Educating During Hard Times (Coronavirus edition)

It’s surreal to think that kids could be out of school for most of 2020. If your school closed at the end of March, as ours did, and they go back in September (which I doubt), that will be six months of no school!

And as many of you have heard, there is sincere doubt that the kids will return in September. If they go back in October or November, and with those months leading into the holidays, I literally cannot even think about how little they will accomplish. 

There were several times throughout my children’s lives when I had to take long breaks. In the first 18 years of our marriage, my husband and I moved 17 times! Moving can be all-consuming and so I had little energy for  homeschooling. I’ve also suffered episodes of depression and burn-out. But because I was responsible for their education, I had to force myself to make sure my kids were still learning. 

With your kids at home during this quarantine, you may very well be in a situation where not only are you concerned about their education but you have to find things for them to do since they can’t go out. So if you’re worried about their education and want to figure out how to fill their time while at home, read on!

In a nutshell, focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic.

The richest education has its foundation in the three Rs.

Reading

Have your kids read, read, and read some more. 

If you can only deal with one of the three Rs, reading would be the one. By being a proficient reader, your child can read to learn math and writing!

If they are not readers, start with audiobooks. There are many people who are auditory learners and do better by listening. The only downside with audiobooks is that it doesn’t give the reader the opportunity to pause and think about what they just heard. 

Visual reading will also allow them to absorb the author’s writing style and construction. Being able to absorb the writing of many authors will help your child become a better writer. 

Do not expect them to “just go read”. You will have to look for a wide range of high quality books, obtain them, and have them in your house, ready for your kids. Most kids have no idea what a good book is, nor do they have goals for their reading. Get them a pile of high quality books in a wide range of subjects and they are good to go. 

This post is my reading list for older elementary and middle school kids.

This is my reading list for high school kids. 

For the youngest kids, you can still have them read on their own, but I also suggest that you read to them. Enjoy your snuggling time while they’re little. Read a great book out loud to them and watch their minds work. This will also help to instill good reading habits in them as they grow older. 

I don’t want to oversimplify it because I know that a rich education is complex and covers many things, but for me reading is what saved my education. For kids who may not have access to excellent teachers or a quality education, reading can make all the difference. I’ve just always felt like if a person can read, they can figure out just about anything in life.

Writing

For writing, there are two options here. Journal writing with prompts or copying. 

For journal writing, have your kids write one page each day. For those that really don’t want to , just require a 6-8 sentence paragraph. 

You can have them write about whatever they want each day. They can journal what they did that day, specifics about what they ate, or maybe the range of feelings and emotions they experienced that day.

You can do journal prompts. There are so many online, if you google it, you can get hundreds. 

You can either just give your child the prompts and let them pick which prompt to work on that day or you could go through the prompts and pick out the ones that you think your child would like the most.

For younger kids or kids who really hate writing, have them copy. Pick out a high-quality book by an author whose writing your child enjoys and each day just have them copy a page length of the book.

Arithmetic

Math supplementation is more difficult for me to speak on because kids are literally all over the place with their math education. District to district, state to state, curriculum varies. Kids are taught differently too. Some of the things I’ve seen in school textbooks, I honestly can’t understand. So, I feel like if the child is going to eventually return to the school, their math education should follow their curriculum so they don’t get confused. 

But, how I would reinforce math is to just do drills in the elementary grades. Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Do so many drills, that your child just instantly spits out the answer. Having this instantaneous recall will help them be faster when it comes to higher level math. It will save them so much time. 

You can also buy those large workbooks meant for supplementation from Amazon or any bookstore. In the summer, even Costco sells some.

For the older kids, if your child has a working knowledge of Algebra, I would have them start SAT/ACT prep. Buy them the study guides and have them spend 30 minutes a day on it. Let them get familiar with the format and what it looks like. You could also sign them up for a practice test online. Even if they have not covered the material in school, by getting them familiar with it in a low pressure setting can help to alleviate test anxiety and stress. 

If none of this type of arithmetic work appeals to you or your child, quarantine would be a great time to teach your child financial education. Most kids do not learn anything about money in school. 

How checking and savings accounts work, how to balance a checkbook, how to budget, how to invest, how loans and interest rates work. If you personally have some time on your hands, now would be a great time to discuss and plan out college and its accompanying costs with your child. 

I hope you have found this post useful. Let me know if you have any questions.

Ruth