We’re in the midst of another lockdown, with schools closed and conventional exams cancelled, children all over the country are having to adapt to online learning and homeschooling. Although not ideal, there are some useful things mums can implement to ensure that both mums and children can get the most out of this time. Below are a few tips that you can use to facilitate this.
1. Routine
Encourage your children to approach home learning like they would approach a normal school day. This means going to bed and waking at a consistent time, changing out of pyjamas into clean clothes. Make sure there is a clearly defined start time and finishing time for work to be completed, clearly separating this will make it easier to prevent days merging into one another.
2. Work Space
With schools being closed your home now becomes the primary source of education for your child or possibly even yourself , with that being said, it’s important to treat it like the learning environment it is. Children need a clean and quiet space to be able to work. It’s important to separate work space from relaxation or recreation space. Do your best to eliminate distractions such as TVs or any other screens so they won’t be tempted to do other things.
It will also help the children (especially older ones) to be digitally organsied, with all the online classes taking place, there is going to be a lot of information and files, help your children to order them by subject and topic etc so they can easily find what they need and keep on top of their work.
3. Resources/ Keeping up with Work
Is their school providing online lessons? If you are currently homeschooling there are a number of resources that you can access, many of them being free to help with lessons. It’s important for mums not to put too much pressure on themselves and lower expectations. The global pandemic and lockdown means that children all over the world have had their teaching disrupted, so do your best and don’t be discouraged if they don’t get through as much content as they would being in school. Another option could be to get a head start on future work such as getting a head start on the 11-plus.
If you do need external support with learning and teaching another option could be to use a tuition service such as the one I run, we are able to provide online tutors and resources for all your homeschooling needs. If you would like anymore information my details are at the end of this article.
4. Breaking up the day
It’s essential that there is variety in the activities that your children are doing, you’ll need to mix things up to ensure they are not working all day, this will help their learning in the long run. Physical activity such as playing sports, going for a walk and even just simply stretching are all easy things you can implement. You can also include entertainment, watching a film, playing a game or doing something else as a family. These are all things that children can look forward to and work towards.
5. Learning new skills and passion projects
Academic work is not the only area that children should be familiar with, this lockdown provides an opportunity for your children to develop new hobbies and interests or even develop existing passions.
If you’re working from home you can include them in what you do, teach them what your job entails, let them sit in on a zoom call, if they’re able to they can even assist you on some tasks. You can also teach how to do things around the house, such as cooking, chores and DIY, other areas such as painting, horticulture, music etc can all be worked on during this time.
You can set projects around these kinds of topics and give them deadlines, these encourage independent learning skills to be developed that are transferable to many areas of life.
Final Thoughts
Even though this isn’t the first lockdown we’ve experienced, many of us are still not used to having the children at home for extended periods of time, but these lockdowns provide opportunities for learning and bonding during the day that are simply not possible under normal circumstances. Don’t be afraid to try new things and be kind to yourself and remember that progression is more important than perfection as we all try to navigate these uncertain times.
Samuel Adu-Gyamfi is the CEO and founder of Sam Tutoring, a tutoring service and consultancy in London he founded a decade ago.
Sam Tutoring provides private one to one tuition along with group and online tuition for families in Central London and internationally, as well as tailor made services for schools.
Working with students from the ages of 7-18 we provide academic support and mentorship.
Email info@samtutoring.london, to book a consultation or visit www.samtutoring.london to see how we can help your child succeed. Read more tips by Sam tutoring here.
