I am hoping each of you are doing ok in this unique time we are living in now. I’m sure you may know of family or friends impacted by the corona virus. Praying for God’s grace, peace, and strength during these tough times.
It’s quite ironical how I had posted couple of months ago about how to homeschool when life gets busy. I guess I won’t be needing to use those tips for a while, as although we continue to homeschool, the dynamics have changed much. With the COVID 19 ‘stay at home’ orders, I haven’t had to touch our 12 seater van in a long time, except to occasionally turn the engine on so it won’t die. Cruising all over town with the kids, for different activities and events seems like a very long time ago. I am pretty sure it’s the same for all homeschooling families. It’s very easy to understand now how the word ‘homeschooling’ is such a misnomer, as lots of learning and activities of homeschooled kids happen outside of home- field trips, museums, libraries, extra curricular activities, parks, coops/classes, homeschool groups, homeschool social gatherings etc.
And now, with public schools and traditional private schools closed, it seems parents around the world are having to deal with schooling their kids at home, although in the strict sense, it is not ‘homeschooling’, but more so a form of distance learning. Even for homeschoolers, most of us have to rework our days to accommodate the increased time at home, as well as find alternatives to things we normally do that we can’t do at the moment. I think it’s apt we can categorize everyone’s schooling nowadays as ‘quarantine schooling’. Nonetheless, almost everyone seems to have got out of the rut of a busy lifestyle and having to adopt this ‘new normal’.
In our family, we have been still homeschooling, gearing up to finish the year. The main difference is the activities, outside stuff and prayer/fellowship gatherings. Life had been getting a bit too busy. So in effect, it has been a nice change of pace, although I do have to admit that I function best with some busyness. One additional blessing has been more time for devotions. It has been a good time to refocus, recharge and rekindle. My older 2 have switched to online instruction for their community college classes, and are busy with tests and projects and deadlines. My husband has been going to work, being a healthcare provider. Kids have been continuing their usual chores and helping around the house. They have never been bored, with all the different permutations and combinations of in-house playmates 😇. It’s just that they have more time on hand, which they use to read, create or play outside in the currently beautiful weather in Texas. With God’s blessing, we have a large backyard, so they have been continuing playing soccer in the backyard, as there are enough of them to make their own teams🙃. Our 11 year old assembled a couple of stand-alone hammocks and patio swings for the backyard, which we had bought couple of months back, but just didn’t get to put up yet. So now, there’s lots of lazy spots in the backyard. Kids also like to read, lying on the hammocks. So with God’s grace, life has been going smoothly, although much slower paced for us.
For those of you who have not been homeschooling, this can turn out to be either a challenging or blessed time. Since the change was sudden and unexpected, and there was no time to plan out school ahead of time, it could be more challenging. The dynamics will be different for different families if there’s also jobs to juggle from home, also number and ages of kids. We also have to factor in the fact that kids are also dealing with change, and have their own worries of the whole situation. Plus they are not used to being at home the whole time, and may greatly miss interactions with friends and other activities they’ve been part of. On a bright note, as is probably noted by now, when kids are homeschooled, they can finish their learning in a fraction of the time that they take in public school, as they don’t need to wait for everyone to finish, as well as there is no downtime, or administrative stuff. In fact this is the greatest perks of homeschooling. They get to finish lessons early and have enough time to go deeper into their passions, or explore new hobbies or interests.
Having to stay at home almost 24/7 is probably the least of the problems during these times, and actually have been turning out to be a blessing in lots of families! Let’s look at some simple and productive ways to get through these days. Even though homeschoolers already do most of these things, I think this extra time can still be a blessing. Most of these can be carried out to the summer too:)
1)Probably, the number one secret to not having kids drive you crazy every day or moment, is to put a routine in place. They need to know what to expect. Kids get restless when they don’t know what to expect. If you happen to be working from home, let them know the times you will not be available, ahead of time. Put together some easy activities or sneak in some schoolwork for them to do during that time. Set blocks of times when they should do their academic learning, playtime, reading time, arts/crafts etc. It doesn’t have to be exact times, but just a sequence of what they do next. But leave room for spontaneity and flexibility also. Sometimes that’s when true learning happens!
2) Make a list of what to be able to do if they are bored, so they can do things from the list, without asking you what to do next. Have them brainstorm all the things that they want to do, go through and choose the ones that they can actually do under the given circumstances. Put together the supplies so that they can access when needed, without bothering you. Just make sure you have them put back whatever they didn’t use.
3) It’s a great time to focus on faith. Faith should be an integral part of daily lives, but when school goes on in full swing, it is very easy to push it aside. This time can be used to incorporate new traditions and prayers, and give spiritual life a boost, including dependency on God. Spiritual Communion, reading about Saints, watching Saint movies, Catholic crafts, and extra prayers throughout the day are just some of the things to add. Driving around with kids and reciting prayers while doing so is a good way to escape from the house while doing a small act of charity by praying for others. It is also an excellent time to remind them (and ourselves) of all the things we always took for granted.
4) Character training. Again character training should be a priority in our day to day lives. But with a busy lifestyle it is very easy to let go and be ‘whatever’. Character training does require patience and persistence, which is work. But the seeds we sow today will hopefully reap benefits later. Trying to instill good virtues of compassion, diligence, work ethic, honesty, loyalty, perseverance, focusing on one virtue at a time, should be something we try to add into our daily routine.
This is a great resource for teaching godly character.
5) Give them chores, and help them to develop life-skills, like learning to cook, or cleaning the house. This not only develops character, but will also help them in independent life later. For most homeschoolers, chores and lifeskills are part of normal life. It’s part of the homeschooling lifestyle. In our family, it’s part of our survival, lol! For school going kids, I’ve heard lots of parents mention that they don’t feel like giving them chores when they come back from school, or that they have too much homework. Well I guess no excuses this time! Though initially, time has to be invested in teaching or showing them how to do things, once they learn, it can be a real blessing for themselves as well as for us. So don’t pass on this golden opportunity! While choosing chores, take into account the physical ability, maturity and interest and rotate as needed, to keep the interest going.
6) Encourage to try out a new hobby. Try out different life-skills and handicrafts. Brainstorm for ideas and explore! A good thing nowadays is that there will most likely be a video course or online learning tool to help get started. You never know what will click and become their long term passion.
This page has a great list of life-skills and handicrafts!
7) Nature study– Although a full fledged nature walk may not be possible, they can still observe nature from the backyard. Hand the kids some binoculars, magnifying glasses, paper and pencils and have them draw what they observe, including leaves, trees, insects etc. Later have them research their finds and record them. Backyard birdwatching will be a great thing to do during spring. Just hang a bird feeder and put some seeds. Another great thing to do will be to grow caterpillars and observe them transform to butterflies. Nature Study is a great way to appreciate the beauty of God’s creation, and to sharpen observation skills.
8) Family time– Even though fun family time is more a reality with homeschoolers, it can sometimes get to the back burner with too much stuff going on. So I think this is a great time to reconnect with the kids. Family movie time, family game time, or even just sitting and talking over a lazy evening. These will become memories our kids will cherish!
Praying for all those affected by COVID 19, and for this pandemic to be over. At the same time, hoping that this time will spring forth blessings!