Tips to Teach Our Kids From Home

Some helpful suggestions from one Hudson Valley teacher.

The coronavirus has affected us all in one way or another, places are closed, most people are working from home and schools are closed for the foreseeable future and trying to make everything work and flow has become a daily struggle for a lot of us.

Before we get into a few tips on schooling our kids from home, let's all take a few seconds and take a bunch of nice deep breaths! In through your nose, out through your mouth!!............!!

OK, now lets work on getting a school day together, thanks to Jolie, who is a teacher in Ulster County for sharing with us and please remember that this is more for elementary kids then high schoolers, as she said older kids can be pretty self sustaining. That doesn't mean don't check in on them and check their work, it means they have an idea of how to navigate through an at home school day better then younger kids.

The first thing she suggested was to set up a schedule. Pick a time to start the learning part of the day, lets say 9 a.m. and when "school" is set to start make sure you start the same time each day and end the same time as well.

Set aside a specific amount of time for each subject and be there to help guide your child through the work that their school has provided. Be there to try and explain any questions to the best of your ability. No need to try and replace a school teacher, just be there to help.

One point she said was super important was that you need to make sure you give your kids plenty of "fun" time during the school day. They need to get up and be active to burn off some energy by playing outside or just running around the house.

The last tip she said was to make sure that we as parents try to not stress our kids out with being right or wrong with a question or in trying to explain a problem to them. She said many teachers have set up Facebook groups to help parents explain some of the work that they have given to your child. A simple search on Facebook could really be helpful.

We hope these helped and just remember to take each day with optimism and SMILE!