We've had a lot of requests coming from the involuntary homeschoolers
Association. Didn't plan on homeschooling? Here's what you can do. -Like many of you
suddenly we're tasked with doing home schooling. You know, I'm a speech-language
pathologist and I usually teach children right in person. And I'm suddenly tasked
with doing this remotely just like you are tasked with completing your child's
education for the school year, remotely. So, one of the things we want to do is to
focus on what you can do. Because obviously, you can't give them the exact
same experience that they had while they're in school. -Well, this is true. And
homeschooling is not the same as school at home. In other words, you don't have to
bring every experience and everything that the kids were experiencing in the
classroom to your home. This is a different environment. And your point is
so good, Vicki that you you focus on what you can teach, not what you can't. If you're
not a calculus specialist, probably you're not going to try to take that on
with your kids either. You have skill sets and knowledge that you can use.
Let's focus on that. Vicki, as you've been working with parents who are doing this
now, have you noticed that right at first, there's a lot of energy, there's a lot of,
"Okay, I can do this", right? And you jump in with both feet and enthusiasm. And then it started
to drain. Expect the brain drain. -You know it reminds me a little bit of when our
first son was born and I was like, "Oh, he's going to be clean. He's going to be neat.
He's not going to have dirt everywhere." And then... You know, you walk out there and
he's got 2 rocks in his mouth and mud is dribbling. I'm like...
We really do so much. So, you expect it to kind of come down off the high. -And
reality will set in, okay? So, be ready for that expected plan for it. And let's just
give each other a little bit of permission here to be human and to
settle into whatever that new normal is going to be for us. -This next point is
super important in my opinion. Because I see a lot of people saying, "You know, we
have no... There's no beginning and end to my day now. There's just constant go, go,
go, go." And so, I think it is important to get a schedule. Now, whatever that
schedule is, you don't have to have it be the same schedule as it was when your
kids were going to a brick and mortar school. But do have a schedule. Do have a
routine. Get up, get dressed. I see a lot of people say "I save so much on
makeup. I haven't even been.." So, keep a routine going. Set a schedule, make
a clear start and stop. But then be flexible. Because things are going to happen. -This
will help the kids. It's also going to contribute to your own mental health.
Because like you were saying, Vicki, everything can kind of get mushed
together. It used to be... Okay, we get up, dad goes to work, kids go to school. You
know, there's kind of a marker for different limits. And you can do the same
thing right now. It'll have to be a little more intentional. So, you might put
up a schedule, post it on the wall. So that everybody knows. Okay, from 9 o'clock
to 11 o'clock is academic time without technology. -Right. Other than what you're
being used for the school. -Well... And my point is you can break it up
this way so that the non technology academic time, it happens at a certain
time of the day. And then the technology assisted academic time happens. It's a
different time of the day. So, there's a bit of a flow to it. Now, the other point
here was to be flexible. Why is that so important? -Because everything is so
different and changing all the time. And you know, I work in the schools. We're
flexible in the schools too. Sometimes all the sudden you have there's a field
trip or there's a an assembly or you find out that a particular subject that
you thought was going to go one way, it didn't go. And so, you go in you take a
break. You go to recess, you come back, you reset and you start it again. -One more
thought about the schedule before we move to our next point. Have an end.
Have an end. The school day ends at some point. And for everybody to
anticipate that is going to help you be more productive during the school time.
-Yeah. Don't wait for when everything is done to be your end time. -Oh, when is it
ever all done? -Yeah. Set, a time. -Remember, there are a lot of families doing this
right now. It's not just you. So, talk to other
families. You'll get ideas that you hadn't even thought of from a mom down
the street or across the country or on the other side of the planet. That's one
of the things that I love about this particular situation, Vicki is because
we have a community of brilliant people who are creative and they're coming up
with some solutions that are working for them. So, look for what's working and be
open to some suggestions. Look for what other people are doing. -And that includes
your classroom teacher. You know, speaking from the teacher sides, we really want to
be involved. We're used to hands-on and it's kind of taken a very different
route. And so if you can you ask the teacher, they have some good ideas too on
how to reach different types of learners. So, ask them. Now, there is a warning with
this asking other people and seeing what other people are doing.
Be very, very careful about comparing yourself and how your
experience is going with that of someone else's. The very first week of all of
this... So, within speech therapy, we're a
therapist in the school but there's also a portion of therapists there what are
called teletherapist. And they do all their therapy via
teletherapy. They do it with video. There are some very strict regulations that go
along with that in order for it to be billable to insurance companies or
stuff. And as soon as all of this came down, suddenly, we all thought of
ourselves as suddenly teletherapist. Well, we're not. School-based therapists
trying to do remote learning. And I think it's really important. At the first week,
I was reading everything about teletherapist
and I was online and everybody was bringing up all these compliance issues.
