Five Tips for Parents: Smoother Sailing in the Remote Year

As parents and teachers embark on a new school year, here are 5 tips to help parents navigate the choppy remote waters:

1. Cluster and launch tasks to be completed.

For students in grades 3 -12, identify their daily homework tasks. Rate the tasks according to a “preference” , from 1 to 3, the least to the most appealing.

Once a kid-rating has been set up, work with your student to estimate number of minutes for completion — 30-40 minutes for each is a good start, although some could be as brief as 15 minutes.

For 4th-5th graders, use color coding. Try writing the assignments on index cards, in color, with the minutes assigned for each task.

Next, follow up with a timer. This gives the student
a sense of control over their tasks.

For more ideas on how to provide your child with greater control in navigating the remote environment, refer to a recent interview with Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy. He discusses the unique challenges of distance-learning: https://www.cnet.com/news/sal-khan-how-to-help-students-and-parents-navigate-education-during-covid-19/ He is also mindful of your child's and your mental health.

“This is not a time to try to be a superhero. This is a time to take care of yourself, and try to focus on doing a few things very, very, very well, and try to draw some healthy boundaries for your family’s mental health.”

2. Treasure your role as your child’s best facilitator.

According to the N.Y. Times, parents have a most favored position, as their child’s best “inside observer and facilitator.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/parenting/parents-distance-learning.html.

Treasure that role. Thus, as “insider” you know what activities fire up your child, and which ones might push him into out-of-the-way procrastination.

As key facilitator, you can also sequence home work tasks for maximum impact. For example: an unexciting chore can be followed by a passionate activity. This is an energetic way to launch a task!

And children learn from your example. After a while, students will be able to sequence their own tasks in a more efficient and thoughtful way.

3. Protect reset time as essential.

Make sure you incorporate regular “reset” time and breaks between assignments. This is an integral part of “learning health. “

After 40-50 minutes (an optimal study period for many students), provide a mini-reward, of a stretch set, music, a game of catch, or zumba. You can be creative by sharing a poem, some doodling, or a made-up song.

Your student will feel empowered by the choice of breaks, which builds rapport and humor at home.

4. Breathe Life into Writing Prompts.

For two to three page writing assignments, help your student breathe life into what might seem like a ho-hum prompt. Offer to read the directions aloud (using loud and soft voices) to your student. Or let them read it, and use graphic organizers to visualize the ideas.

Encourage them to try to problem solve around a difficult topic. For example, what if a 4th-5th grader has been assigned an unexciting report on household energy sources? You might start with observing on a Sunday drive how many electric versus gas powered cars you see on the road. Then follow with questions, such as, “What's the difference in energy cost between an electric and a gas car? “ For a younger child, just listing the brands of the cars, and drawing pictures of cars might suffice.

For a high school student, asking them which car is the sportiest, and finding supporting energy cost data might be a way to begin. Of course, add tables and graphs as appropriate.

Remember to praise your student when he is willing to go through the revisions necessary for good work. See Keisha Alexander's, “5 Reasons Why Rejection is Good for Writers,” https://medium.com/@kesialexandra/5-reasons-why-rejection-is-good-for-writers-5f6021e1eaa6.

Finally, don't forget that an essential part of writing is the development of GRIT. Carol Dweck and Angela Duckworth, psychologists, attribute a student's successes to the practice of GRIT.“Grit is the tendency to sustain interest in and effort toward very long-term goals.” (Duckworth et al., 2007). Although people are born with various levels of grit, Duckworth believes it is a trait that can develop through experience.

5. Collaborate with your child's teacher.

Identify clues to the all-important question: "What are the skills that your child should be acquiring in their present grade? " The N.Y. Times, says, “Focusing on skills, or learning outcomes” rather than number of minutes on zoom, helps parents evaluate how much their children are learning. ( "How to Tell if Distance Learning Is Working for Your Kid", https://www.nytimes.com/2020/0...)

You want to know what skills your child needs to learn before the end of the year, not what tests they need to take, according to N.Y. Times writers. You can identify these skills, or “learning outcomes”, by asking your child's teachers and reading about curriculum goals set by the School District.

In case you haven't looked at a learning outcome recently, the 3rd grade social studies one might be:
“ DESCRIBE HOW PEOPLE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD ADAPTED TO THEIR ENVIRONMENT.”
If this were your child's learning outcome, you might then discuss how your community adapts to its environment, through choices of housing or transportation.

Finally, be mindful your own health as well as that of your child.

As Khan says, in a recent interview:

“. Stress and anxiety hit you before you know it. If you’re starting to get easily triggered by your kids. . .it's going to create a really hard environment to learn in at home.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com...

Theresa Xia Michna, M.A. is a seasoned teacher, parent, and Mindful Test Prep Tutor. She has successfully taught remotely for many years , grades 3- College. She lives in Larchmont.