Literally blocking it off on your calendar and communicating your schedule with your bosses and colleagues will make sure you are all on the same page and that everyone will respect that time. Some states and districts are surveying parents to find out their comfort level with the options listed above (or others, depending on the state and district). The reality is that we need to accept that nothing is going to be perfect in this imperfect situation, so for the perfectionists out there (like myself), if we are surviving and our families are surviving, we are doing the best we can, and that is good enough. Its important to have an honest conversation with your family and make the decision that is best for you, and to communicate that through these surveys. While I worked and homeschooled, I had a variety of types of jobs, all technical/knowledge-working jobs, some with more flexibility than others. Remember that you have options and that considering the short term and the long term will help smooth any future transitions for you and your children. Free Printable Homeschool Planners. 
An alternative is to make your own bingo card that might be more age-appropriate, like one with silly words or um and uh, for example, that might be easy for little ones to pick up on during the call. AnimalCams. The traditional homeschooling community is extreme in their desire to be unregulated and to have full freedom to educate their children however they wish, with minimal or no governmental intervention or oversight. Khan Academy has provided help and getting started pages for their content here: https://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/611770255064350720/remote-learning-with-khan-academy-during-school, and the lessons themselves are accessible here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSZhOdEPAWjUQpqDkVAlJrFwxxZ9Sa6zGOq0CNRms6Z7DZNq-tQWS3OhuVCUbh_-P-WmksHAzbsrk9d/pub, Scholastic has provided schedules and lessons here: https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html.
Uncertainty and lack of direction and why can cause unnecessary stress and a lack of commitment. In these times, I found educational videos that could fill the spaces, where my children could still be learning, but I was able to focus on the meetings and my work. Also, be sure that you are fully informed about what activities are offered or not offered for any who opt into remote or distance learning through the school, as this likely differs on a district by district or school by school basis. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/, Montessori Northwest. Homeschool Laws By State. What Ill provide below is a brief overview of some of the options for planning the work, starting with four considerations for doing so. Retrieved March 25, 2020, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/, Common Sense Media. Your next steps are: 1) Identify the age groups of the children you are educating and whether they need to be planned separately or if the plan and content can be the same. The first major hurdle for the transition was figuring out what grade they should be in. {"modules":["unloadOptimization","bandwidthDetection"],"unloadOptimization":{"browsers":{"Firefox":true,"Chrome":true}},"bandwidthDetection":{"url":"https://ir.ebaystatic.com/cr/v/c1/thirtysevens.jpg","maxViews":4,"imgSize":37,"expiry":300000,"timeout":250}}. One option is for grades 3-5, called Digital Passport, and is accessible here: https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-passport. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from https://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/age-appropriate-chores/, Grown and Flown. Or, are you not comfortable sending your children to school at all until there is a vaccine, for example? State Virtual Schools. Refresh your browser window to try again. Either way, some people are going to be happy and some unhappy, regardless of the plan or approach that is taken. While you are determining how much time you want to dedicate to your work, also consider if there are specific days or times of day that you have regularly scheduled meetings, deadlines for regular work, or other time-specific restrictions. Awake and Mindful. One way to focus and be able to sift through all of the options is to decide what modes you wish to use to teach each of the subjects you selected, and limit your searches to the selected mode for each subject. You can ask the school about options for continuing distance learning (if they dont already include that as an option in their fall plans). Others may be planning their own lessons and activities. They already do for other meetings and for lunch, right? flare Game Reviews. (Parents, dont be jealousyou can make forts, tooand even take your conference call from inside your fort, if you want to.). Trust that everyone is working toward a common goal, for example, is one type of trust. Retrieved March 16, 2020 from, Center for Disease Control (CDC). (n.d.). Common Core Resources: Textbook & Publisher Resources. shoptrendup In my classroom, I start my classes off by having my students volunteer to Tell me something good. The good things could literally be anything, and they have ranged from I had a good breakfast this morning, to My football team won last night. If you want to add variety or switch things up a bit, the Bestow Team created a list of 30 gratitude games and activities for kids, accessible here: https://hellobestow.com/blog/gratitude-games/. Headspace, a mindfulness and meditation app, is providing a series of their meditations for free in the midst of the current situation. The answer to this question can provide further guidance for what choice might be best for you and your family, on top of the obvious comfort level with sending them to a physical school building in August or September. Just take a few deep breaths and enjoy the time you have with your kids, because they really do grow up so fast, and this pandemic and chaos will eventually pass. If you are teaching more than one child, you will need to decide, based on their ages, maturity levels and possibly reading levels, whether you need to plan separate work for each, or whether you can plan once and have them all working on the same work. The one thing that all of those spaces had in common was a dedicated space to store all of our supplies and work. (n.d.). (Many states do not allow homeschoolers to participate in activities at the public school, but some states do. However, we can control our reaction to it by staying safe, keeping our family safe, and following the Center for Disease Control (CDC) (2020) guidelines posted here: In my experience homeschooling and working full time (from various locations and time zones), the biggest lesson I learned was that I needed to be organized, but also flexible. hungary Sign up now to view all sizes and availability. Everything you need to organize your area is probabily already in your home. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from https://www.connectionsacademy.com/, CRHE. The third consideration is the mode you wish to use to teach the subjects you have selected.
