Advice From A Teacher To Parents Who Now Have Their Kids At Home

Going from your normal routine to one where you have to get your own work done while making sure your kids are taken care of can be a challenge. But it's the new reality that many parents are facing. My wife is a teacher who's been working with her students via video conferencing. I asked her to share some advice that might help parents with this new normal.

Feeling stressed? Can I tell you a secret? Teachers feel it too. This is uncharted territory for many schools and teachers. There is no instruction manual on how to uproot the routine we spent months building and changing it at the drop of a hat.

So give yourself a break. We are all new to this and we will figure this out.

But, it is not a secret that this long of a gap can be very detrimental to the learning and progress of individuals. So, I compiled a list of educational programs that can help prevent that backwards slide.

First, I definitely recommend a schedule. Yes this may seem like a vacation, but trust me the transition back to school will be much easier if you maintain some sense of normalcy. Whatever that is. Your schedule doesn’t need to be set in stone. Even in school we need to be flexible in the schedule.

An Example could look like this:

8-8:30 am- Breakfast

8:30-9:15 am- Reading

9:15-10 am- Hands on activity

10- 10:45 am- Math practice

10:45- 11:30 am- Exercise/ walk

11:30- 12:15 pm- Lunch

12:15- 1:00 pm- Science Experiment

1:00- 2:00 pm- Free choice

Below is a list of resources to utilize during this time. Most of them are free, a few are paid sites; but, luckily some of these sites have offered to waive their fee for the duration of the quarantine.

OT Activities- https://otplan.com/

Social Thinking Stories:

CoronaVirus story- https://littlepuddins.ie/coronavirus-social-story/?fbclid=IwAR19tQrEsaMQZpmd5xewAVca5OmYlVtkWyEQTjiPvS2Va0W41KYzpZ_MsZM

Social distancing story- http://l.ead.me/bbTQWl?trackSharing=1&fbclid=IwAR1i0gpfl9nvIKiUOn08FjKStl7BHCvpx8DH_rPug13tP8Tr4jFTy7aqLJI

All subjects

Khan Academy - khanacademy.org

IXL - ixl.com

Quizlet - quizlet.com

Albert - https://www.albert.io/home

Reading/English Language Arts

Into the Book - https://reading.ecb.org/

ReadingPlus - www.readingplus.com/