We are living in uncertain times due to the coronavirus
pandemic. The world is going into lockdown to try to prevent the spread of the
virus. Schools are closing and that means that many parents are having to think
about homeschooling their children for the first time.
I look on social media and I see many parents panicking
about how to teach their children at home. They worry that they will not be
able to teach their children and that their children will be missing out on
their education. Well, as a homeschooling mother, let me reassure you that you
do NOT have to replicate school at home. Here’s why:
You do not need to do school work for 6 hours a day
What many people do not realise about homeschooling is that
homeschooled children do not spend six hours a day sat working at a desk. The
thing is, when you homeschool, things get done a lot quicker than they would do
in school. This is because there are less children and, therefore, less distractions.
Also, the children have more one-to-one attention. The parent can spend more
time working with each child than a teacher would do at school. Just think, in
a one hour lesson at school, the teacher may spend 10-15 minutes introducing
the lesson and 10 minutes at the end rounding it up or clearing up the activity.
That only leaves around 35 minutes for the children to complete the lesson. If
there are 30 children in a class the teacher can only spend about one minute
with each child. Homeschooled children get much more individual attention and
can, therefore, complete work in less time.
We normally spend 2.5-3 hours each morning doing school work
and a 20 minute break is included in this. We start off with morning time where
I read picture books to the younger ones and then a chapter from our readaloud
to the older ones. We also recite ayahs or surahs from the Quran during this
time. We end morning time with some discussions about language. I often pick a
sentence from a favourite book to discuss and we spend a bit of time playing
with the language.
Next, we cover maths and English, the latter in the form of
copywork. We then have our morning break. During break time we do composer
study and sing a folk song. After our break, we do our language lessons. At the
moment we are learning Turkish and French. Then we get into our main lesson for
the day which could be a history or science-based topic, or nature study. Above
all, make learning fun and don’t spend too much time looking at the clock
worrying that you should be spending more time on something. Shorter lessons
work better for a lot of children.
Learning happens anytime, anywhere
The main advice I would give to parents who have been
affected by school closures during this time is to forget the textbooks and
spelling tests. Learning can happen in the simplest, everyday tasks. You do not
need to try to follow a school timetable or fully schedule your days. Take a
few minutes to think about the skills your children will learn by going about
their daily lives.
Baking is a great activity that leads to so much learning.
Mathematics skills needed to measure out ingredients and English skills are needed
to read the recipe. You can read more about how children learn through baking
HERE. Gardening is another great life skill. Growing your own vegetables, learning
the science behind how plants grow or designing your own vegetable or flower
patch are all excellent learning opportunities. Reading good books will lead to
interesting discussions where you can explore language and ideas and it may
inspire your children to write their own stories or create a play or puppet
show based on the narrative. These kind of activities will reduce the pressure
on you because you will know that your children are still learning even without
sitting at a desk.
Use this opportunity
as a chance to connect
When your children attend school for six hours a day, five
days a week, they are spending a lot of time away from you. Therefore, cherish
this time you have together by using it as a chance to connect through having
fun, not fighting over algebra. I know the government place a lot of emphasis
on how much children will miss out on by not attending school for a week or
two, but the truth is they won’t be missing out any more than any other child
in the same position. All children are off school so all children will be
missing the same things. Therefore, the schools will simply have to suspend learning
and continue from where they left off once school reopen.
Usually, when children come out of school to homeschool we
say that they should undergo a period of deschooling. This refers to a period
of time when they do not do any formal work and they just relax and settle into
life at home. The period of time for deschooling is said to be one month per
year that they have been at school. So if a child has been at school for three
years, they should deschool for three months. It may surprise you that children
are going for such lengths of time without formal learning but, as I mentioned
above, almost every daily activity includes opportunities to learn.
At this time of global panic and hardship, let’s try to
remember what is important: our health and our relationships. Let’s do what we
can to nurture these things. Forget about the school work and focus on connecting
with loved ones. Nothing is more important than that.
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