel they are getting left behind in their future career – When I was a kid, the concept of having a personal computer at home just wasn’t a thing. The internet only existed in science fiction. Yet, despite not growing up knowing about technology, most of my friends and peers went to become IT technicians, Web designers, video game programmers, and other tech jobs that didn’t exist when we were kids. This means, more than likely, our kids will one day have jobs that have not been invented yet. As most parents realize, learning happens every day, in large and small ways. Trusting the process allows us to take a deep breath and worry less about external markers of success.
-Use this time to explore other subjects – Let’s face it, modern schools have long since eliminated or reduced such skills as cooking, sewing, woodworking, shop and other useful day to day skills. Use this time while your kids are at home to fill in those gaps and teach life skills they need in the real world.
– Your kids will be interested in something – Human nature is that we become interested in something and learning something. Discover your child’s interests and provide opportunities to go deeper into what they’re most curious about. Many kids learn best when they have the freedom and autonomy to pursue their passions. Find a balance between completing work required by their school and allowing lots of time and space for them to explore their own interests. Neither of my kids have ever had a formal history class, but I will “catch” them watching history documentaries on their tablets, and hence, they know quite a bit of history, spouting off facts and theories at the dinner table that even I have to google!
-Go deep in 1 or 2 areas – When I was 7, the school district went on strike and my mom had to home school me for a week. Rather than get caught up in math and reading, we choose two topics, the solar system, and Eygpt, and we went deep on both topics. I remember those lessons far more than I do whatever we learned in class when the strike was over. Realize that your goal is to encourage your child’s love of learning. Let them grow their passions and love for learning on their own. Each child has their own timeline and their own way of learning. Homeschooling provides the freedom to nurture and grow those individual passions.
-Allow Technology to Fill in Gaps- There’s no shortage of resources for online learning. More seem to be popping up each day and many are being offered for free during the school closures. Try not to get overwhelmed by all of the choices. Find one or two that work for your family and let your kids engage with them while you catch your breath or get some of your own work done.
My top favorite parenting books
1) The Conscious Parent: Transforming Ourselves, Empowering Our Children – Dr. Shefali Tsabary – Our kids are a reflection of us, and to solve their problems, we often have to solve our own.
2) The Boy Crisis – Warren Farrell PhD – I’ll admit this is not a pleasant read, but it provided an important perspective for anyone raising a son.
3) The Whole-Brain Child- Daniel Siegel MD and Tina Bryson MD – this book is filled with strategies for raising happy, resilient children. It offers powerful tools for helping children develop the emotional intelligence they will need to be successful in the world.
4) The Call to Brilliance – Resea Steindel Brown – All children are born brilliant. It is up to us to help them find the passion that will lead to their brilliance. This book shows how to find a child’s interests, fuel interest into passion, and passion into brilliance.
Enjoy!
-Ian Mayer, Owner
IM Home Inspections