Best of luck with this years educational adventures. Florida is more strict, but does have umbrella schools that allow for smoother navigation of the requirements. The pause for them is a huge change and requires adjustment, but provides an opportunity for us, as parents, to teach them how to slow down and be ok with being bored or finding their own activities. State Virtual Schools. It is also very important to note, especially when you are reading and researching your options, that there are two extremes to the homeschooling debate or conversation, especially in Connecticut, but it is likely evident elsewhere, as well. (n.d.). They also expect to have to make up for missed learning in the fall for this last spring, especially for the younger students in lower grades. They had to tell us the recommended ages by Common Sense Media, parents and kids and were only allowed to watch movies, play games or download/use apps that were 2 years over the lowest age recommended out of the three. 
Retrieved April 19, 2020, from https://www.sheknows.com/parenting/slideshow/2173553/coronavirus-school-closings-keep-kids-busy/1/, Wiess, S. R. (2020b). Retrieved April 19, 2020, from https://www.roblox.com/, Wiess, S. R. (2020a). 
It is also an opportunity for us to find ways for our kids to help around the house and to teach them new life skills that are no longer taught in schools. Yes, movies sometimes work, but how about something possibly more fun (for you and for them)? What is Montessori Education? Retrieved April 19, 2020, from https://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/age-appropriate-chores/, Grown and Flown. 
If you are teaching one child, you can skip this section. You can ask the school about options for continuing distance learning (if they dont already include that as an option in their fall plans). The state, on the other hand, wants to have as much control and oversight as possible, in many cases. Either way, some people are going to be happy and some unhappy, regardless of the plan or approach that is taken. You will need to determine what is best for you and your children. We cannot control what this pandemic has become or is about to become or the ripple effects it may cause. Retrieved March 25, 2020, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-compass, Common Sense Media. (n.d.). Our children need to be able to disagree and question things when concepts or instructions arent clear to them. (n.d.). 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. AnimalCams. Accountability involves all levels, including our children consistently being held responsible for their work. Common Sense Media provides two different options for digital citizenship education. These extreme stances come with equally strong language, which can be misleading to the new or uninformed, so it is important to make sure you fully understand the true requirements before making decisions, finalizing your plans, and submitting any notices or documentation. 2) Identify the subjects you would like to teach each of the children. Science and art took the most preparation because we conducted experiments and made a variety of art and craft projects, so we split these days, so that they were not back-to-to back, allowing for some planning and preparation time in between. As of now, you at least have an idea of how much time you want to allocate to work and to homeschooling and have identified an area where you can store and organize schoolwork and related supplies. 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. Being completely clear on goals, roles, and contributions can promote commitment and team cohesion. You can choose to homeschool your children with you being the primary teacher (as opposed to distance-learning where you are assisting your children with work assigned by their teacher). Making it clear that it was a big kid privilege to sit at the table with us to work on schoolwork was also helpful in motivating (relatively) quiet focus. Awake and Mindful. SheKnows.com. Greater Good Magazine. Below, I will provide a few options and considerations for finding content for your children that is age-appropriate and safe for them, as well as being safe for you and your computer. If you want more information prior to pursuing this option, your best bet is likely to reach out to the school or district directly for more information about what the portfolio review might look like, what kind of support and guidance you can expect from them, etc. There are many misconceptions about homeschooling, in general, but especially with working and homeschooling. Remember the CDC guidelines and be innovative in your organization and space planning. These are all considerations when building a foundation of trust in a remote or distance learning team with all parties involved. There are many options for finding safe content online for kids. 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. Always be appreciative.). 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. The second consideration is the subjects you wish to teach. ), 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. You dont need to go crazy buying organizing supplies. 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. More details about the rating systems used for the Common Sense Media ratings can be found here: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/about-us/our-mission/about-our-ratings. As part of a successful, high-performing and well-functioning team, we have to work together as a team toward common goals, just like a sports team or a project team in an organization. ), 3) Do you think you might want to send your students back to school in person either some time this year or in future years? (n.d.). (n.d.). 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. Some organizations group activities in the following age groups, for example, Kindergarten to grade 2, grades 3-5, grades 6-8 and grades 9-12. 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. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from https://montessori-nw.org/what-is-montessori-education, Roblox. You are the parent, and you know what is best for your children. Attention to results is the top and smallest portion of the pyramid. (n.d.). The second option is for grades 6-8, called Digital Compass, which is accessible here: https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-compass. Retrieved March 18, 2020, from https://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/611770255064350720/remote-learning-with-khan-academy-during-school, Scholastic. Parents need to be able to bring concerns to educators and administrators when things arent working for them and their children. If your student is overloaded with work, have them work with their teachers and administrators to request extensions or accommodations where needed. 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). Marc Zao-Sanders (2018) wrote an informative article on TimeBoxing, accessible here: Organizing your space is another aspect of your current situation that you have total control over. A big lesson learned in this transition is that no matter what homeschool curriculum you choose, there will be differences in what they learn there and what is covered in the public school curriculum, thus, some material will be repeated and there will be gaps to be filled in other places. Calling it schoolwork for the toddler made her feel like she was getting to do something cool that her big sister was doing, while really just doing what she would have been anyway. (n.d.). These options are completed at a time and location of your convenience and have assigned teachers for all classes, as well as providing official transcripts and grades, just like on-ground/in-person school options. 