At Home Learning Space
Set a space for successful home study. Have your child help find the solutions for each of these questions. They can also be responsible for setting up the space, with help and guidance from you.
- Where can your child sit and work?
- Are there papers, pens, pencils, scissors, and creative materials.organized with a place to be.
- Have a clock so the child can work toward managing their time.
- Do they have a list of work from their teacher to work on remotely?
- Can they chart how much time they guess each activity might take?
- Where do they put their finished work?
- What can they use to find answers to their questions? Do you have dictionaries, or books they can use? What are the guidelines to their using computers for their work?
- Note: if the space is not set up yet, involve your child in the process, it is their work environment, let them take the lead!
At the end of each work time, remind the child to put away their things to prevent the buildup of clutter.
Explore the questions they are working on, without answering. Engage their problem solving/ reasoning skills, stretching their imagination, providing support, modeling inquiry and gathering data.
Chores:
- Make a list of the chores that all of the family needs to accomplish. Divide the work based on interest and ability. . . what might be someone’s least favorite’s chore might actually be one that another member of the family enjoys. Win win!
- Make the chores fun. Folding clothes to music? Who can fold all of their clothes and put them away the fastest? The winner gets to pick dinner. Or the next activity.
- Do chores together. We are social creatures, doing things together make them better. It also helps children learn how to do their chores with more precision.
- It is better that it is done not your way, than you doing it all!
- Make it a game. Time yourself, or each other with a stopwatch. Record the time and see if next time you can beat your last time. Remember to avoid doing this if your child struggles with anxiety.
Kitchen:
- Can your children make their own snacks and get water by themselves? Set up a snack option they can access until the next meal time, and consider a pitcher filled with water or water bottles since hydration is critical for staying healthy. That way, you will not have to interrupt your work because they got hungry or thirsty. You can have a container in the refrigerator with some pre-sliced fruits and vegetables your children can eat at their designated snack time.
- Set the menus with your children, then each person can choose which meal they can help make. A preschooler can be responsible for cereal in the morning or peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, while an older child can make more sophisticated recipes (see our recipe lists, coming soon).
Notice what your children are repeatedly asking for your help with. Is there a way they can be more independent with it? If you have more than one child, can they get help from their sibling?
Check in at the end of the day to see what is working, and what might be improved upon tomorrow along with some ideas for solutions.
_
