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Homeschooling Your Child During the Coronavirus
By Rachel Burns
The Past several months, we are going through something that the world has never seen before. The new situation made many parents worldwide to think about child homeschool possibilities.
We are pretty sure that you know what we are talking about. These days almost all parents in the nearly entire world need to consider interesting ways to child homeschool options.
In the past couple of months, the world has been fighting to stop the spread of the new Coronavirus. On March 11th World Health Organization declared a global pandemic. Most of us are pretty shocked in the beginning and couldn’t grasp the severity of the problem and how it will affect our lives.
Suddenly government representatives began to instruct people to stay in their homes, not go outside unless necessary, thoroughly wash hands, disinfect our homes, and so on. They also began insisting on social distancing, which in practice meant that we are not allowed to see our friends or loved ones.
This situation caused a lot of people to feel stressed and anxious about various things. People are increasingly getting worried about their health, but also future that from this perspective appears to be somewhat uncertain. Additionally, all those among you who are parents were suddenly faced with having to handle another type of stress. Since school closure was one of the first steps taken in the attempt to curb the spread of the virus, classes and all other school work was organized remotely. This sudden and sort of involuntary organization of child homeschool system is stressful not just for children but also for parents. Kids are generally used to having some sort of structure – they woke up, go to a school where they study and hang out with friends, and then do homework when they return. In the absence of this structure, the lives of children and parents who suddenly have to deal with the organization of child homeschool work are faced with chaos.
Child Homeschool System
Homeschooling as a system of education isn’t invented now, as you probably know. It has been functioning in the form we know today since the 60s and 70s of the previous century. There were always many reasons to homeschool your child. Some people weren’t satisfied with the methods used in traditional schools. Some opt to homeschool special needs child or a gifted child.
Various studies, such as the one from Purdue University, show that for talented children, they often become victims of bullies. Other studies, such as those conducted by PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center, indicate the situation is pretty similar to children who have some learning difficulty. The result is that parents in these cases decide to try some child homeschool option.
We will discuss a few tips on how to do you homeschool your child hoping it will help deal with the situation with minimal stress.
If your child is in front of a computer with all the necessary equipment and water bottles for kids, we can begin.
Set Up a Structure
It is, of course, simpler to organize classes at school than at home. Also, kids know that they have to go to school whereas now when they are at home, it is not easy for them to understand what is expected of them. A lot of teachers post your child’s regular schedule online so you can use that one or create one of your own. The important thing is that it is stable and that you have to stick to it, so the kid knows the daily routine, even if they aren’t physically going to school. Parents who homeschool autistic children have a lot of experience in this to check out their forums for inspiration.
Child Challenges
Being a parent and a teacher is confusing and stressful for a lot of parents, for sure, but also for children. Besides, they have a hard time understanding why suddenly they can not have regular face to face interaction with their friends. This is especially a problem with younger kids. When alone, kids tend to kill the boredom by playing online games. In an ordinary situation, this doesn’t have to be necessarily bad. Still, now you have to think of many real-life activities, so their capabilities for social interaction don’t weaken during this self-isolation period.
Homeschooling Gifted Children
If you are wondering how to homeschool a gifted child, it is recommended that you consider asynchronous learning and intensity. The first one means that it is possible that gifted children, for example, read like adults or discuss the function of kidneys like doctors but write like third graders. This is something to think about when choosing a child’s homeschool approach. Also, you have to think about the fact that these kids always want more. This can cause them to meltdown, hyper-focus, and so on.
Foster Kids
Some people are wondering can you homeschool a foster child. Generally, there is no rule about this. Of course, you can if this is something you prefer. The problem here is that you don’t know the child will react, and this depends on whether they have been homeschooled or went to traditional school before. In the case a kid went to public school, they may have a hard time adjusting. However, while dealing with coronavirus situations, we all have to adjust the best way we can.
Conclusion
Coronavirus pandemic puts us in a position where we have no choice but to adapt to new circumstances. Adults have to transform part of their homes in offices and organize work from home, and kids have to get used to virtual classrooms. As you can see, organizing a child’s homeschool system isn’t as difficult as it might seem at first.
It just requires some planning, but when you set everything up, it can go pretty smoothly. Do you have experiences with homeschooling or ideas that we didn’t mention?
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Rachel Burns is an experienced copywriter and photographer with a design diploma. She works with startups, entrepreneurs, bloggers and companies from around the world. In addition to writing articles and promotional materials, she enjoys hiking, reading, cooking and spending time with her family.