I am totally new to home schooling. Like most parents, I became my 5-year-old daughter’s new teacher overnight when schools around the world were closed in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. Over the past 6 weeks, I’ve tried to embrace this new role and although I have mostly fumbled my way through each day, I am slowly becoming more comfortable and better at teaching from home.
Below are 8 tips that helped me get started with home schooling. I also included a few of my favorite activities and some links to helpful online resources. My daughter is 5 years old and she is in kindergarten at the Hermosa Valley School in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica. She is learning how to do basic math, reading, and she is starting to write simple sentences.
Find a Focus
When I was first thrown into home schooling, I took a few days to really think about what I wanted to teach my daughter. I recommend that every new-to-home-schooling parent do this because it gave me focus and direction. For my daughter, I decided that I wanted to focus on basic math (counting and simple addition/subtraction), reading (phonics and sight words), and writing (simple sentences). I also decided that I would spend 15-30 minutes per day on each of the above activities. The rest of our days would be filled with free play, art, science experiments, and reading.
Plan (a little every day)
When I wake up in the morning and am having my morning coffee, I jot down 3-4 activities that we are going to do. I am a big supporter of learning through play and I think it is important to follow your child’s lead and interests. However, I do find that planning a little really helps me to move from one activity to another when my daughter gets bored or wants a change of pace.
Choose themes
I try to think of one topic that we will talk about each week. It can be anything at all that you think might be interesting for your child. For example, if you love to travel, try taking out a map and choosing a country to talk about with your child. Or, if your child is interested in space, you can talk about the moon and the sun. I like this as it fills in some gaps and makes the day more interesting. You can talk about the subject, watch videos about it, draw pictures of it, write stories about it, and so much more.
Teach what you love
If you love to garden, start a garden with your child. If you love to cook, teach your child how to make some simple meals. Kids are sponges and they really just want to be involved with you. If you teach your child what you love, you will be surprised at how quickly they pick it up and how much you enjoy teaching it to them.
Google it
Everything you need is out there and at your fingertips. Spend some time doing some research and finding the websites or tools that you like. Pinterest is a great website where there are a lot of parents and teachers sharing their ideas.
Get Outside
Go outside and run around a few times a day with your child. Kids need exercise and this outside playtime will really help to keep your child focused when it is time to learn.
Find Balance
Just because you are homeschooling now, doesn’t mean that you have to teach all day long. I think it is important to dedicate time to teaching your child however, it is also important to not forget about yourself. Take breaks, share with your partner, and if you are still working, do some work. I teach my daughter in the mornings. She spends the afternoons with her dad and I work. Having this balance has been very important to my mental health as we move forward through this COVID-19 crisis.
Be willing to adapt & have fun
I don’t worry too much if one day my daughter doesn’t want to play any of the activities that I have planned. Some days are good and some days aren’t. That’s ok. At the end of even the hard weeks, I’m always impressed by how much she has advanced and learned.
Fun Activities
My daughter has a few favorite activities that we play together all the time. Probably her all-time favorite is ice cream shop. We set up a shop together and she gets to be the ice cream man. We made some play money together that I use it to purchase her ice cream. I love this game because it is so much fun for my daughter yet at the same time, she is practicing basic math by figuring out how much is my purchase and how much change she has to give back to me. We also play a lot of treasure hunts together. You can make a treasure hunt to practice almost anything with young children. We hide and find sight words, numbers, letters, etc. Each time my daughter finds a card, she has to read what is on that card. Bingo, Memory, and Go Fish are other games that we often play. I also really like to use dominos, dice, and playing cards to practice simple math.
Helpful Links
Scholastic Learn At Home https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html
This website is amazing. Every week, they put out five activities for different age levels that are based around five different themes. Each day consists of two video books and an activity. We tend to do one activity per day. My daughter loves them and we tend to talk about what we learned about from the book/videos all day.
Young Mathematicians
http://youngmathematicians.edc.org
This is website has some great math games for kids 6 and under.
Science Experiments
https://mommypoppins.com/kids/50-easy-science-experiments-for-kids-fun-educational-activities-using-household-stuff
This article has 63 easy science experiments you can do with kids at home.
Cosmic Yoga
https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga
If you need a break or just want to do something fun with the kids, Cosmic Yoga is great. The instructor invents a story around a theme to do yoga to. My daughter loves it. Some times she does it alone and with her little sister if I just need a break or am cooking lunch. Sometimes I do it with her.
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