Strategies for Teaching Your Kids at Home

Across the country, schools have shut down to help prevent the spread of coronavirus, and as a result, many parents have become worried about how they can continue their child’s education. With this current crisis bringing uncertainty into many homes, parents may feel overwhelmed as they try to manage their roles as family providers and caretakers, and now, as substitute teachers. It will not be an easy task; however, parents can rest assured knowing there are teaching strategies and resources for them to rely on during these unsettling times.

Create a schedule

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from working with children, it’s that children thrive in a structured environment. Parents, therefore, should plan their children’s academic schedule, especially when working with children ages 5 through 10 who don’t have a strict academic calendar assigned for their remote learning. Start by designating a place where the child can sit and do the work, then begin the learning session with an activity that can get the child’s brain going. Writing short responses and/or working on math drills, for instance, can be great brain exercises to start the day. Plan and adopt a schedule because when children know what to expect, they develop a sense of security that makes it easier for them to focus and for the authority figure to delegate tasks.

Additionally, there’s an added net positive to having children work within a structure at home: Parents can get their work done, too. While the child is practicing his or her narrative writing for 30–45 minutes, parents can make that important conference call or fill out paperwork without having to worry about constant interruptions.

Use reinforcements

One of the common concerns about teaching children is how to get them to focus, and while having a schedule to follow can help children stay on task, there’s also another way to ensure their productivity: using positive reinforcements.

My elementary school kids know by now that positive behavior produces positive results, and negative behavior leads to negative consequences — even if they’re not aware of the term “reinforcements.” Relying on reinforcements, or rewards, motivates children to do better. Rewards do not need to be monetary and can be as simple as offering praise or giving a high five. The elementary school kids I mentioned earlier, for example, are driven to complete at least 75 percent of their homework within an hour, knowing they will receive a 15-minute break as a reward. Within that hour, thanks to a desired stimulus, the kids are sharp and focused strictly on academic work.

Learn to alternate

When working with multiple children of different grade levels and those children all have academic questions at once, parents might panic and bemoan their seemingly helpless situation. In this situation, it is important that parents remain calm and learn to alternate. If Child A is stuck on a reading question the same time that Child B forgets to simplify fractions, tell Child B to circle the problem and try working on the next one, while Child A explains to the parent what he or she doesn’t understand about the question. Once Child A has been helped and understands the material, move on to working with Child B.

But, alternating is more than just about going back and forth from one child to the other; alternating also means switching up the children’s academic routine. Don’t have a child working on a worksheet for two hours straight or more. Children have short attention spans and get frustrated easily when spending too much time on mundane assignments. In between worksheets and lectures, play a game of Hangman using the vocabulary they just learned, or games that stimulate intellectual strategy like Tic-tac-toe and Connect Four.

Be resourceful

Not every household has access to a computer, but parents don’t have to rely on technology to sustain their child’s education. Parents can create their own math drills on a basic operation and use real-life scenarios to make application problems for their children. For creative writing practice, I sometimes give my students three random words (“wizard,” “fish,” and “car” for example) and have the students write a one-page story about those same three words to excite their imagination. Often, I also give students specific essay prompts (“What do you think is the biggest problem in the world, and how would you change it?”) as part of their daily writing task.

However, if the parents do have access to a computer at home, there are many online resources they can turn to for their child’s remote education. Education.com offers learning materials for a variety of subjects including math, English, science, and social studies. Math-aids.com provides free, printable math worksheets on different areas for students, while ereadingworksheets.com gives parents and students free access to quality materials that cover writing and language arts skills.

Rae L. is a writer and educator from Los Angeles, CA. She earned a B.A. in journalism and English literature from Cal State Long Beach before attending Loyola Marymount University for her master’s studies. Currently, she is a center coordinator for a private tutoring company in Orange County, CA.