As more schools move to online classes, you might now find yourself juggling between home-schooling your child while working from home. This can be daunting especially if you have never done this before. This is new to many parents who are now stuck between work, caring for children, and ensuring that they are still learning effectively.
We have put together a few tips and tricks that you might find helpful to home-school your child:
1. Set up a learning space
A learning space for young children is a place where they can play safely. Unstructured, free play is the best way for young children to learn. If you have a backyard, let your child play and explore the natural environment. Nature play can reap many benefits such as problem-solving, risk assessment, and improved mental and physical health. Let their imagination run wild to fuel their creativity. You can be a part of your child’s unstructured play too, if you choose to, and if they want you to join!
Young children can also benefit from unstructured indoor play with toys. Toys such as building blocks and threading strings can not only fuel your child’s creativity but also improve their fine motor skills.
2. Create and keep to a routine
Children need structure and familiarity. Creating and keeping to a routine can help your child be more productive. Having a routine for young children can have long-term benefits — including increased skills and responsibilities, building healthy habits, and cultivating a sense of safety and belonging. Keep to the normal daily routine you might already have in place. If your child used to attend child-care, try as much as possible to follow the schedule typically set for your child. It will create a safe, normal, and healthy environment for your child to continue to learn through play.
3. Facilitate and support child-led learning
Child-led play is good because children learn best when they’re interested in an activity. When you follow your child’s lead, you can facilitate their learning by taking advantage of the things that interest them to help them learn something new or build on a skill. You can start by noticing what your child is doing or playing, and ask if you could join in. If they stop playing with their current toy and move on to another, move to the other toy with them.
4. Let your child get bored
If you’re working from home and can’t entertain your child 24/7, you might find that they can get a little bored. Instead of dropping your work to play with them, let your child work through it themselves. When your child can push through the boredom, it fuels their creativity and imaginative capacity and builds their problem-solving skills. They will learn the necessary skills needed to deal with slightly stressful situations while building on their independence and resilience.
Learning should be fun!
By encouraging your child to self-regulate their learning, you are allowing them to take ownership of their studies and gain independence. It is still important for you to ensure that they are progressing in their learning and hold them accountable.
But don’t forget that learning should be fun! You can encourage your child to draw, bake, paint, or go out to the garden. Take this opportunity to spend some time with your child — whether it is talking about school or playtime in the garden!
If you found these ideas helpful, head over to Piptree Kids to check out the full blog post with more tips and tricks to help your older children learn from home 🙂