5 Strategies to Help You Teach Your Child via Remote Learning
Weekly check in time! How is everyone doing? This week has brought countless changes, and for most of us, a little (or a lot!) of added stress as we adjust to this new “normal.” We are right there with you, and we are figuring it out with our own families too! As schools move forward with plans to implement remote learning, we are getting daily questions from parents, such as:
- How do I support my child with ADHD when they are not motivated to work at home?
- What is the best way to balance my adult responsibilities (working from home, taking care of other children, managing all of this stress) along with making sure my child doesn’t fall behind academically?
- How will my child’s needs be met if they are on a 504 plan or an IEP?
While we have no expertise in pandemic management, we do know a lot about child development, the parent-child relationship, and special education needs and resources. In trying to think about how we can support you during this time, we decided to bring together a few ideas to help you with remote learning over the next weeks…or months.
- Give yourself grace! Breathe, mama. We CAN do this! These are unprecedented times, and therefore there is no road map that we have to follow. To be honest, right now we are all in survival mode. It’s been enough to just manage work schedules, business and therapy decisions, and giving our kids enough activities/screen time to minimize the fighting and yelling. In the book “Girl Wash Your Face,” Rachel Hollis says a new mom’s goals should be: “1) Take care of your baby. 2) Take care of yourself.” These days, we should all consider it a win if we took care of our kids and took care of ourselves. We might not get as much work done as we wanted, clean, do laundry, or do all of the perfect, Pinterest-worthy activities with our kids. We might not get through all of the schoolwork that was assigned (or any at all for that matter!). And we might have some serious anger towards our kids and husbands throughout the day. And you know, that is OK. Right now, the safety of our family is the number one priority, not school.
- Give everyone some space – literally! Before you start working on assignments at home, set up a small space for your child to work. This DOES NOT need to be a separate room (no, your child does not need a home office!) However, children do best when they have consistency. Choose a spot (maybe a specific chair at the kitchen table or counter), and that can become the “homework spot.” It can also be helpful to think about what materials will be needed. For example, you and your child can collect pens, pencils, erasers, scissors, and crayons, and put them in a cup so that they are easily accessible during homework time.
- Be realistic. If your child was on an IEP or a 504 plan, then they will likely need accommodations and/or modifications to the work they are assigned. Schools are just now starting to assign work, and it is unclear how individualized the work will be for students who are on IEPs. The bright side to homeschooling students with ADHD or learning/language disorders is that you can accommodate them at home in a way that most general education teachers in a class of 30 students cannot. If your child is overwhelmed by the sheer amount of questions, then reduce them. If your child is expected to write a paragraph and is totally overwhelmed, just do a sentence. If you have read for 15 minutes but haven’t come close to finishing the reading assigned, feel free to stop. If your child wants to dictate sentences to you while doing headstands, go for it. These tasks take so much effort for our kids, so feel free to minimize the workload or change the task to make it more fun and less stressful. The last thing any of us need right now is extra stress!
Right now, it is not entirely clear how students with IEP’s will be served if schools are canceled for an extended period of time. None of us know exactly how long school will be closed. But, take heart that many states appear to be planning digital instruction for students, including students with IEPs. Additionally, speech and occupational therapy services can often be provided via teletherapy. This may take some time. Continue to talk to your school to discuss how your child’s needs will be met at home and how you can best support the process.
- Be strategic: I (Lori) just received a packet of work for my daughter to complete starting this week. I know she is fresh and I can accomplish things much faster with her in the morning than I can in the evening. In the evening, she is tired, grumpy, and often has meltdowns over minor issues with schoolwork. In the morning, she is just a happier kid. So tomorrow, I am planning to get her started with her work at 8:00 am. However, depending on how long it takes, I might break it up into smaller chunks of work throughout the day. Again, this is the nice thing about homeschooling! I also plan to use a rewards system at home for completing her work.
For our kids with ADHD or learning/language disorders, motivation and frustration can become significant issues and challenges in completing work. If this is the case, please check out our Free Homework Helper Guide. It provides you with tips and strategies to ease the challenges and frustration that come with doing schoolwork at home. We strongly recommend having a clear and established reward system and expectations BEFORE you start on any work with your child. Work together on creating the system, so you know your child has buy-in and is motivated. Remember, doing schoolwork is hard and takes a lot of effort. So reduce, chunk tasks, and provide LOTS of praise and rewards. And if your child (or you) are just having a bad day and the stress/frustration is too much, know that it is ok to take a break, or stop altogether for the day.
- Celebrate your child’s strengths: Does your child love nature and being outdoors? Go for a long walk and see what they can collect (sticks, leaves, stones). For children who excel in music and creativity, let them flourish as they make art projects. If your child is athletic, or just needs a lot of movement to stay regulated, set up obstacle courses, do yoga, add jumping jacks into the morning routine, or find an online workout you can do together. School can take a backseat for this time, it really will be ok. Please, make sure that you are helping your child do something every day that makes them (and you!) feel good.
We know that many of you are suffering right now from loss over jobs, freedom, family, and friends. We are thinking about each and every one of you in our sweet community. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help (with the exception of giving you toilet paper, hand sanitizer, or Lysol wipes... those are hard to find!).
Take care and be safe!
