10 Tips for Distance Learning

Well, let’s just dive right in to the good stuff, huh? If you are new here, welcome! Spoiler alert, you are all new here! This is the very first post on the blog that I have been willing myself to start for the last several months. What better time than a pandemic? #thatenneagram3life

If you are coming back later to read this and get tips (side note: I hope you don’t need these tips later because that means there is another pandemic happening) then welcome to you as well.

Anyway, I see that you need HELP. We are all desperate for any nuggets of wisdom that can be found for dealing with all of this *gestures around at everything*

If you are feeling anything like me, you never (and I mean NEVER) intended on being a “homeschooling mom”. And yet, here we are. And here we aren’t. Because this isn’t really a true home school situation. This is more of a “co-teaching, e-learning, do something to distract everyone in the house from the impending doom” kind of learning environment. Not ideal, man!

But it is possible to muddle through this entirely new situation with some kind of grace and normalcy and happiness for the people in your house amidst this crazy. As a mom and former teacher, I need lots of grace and normalcy, that’s for sure.

So, if you want to find that as well, read on!

  1. Give your children’s school teacher(s) lots of extra praise. No, I don’t mean you, although we will get to your part later. I mean the teacher they’ve had at school all year. They never get enough of recognition in general, and they REALLY need it now. You aren’t bothering them by sending them an email with encouragement or a picture your child drew that they wanted to share. Send away. Try to overpower all the crazy parents that think now is the time to give their child’s teacher a hard time. Which, P.S. if you are that parent, STAHP. Teachers had about 5 minute notice to suddenly make sure their students learn without being in class the rest of the school year. Luckily, teachers are experts at shifting and rearranging while keeping learning going. They are fantastic at making this happen one way or another. Let them WORK and do what they are good at. And let them know you appreciate it.
  2. Remember it isn’t homeschooling, it is distance learning during a crisis. This isn’t really how homeschooling is meant to go, from what I can tell. We are the proxy for our teachers. We are counselors helping our children deal with grief over the loss of their normal schedule, friends, teachers, activities, social calendar, and more. And we are still also expected to continue working from home or whatever else we were busy doing before this all went to hell.
  3. Take time to plan in advance. As soon as you know what your child is expected to do for school, plan out the order of things. A good rule of thumb is that children can typically do focused activity for one minute for every year old they are. A 20-minute lesson doesn’t sound long, but it is basically WAY TOO LONG for anyone except a senior in high school, and even then, it is still a few minutes too long. Mix up the activities as well. Something where they move (like rolling a dice) and then a worksheet or reading. Then do the next lesson in another room. Go back and forth between being still and moving. The more you switch it up, the less time they have to get bored or rude. Have more activities to do than you need. They will finish way faster than you expect them to. If it is all done for the day in an hour, that is OKAY. A 7 year old just did 60 minutes of school with no break. That is a long time.
  4. Add learning stuff that you always wanted your kids to grasp. Speaking of finishing early…here is your prime opportunity to mix in things you always wanted to teach your kids (but who ever has the time)? Your incentive is that once they know how to do it (laundry, dishes, clean out the car, wipe the counters, the list is endless), that can become their responsibility and you can allocate that task to them! Or want to do a lesson they can’t or won’t do in school? Now you can! This is an opportunity to really deep dive into your religion of choice or your favorite artist or your favorite music genre. Share your passions!
  5. Change the calendar and times to work for you. Do you need time in the morning to wake up and you want to get in a workout before communicating with children? You can do that! You can do your schooling at 6 PM if you want. You can do 30 minutes here and 30 minutes there. You can do it during your baby’s nap time. You can do it on your patio. You can do it in bed. You can take Fridays off. You can skip Wednesday mornings. If your child needs to be on Zoom at X time each day, that means you still have control over the other 23 hours.
  1. Gather what you need and want. Look around your home for manipulatives that can be used for learning. Dominos and playing cards are GREAT for math. Find all your unicorn books and glittery craft kits collecting dust and have unicorn day. Order Minecraft workbooks from the internet or download resources from Teachers Pay Teachers. Buy a printer if you want to print things.
  2. Be prepared to pivot. If your kid suddenly bristles and has clearly hit some kind of block, just move on to something else. You may have to swing back to it later, but if it isn’t mandatory or due immediately, you can just eliminate it for the day. That’s the magic of planning more activities than you need as discussed in tip #3.
  3. You know your kid best. Don’t forget that you are the absolute expert at connecting with your kids! You know what they like and what won’t work at all. Make it something they will enjoy or plan incentives for cooperation. We do a chart that my daughter checks off and when it is full she can order whatever she wants from Amazon.
  4. Consistency is KEY (KEYYYYYYYY). Okay, so if you do nothing else, these last two tips are of vital importance. Be consistent with your kids. That doesn’t mean a perfect timed schedule if that doesn’t work, but give your kids some structure, whatever that means for your family. They need it. You need it. If everyone is on the same page, everyone ends up encouraging each other to get it all done.
  5. Be ENTHUSIASTIC. You would be SHOCKED how much of a difference it makes simply to be enthusiastic. Read books to your kids with vigor. Do anything to show you kids that you are excited to do this with them (fake it till you make it if you gotta, I certainly do). It makes everything go so much more smoothly if you are goofy and happy and clearly present. I’m not saying that is easy, but it makes everything else easier, so it is worth it.

However this is going for you so far, know that you are doing a WONDERFUL job. I am proud of you. Your kids are proud of you. All the good things you are doing for yourself right now is another lesson for your kids. They see and learn all the time.

So, I hope that helps! Thanks for watching, subscribe, and hit the bell notification so you know anytime I post a new video. You Tube has a weird algorithm where my new videos don’t always show up in your feed.

Wait, that’s not right. Comment below with any tips I missed! What has worked for you so far? Thanks for reading and go forth as a master school-at-home-but-not-home-schooling-mama!