5 Thoughts About Homeschooling (Pandemic Edition)

 
Tire Swing.jpg
 

If I had to boil down all the advice I have to share about what it’s like to homeschool during a pandemic to a few basic points, this is what I’d say:

1. If you want to homeschool, you can. I've seen people make homeschooling work under any kind of circumstance — single parents, two working parents, even parents with disabilities. At times like these, when families may be dealing with working from home or unemployment, housing upheavals, illness, and other stress, you may really appreciate the flexibility homeschooling can bring to “do school” when you want, the way you want.

2. Homeschooling can be as easy as you want it to be. Putting extra pressure on yourself or your kids doesn't produce better results. If you want your kids to get the most out of homeschooling, first try to relax. Have fun. Take breaks to decompress. And if what you're doing isn't working — try something different.

3. More isn't always better. At a time when every school is making it up as they go along, and every student is having an unusual year, “keeping up” with the school is an illusion. And you don't get extra points for teaching your child to read early, or trying to get through calculus in sixth grade. Let your children progress on their own schedule, and don't worry how other people's kids are doing.

4. There are no guarantees with homeschooling (or with any other kind of schooling). Every child is different. Every family is different. No one educational method works for everyone, in school or out. So take all advice (even mine) with a grain of salt. Whether or not you follow the school’s course of study, use a pre-packaged homeschool curriculum, or create your own, you will be OK. Most importantly, don't let anyone tell you you're doing it wrong, if what you’re doing is working for you and your family.

5. You always have options. You don’t have to homeschool from preschool to college, or even for the entire year. And if you go back and you don’t like it, you can always go home again. You don’t even have to stick with the same plan you started out with — many homeschoolers change methods and materials midstream. The choices you make now will not make or break your child's future. So stop worrying, take chances, and see what develops. You'll be glad you did.

Find more advice and support on my Homeschooling page!

This page may contain affiliate links. Thanks for helping me to keep producing great learning advice and activities for kids!

Talking with Teachers About Homeschool/School

 
 

Family Maker Camp — from Make magazine, which also publishes some of my books — is providing some great content for both kids and adults. I was invited to take part in a Parent Happy (Half) Hour panel discussion of teaching during the pandemic, which turned out to be very affirming.

I got to meet two hard-working, passionate educators from the West Coast, Bianca Forrester of Oakland Charter High School, and Tobie Garcia of Urban Montessori Charter School. Also on the panel were Make: author-educator Rick Shertle and hosts Gillian Mutti of Make: Community, along with Mario the Maker Magician and his wife Katie Marchese. Both Rick and the Marcheses are homeschoolers as well.

I was pleased to hear that everyone was on the same page in terms of what we should be expecting students to do at this time of great upheaval, and about the opportunity for schools to make a radical change when they return to the classroom.

You can watch the whole conversation above. Enjoy!

This page may contain affiliate links. Thanks for helping me to keep producing great learning advice and activities for kids!

Housekeeping Versus Homeschooling

 
Soda+Boy.jpg
 

I've heard there are homeschoolers whose houses are always neat. Who never lose a handwriting worksheet under a pile of manga drawings. Who can plop down in the living room without noticing a thicket of cobwebs underneath the bookcase.

To be honest, I've never met one.

Keeping a house clean can be a challenge for any parent with kids. Throw in the extra responsibility of working from home while helping with school work, and it's no wonder things can get a little messy.

As a veteran homeschooling mom once said, "Something has to give, and that's it."

So let me share some strategies for keeping the chaos at bay while still maintaining a livable environment.

Set Realistic Standards

Being a homeschooler doesn't mean you have to live in squalor. But giving up a little control, along with your fantasies of Instagram interior design perfection, can help you avoid burnout.

First, don’t compare your kids to anybody else’s. I once spent a morning holding my breath in the home of a mom who had trained her young twin daughters to respectfully avoid her collection of precariously-displayed glass knickknacks. I was very glad to escape with my two oblivious children without mishap.

The safest way to avoid having to be constantly on guard is to “child-proof” the spaces you share with your kids for the stage of life they’re at. They may not be toddlers, but if they’re spending most or all of their time indoors, chances are they’ve got a lot of pent-up energy to expend.

Make Your House as Kid-Friendly as Possible

Schoolbooks.jpg

You don't have to turn your entire house into a playroom, but create some areas where kids can be comfortable. Some ideas:

Use easy-to-clean flooring and furniture. Move valuable rugs to another part of the house. Cover your couch with a blanket. Get a vinyl tablecloth that lets you wipe up spills, paint, or glue easily.

Put books, toys, and crafts supplies at child level. If you can, rotate the selection of playthings to keep the offerings fresh and interesting. It can make it less likely kids will get into things they're not supposed to.

Find storage that kids can use themselves. Clear off some low shelves. Collect school materials in baskets and bins. Get plastic drawers to sort school supplies (and Lego bricks!). If your kids aren’t reading yet, print out labels with pictures so little ones know what goes where.

Teach Your Kids the Art of Housekeeping

Teaching your kids to keep house is a skill that will serve them well throughout their lives. And if you are keeping records of what your kids learn, you can file it under “Life Skills!”

Start with simple chores before they hit the tween years and they may even think it's fun. Young kids can help sort clothes or set the table. Older kids can do dishes, sweep the floor, make their beds, and care for pets.

