To manage your Child’s education during lockdowns

Like it or not, lockdowns are here to stay.  One of the most frustrating things about them is the interruption to our children’s precious education. Trying to juggle remote working, managing a household AND being a ‘teacher/parent’ can leave even the most organised person feeling frazzled and overwhelmed. Luckily, help is at hand! Here are the 4 top tips for making sure your child keeps learning and growing, even when the school gates are shut!

1. Don’t Panic! (or: Having realistic expectations.)

It is important to set realistic goals for yourself and your children during lockdowns, especially when it comes to learning. In 2020, some schools in the UK and elsewhere were still attempting to do a full school day (around 6 hours) of learning, but remotely. This is doomed to failure! Education best practice suggests that children up to the age of 12 can manage a maximum of 3 hours of direct instruction in any one day. This is especially true in the digital world, where ‘screentime’ can inadvertently shorten the attention span of even the most engaged students. Cover your basics (Reading, Writing, Math) and then, let the children play! Keeping wellbeing and happiness at the forefront is the best bet for lockdown periods, the uncertainty of which can often unsettle children more than their parents. 

2. Chunk! (or: Q: How do you eat an Elephant?)

A: One piece at a time!

It’s important to break your child’s lockdown learning down into manageable ‘chunks.’ 1 hour each for the core subjects of Maths, Reading and Writing is more than sufficient, and ensures your child will not get ‘burnt out’ at the first hurdle. Adapting to the changed environment takes time, some children will be very easily distracted by things around the house (TV, their toys, their siblings!) so give them a chance to acclimatise to the home schooling environment. Trying to get your kids to do hours and hours of work straight away probably won’t work and frequent breaks will be necessary at first. 

3. Timing is everything!

It’s important to keep your children in a regular routine, even when everything is chaotic. Lockdowns, by their very nature, are impromptu, and are often implemented with very little warning. While it might be tempting to start sleeping in until 10.00am every day, getting the children up every day (at the same time they would if they were attending school) will pay huge dividends in the long run, especially if you are suddenly told you can return to normal! Far better to give them a nap in the afternoon, if necessary, than have them staying up until 10.00pm and sleeping in the next day. While it might feel onerous to do this, it will actually help your children manage their anxiety in this challenging situation. Your attitude can be one of “This is just a minor blip, pretty soon, you’ll be back at school!” 

4. Everything is learning!

While one child will seamlessly adapt to the change in learning routine brought about by lockdowns, another will really struggle. Anecdotal evidence suggests that if you have more than one child, you’ll probably get one of each! Managing this difference in learning styles can be a real challenge for parents, and will give you a new appreciation of the daily struggles of their classroom teacher! In this scenario, it is important to realise that everything is learning.  My sister (who lives in London) was really struggling with the scenario I detailed in the introduction to this article: trying to juggle working from home while also keeping two small children engaged with their learning during almost 18 months of school closures. As you can imagine, majorly stressed!. Her primary school age daughter had no problem completing the tasks set by the school, and working quietly. Her preschool son? Not so much! Although it is not very fashionable to say: Boys and girls, generally speaking, do have different learning styles. As soon as my sister gave her son a physical task to do, he was happily folding clothes, towels, napkins , anything he could get his hands on, for the rest of the day! 

SO , THERE YOU GO, 4 top tips to help you manage the ever changing world of school lockdowns. Hopefully this post will help you realise that whatever you do for your child during their lockdown education, that the key is enjoy, as much as possible, the special gift of extra time with your kids. And if you need help with lesson plans and things for them to do, don’t hesitate to visit us at www.caseyonlinelearning.com for more help!