And I got so overwhelmed that I literally kind of shut down after about
3 days and I I couldn't function very well in my job at all. And I think
it's really important to recognize that you're not to compare yourself. Maybe
there's a lot of moms out there who have chosen to educate
their children through homeschooling. -Right. -And that's... They've got a lot of
great ideas. But remember that they're at a very they're homeschooling parents.
You're not really a homeschooling parent as much as a parent whose child is now
tasked with learning remotely. And so, I think you got to be very, very careful
not to compare yourself too much to everybody else online. -The way you're
doing it is fine. Can it improve? Well, yeah.
When will that stop being true? So, look for those other ideas but be very, very
careful about judging yourself or your situation too harshly. You're doing a
good job. And then we can incorporate those new ideas as it makes sense.
There's people that are better than some things than others. I was talking to a
dad just a few days ago who said, "You know what? I was first trying to do this
school at home." And remember we pointed out early on this is not school at home.
This is home-school. Maybe there's a difference there.
And when when it shifted in his mind to "Wait a minute.
I don't have to be the school at our house. I need to tune in to what my kids
need to or want to learn right now. And how I can uniquely address that need." And
this is something that we don't always think about. One of the problems I think
inherent in the public school system is that it's one plan for all the kids.
-Very task-based. -Yes. And it's kind of a one-size-fits-all. Now, we try to do some
individualized plans for kids. -Very well. Many, many teachers are very good at that.
-Yes. But for the most part, the system is kind of geared toward the masses. You
don't have to do this at home. You can be very, very specific and customized for
your child. So, it would be a great idea to just get
some of their ideas. What do you want to learn about? And what if your child says,
"I want to learn about the stars or dinosaurs." Or they'll probably come up
with some things like this, right? Why not? This is a great opportunity for you guys
to delve into that together and get their input about it... -To really foster love for
learning. Now is a great time to foster love for learning. And honestly if if we
could really have that be our focus, then all of the knowledge will come
eventually. The different aspects and the formulas and the information you can
get. I mean think about it what history class. More history classes are wasted on
the highschoolers than... As an adult, I would love to...
But as a high school student, it was just to learn that or just to get through the
test. So, instill I a love of learning. -Yes, learn how to learn right now. That'll be
great. You know, Vicki? There are so many opportunities on a daily basis to learn
things from the things that we're doing anyway. -Right. -Like cooking
for example. You know how sometimes you just kind of shoe the kids out while you
fix dinner. Why not have this because a culinary class? -Yeah. And you could
do a lot of things with time. You could do a lot of things with math. You could
do quite a few different things spatial relationships. Lots of different things
that you could address. Could even throw in a few vocabulary words. -Learn as you
go. Taking a walk, exploring the backyard. Simple things like this can be rich with
learning activities. And another thing that you might have noticed is that
you've still got to do your thing. -Yeah. -In addition to assisting your kids right
now, you're still doing your thing. -A lot of you are working remotely from home
too. And so, I've thought a lot about this with all of the teachers who are now
teaching remotely who also had children at home who they are trying to
facilitate their education. -Right. -And so, you do need to do your own thing
as well. And remember that the number of hours that they were in the school are
not the same number of hours that they need to be doing schoolwork at home.
-Right. That all gets to be flexible. -So, use the activities you already have to
do. -And consider this for a minute: What in your work or your typical activities
for the day things you need to get done, what could be used or multi-purposed for
helping your kids to learn something? You might just say, "Hey, watch while I do this
for a little bit." And then let's talk about what you learned from it. That's
just an idea. Use whatever it is that's already going on in the home as an
opportunity to learn. I think one of the pressures that we all face is the social
expectation that we somehow need to keep up or catch up. Because the kids aren't
going to the to the school right now, it might feel like, "Well, I have to make sure
that they get through all of this material or catch up from what they've
missed." No. Let's just remove that expectation, can we? Have you seen that as
well? -Yeah, yes. Definitely. And it is tricky. You want to do the best you can
and you want to expose them to the things the teachers have thought this
through. And most teachers have made a list of
the absolute essentials. See if you can hit those. But don't worry about catching
up to everything. -Right. No keeping up, no
catching up. Let's do what we can with what we've got. And like we've said some
times on this channel --"When you know better, do better." Keep learning, keep your
eyes open, share some ideas with each other. There's lots of challenges that
you're up against right now. We've got lots of resources. I don't know if you
were aware that we're providing programs and coaching and groups for parents like
you. Jump on over to drPauljenkins.com where you can get a free copy of
my book and you can find out more about those other resources that are available
to you.