To increase the odds that kids will cooperate, break down tasks into parts that are short and easy to manage. It only takes a few minutes to wipe down the bathroom sinks or the microwave, but getting those little jobs done makes your house feel instantly cleaner.

And if a family member has a favorite chore, let 'em at it. Some kids are happy to clean anything if you hand them a Swiffer duster.

Most of all, keep things in perspective. You've got a lot on your plate. Now’s the time to give up some control and let your family members share the burden – even if they don’t do the job up to your standards.

When you weigh what’s really important at this time, a house that’s safe and comfortable may be all you need for right now.

DIY HS FB page.jpg

Join our DIY Homeschool community on Facebook!

This page may contain affiliate links. Thanks for helping me to keep producing great learning advice and activities for kids!

Engineering + Art + Inventing = Making

 
Eng-Art-Invent Venn.jpg
 

What I love about the concept of Making — particularly for education — is that it highlights the overlap between arts & crafts, engineering, and science.

To explore this idea, a while back I made a little Venn diagram to illustrate the similarities and differences between engineering, art, and inventing.

In school, Making (using the capital because Make: magazine has kind of made that a thing) is most tied to engineering.

To me, it’s more about how engineering concepts can enrich the creation process. Think about Leonardo da Vinci — probably the poster boy for artists who are also scientists and inventors. He designed flying machines using his imagination, but based upon his knowledge of physics, anatomy, and materials.

Leonardo_Design_for_a_Flying_Machine,_c._1488.jpg

That’s why in my classes and books, I like to frame the activities I share with kids as “inventing.” I think it's a great way to get at engineering through art skills many of us already have. To my mind, engineering, inventing and art all use the same process:

  • Come up with new ideas and solutions to problems.

  • Test your ideas to see if they work.

  • Take note of what went right and keep working on what didn't. (Iterate!)

  • Record your results so you or others can repeat them.

That last part is very important (although, like other dabblers, I sometimes get caught up in the excitement of inventing and forget to take photos or keep notes). Adam Savage of Mythbusters has a famous quote about it: "The only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down."

What’s more, engineers ask questions that can apply equally well to inventing and art (particularly when it comes to using new materials and techniques):

  • What is it made of?

  • What makes it behave the way it does?

  • What are its limitations?

  • How can it be improved?

  • How can it be standardized to make it easier to reproduce?

 
01-Wobblebot Boys.jpg
 

Kids can be encouraged to do that too. These students are building Solar WobbleBots, simple solar-powered spinning robots. (The instructions for this project appears in my book BOTS!, and there's an advanced version in Making Simple Robots that works in low light conditions thanks to a capacitor.)

As they put them together, they’re exploring materials such as recycled CDs, Slurpee cup lids, and solar panels ripped out of garden lights. They’re experimenting with designs to give their robots unique ways of moving. They’re using familiar tools and techniques (screwdrivers, tape, hot glue) and adding new ones (wire stripping). And they're using crafts materials to give their creations personality.

The concept doesn’t end there. I truly believe the process of Making can be used to enhance any academic subject. I’ll write more about that soon.

Meanwhile, I’d love to hear what you think!

This page may contain affiliate links. Thanks for helping me to keep producing great learning advice and activities for kids!

How to Turn a Book Into a Class

 
 

A wonderful example of how educators are coming up with creative ways to keep kids learning during this difficult time comes from Chicago-based educator Kathryn Born. She and her daughter are following along with my book Micronations, using it as the basis for a series of lessons that she’s also sharing online, with the hopes that other families will join them.

Thanks to the generosity of my publisher Nomad Press, she is also able to show some of the material on her blog for a limited time. Born writes:

“Micronations is a great book, especially right now, and especially with an influx of parents who are suddenly homeschooling for the first time. The book is a great resource as you can simply read it and do the exercises, there isn't a lot of direct instruction they have to design themselves. You can also do all the activities with supplies they already have.”

Educators often tell me they use my books as a teaching guide — which is only natural, since many of them grew out of afterschool classes I taught when my kids were young. My micronations class, which was called “Invent Your Own Country,” was one of my favorites. (My youngest son told me it was the best class he had ever taken, so there you go.)

In my classes, I loved the ideas the students came up with for their countries, and the great artifacts they made to represent them. They even expanded upon my lessons by reaching out to other micronational governments in the class to form their own alliances and trading agreements — a remarkably diplomatic concept for fourth- and fifth-graders to embrace! Here’s a sampling of what they produced:

Born’s project with her daughter reflects the times we’re living through:

“The book asks, If you were going to start your own nation, from scratch, how would you design it? How would your government run? What would your laws be? I’m doing a COVID-19 version of this with my 12-year old, so we are adapting it to ‘if your household was a nation, a kingdom, an imaginary country, how would we run it?’ (Which is kind of what’s happening with this isolation many families are in. Our homes have become our micro-universe.) ”

What’s more, Born writes, the project is giving her daughter a way to talk about the anxieties she’s facing in these uncertain times. “This book is a good discussion starting point about why countries are making the decisions they are right now,” she says.

Born is hoping to host an online World’s Fair with other “emergency homeschoolers” when the project is done. I can’t wait to see it!

This page may contain affiliate links. Thanks for helping me to keep producing great learning advice and activities for kids!