What if schools are opened in a virtual-only format to start the school year and transition to blended or alternating schedule formats, or even full capacity later in the school year? (The first is required if choosing homeschooling and not purchasing a pre-packaged curriculum or enrolling your children in a full-time online school. You will need to research your options in your area if this is a deciding factor for you. Attention to results is the top and smallest portion of the pyramid. In Connecticut, the only thing you are legally required to do is file with your local board of education a letter of Notice of Withdrawal. What if schools open in a blended format, where schedules are alternating day to day or am/pm? A visual representation of the five dysfunctions Lencioni identifies is shown below. For gratitude, an easy option to start your day would be to talk about three good or positive things. Kid-Safe Browsers and Search Sites. Thats all any of us can do, and the only way we are going to figure out what will work is for everyone to be comfortable communicating and providing constructive feedback when things are not working. (n.d.). jeans flared visit mango elephant They are asking because they truly care about your children and your input. See below for our experience transitioning our kids from homeschooling to public school and considerations/lessons-learned that you might find helpful. Find a fort posted by someone else and draw a picture of their fort and estimate how many people you think could fit in their fort. We'll keep our eyes out for you. This includes finding appropriate websites, movies, games, and applications, teaching your children about online safety and digital citizenship, and knowing how to distinguish between free, safe content and free, unsafe content. Connections Academy. I will gather and post a list of the supplies I always kept on hand soon. 4) Ensure that roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and identify how each will be held accountable and how opportunities for improvements will be identified, evaluated, and implemented. These are accessible here: https://awakeandmindful.com/best-kids-yoga-videos-on-youtube/. Homeschool Organizations. (n.d.). The second is what is being referred to as remote or distance learning, or, in our district, cooperative distance learning, which I think describes this option very well. ), 4) If you choose homeschooling instead of distance learning, are you fully informed of any reporting requirements, regulations, etc. We homeschooled in many different locations, including a multifamily house where we had a full room dedicated to homeschooling, my parents house where we had an area in the basement, our family members kitchen counters, and even an RV, when we traveled around the US. All movies, for example, have ratings from Common Sense Media, as well as a kids rating and a parents rating, but even more helpful are the details provided by Common Sense Media behind their specific rating. One combined list of these is accessible on EarthCam.com, here: https://www.earthcam.com/events/animalcams/. ), As you think through the answers to these questions and others, I would like to share about our personal experience with the transition from homeschool to public school in Connecticut only a few years ago. Others split them into pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten, grades 1-2, grades 3-5 and grades 6+. littlewoodsireland Retrieved March 18, 2020, from https://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/611770255064350720/remote-learning-with-khan-academy-during-school, Scholastic. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from https://montessori-nw.org/what-is-montessori-education, Roblox. Retrieved March 25, 2020, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/resources-for-families-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic, Earthcam. Lets face it, we are all in survival mode right now, and trying to claim anything else would be misleading. (n.d.). ), Have your parent/guardian take a picture of your fort, with the list of equipment used and post it to Twitter using the hashtag #fortchallenge and tag @HomeschoolWork. The state regulations say that families MAY submit a Notice of Intent to homeschool and participate in portfolio reviews. The options are so abundant that it can often be overwhelming, especially for those new to educating their children at home. Coronavirus (COVID-19). Your child or children will be perfectly fine with a couple or a few hours of school-related work and other fun, educational activities while you focus on work. (Various factors played into our decision, but one major factor for us was for the girls to have the option to participate in sports, clubs and other activities, and we were living in a location where they were districted into good schools.). The CRHE and HSLDA do a great job of keeping up with the current state regulations and how they are implemented (along with your legal rights and options as a homeschooler) (CRHE, n.d.; HSLDA, n.d.). Instead of trying to convince your kids why they should be quiet and calm during your conference calls and hoping for the best, you might try giving them specific activities to keep them busy during these times.