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. With the quick pivot to distance learning in the spring, and the large disparities with technology access and related issues, the schools and districts are still working to get some students caught up on their work from the spring. I present to you the conference call activity challenge for today (03/17/2020): Conference Call Bingo (with your kiddos)! When trying to decide what is best, there are always multiple considerations. On top of a foundation of trust is constructive conflict. 100 Things to Teach Your Teen While Youre Stuck at Home. If you would like to explore this option, a great start is to review your state on both the CRHE and HSLDA websites, start searching for local and regional homeschool associations (the HSLDA has a great resource for this, as well), and begin searching for curriculum options (which can come in fully pre-packaged curriculum options to fully customized curriculum that you pick and choose from resources on publishers sites and Amazon.com book sales, for example) (HSLDA, n.d.2). 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. Retrieved March 16, 2020 from, Center for Disease Control (CDC). See below for our experience transitioning our kids from homeschooling to public school and considerations/lessons-learned that you might find helpful. This is when choosing distance learning through the school, working with the school on curriculum or even taking advantage of optional portfolio reviews, or employing a certified teacher in a pandemic pod could work out better than doing what we did with creating a custom curriculum. In all honesty, because we got sick of answering the question of Can we watch? questions, we came up with a specific rule to guide their choices. Although Im not fully convinced that this is the best approach to managing your time, the concept of Timeboxing is similar to the approach Ive recommended above. A few of the things that are currently within our control are: 1) our reactions to the current situation, 2) our attitudes, 3) our schedule and 4) our space. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/, Montessori Northwest. Another point to consider is that you have every right to make the time spent educating your children as high a priority as any other meeting, so schedule it. (These are usually set at the state-level and enforced at the district or school-level. While I worked and homeschooled, I had a variety of types of jobs, all technical/knowledge-working jobs, some with more flexibility than others. Montana requires a notice of intent to homeschool to be submitted to the local Superintendent of Schools, but does not require any other forms or portfolio review, etc. While we await final proposals for opening of schools in the fall from states and local districts, we are all asking what if? What if schools open as usual in the fall at full capacity? This can be important if you are deciding between temporarily homeschooling your children and opting into distance learning (especially in middle school or high school grades). It is important to remember this. (Remember to make the award something you can make, give or do with them at home, and that they can have or do after your conference call is over.). Its also important to understand what is and what is not likely to happen in the next year curriculum and academic-wise and how that might impact you and your children. 1) Draw out a rough daily schedule (or weekly, if your daily work schedules vary), allocating specific times for work and for schoolwork. (Also, in Connecticut, if your children were never enrolled in a public or private school, no notice of any kind needs to be filed. Homeschool Laws By State. You will need to research your options in your area if this is a deciding factor for you. Are you comfortable sending your children to school in the fall, as long as CDC guidelines for schools are followed (CDC, 2020)? As you wrap up the day, after allowing your kids to play and relax for the first day, take three deep breaths and smile, knowing that you completed some planning and organizing, and that you are on your way. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from https://welltrainedmind.com/a/what-are-the-non-core-subjects/?v=7516fd43adaa, Common Sense Media (n.d.). (2020). Either way, you will need to allocate time for schooling for your children and for your work. A visual representation of the five dysfunctions Lencioni identifies is shown below. Headspace, a mindfulness and meditation app, is providing a series of their meditations for free in the midst of the current situation. Our girls were homeschooled since Kindergarten, and I chose materials for each individual subject for each girl, and planned the curriculum and lesson plans myself throughout this entire time. (Note that this is not a comprehensive list.) that you will be bound by? (Parents, dont be jealousyou can make forts, tooand even take your conference call from inside your fort, if you want to.). The state regulations say that families MAY submit a Notice of Intent to homeschool and participate in portfolio reviews. If your remote/distance learning/homeschooling is only planned to be temporary, keeping as close to the curriculum their classmates are learning in school will make for the smoothest transition when the time comes for them to go to school and join their classmates again. As homeschoolers, they worked at their own pace in different subjects, which was great for their education and learning, but made the transition to an age-based grade-level determination a challenging one. There are so many different aspects and layers of trust, as well. You will need to determine, based on the number and ages of children, your work schedule, and any other constraints, what subjects you want to teach and can manage to do so with minimal stress. Think about other ways that you can work to promote trust, constructive conflict, commitment, accountability, and attention to results as part of your students learning team and pick one item to focus on at a time. (2020). In my personal opinion, consistency in accountability, especially for online learners, is fundamental to their success, I believe, but it takes everyone involved being on the same page to maintain an appropriate level of accountability. When you get stressed or overwhelmed, just remember that surviving is all you and your family need to do right now, and the rest will all work out eventually. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/schools.html, Connectiond Academy. ), So, with this conflicting guidance and information, what should you do? 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. One combined list of these is accessible on EarthCam.com, here: https://www.earthcam.com/events/animalcams/. Retrieved March 25, 2020, from https://nu.libguides.com/CommonCore/ccss_publishers. Commitment is built on a foundation of trust and constructive conflict. You will need to decide, based on your family values and rules about electronics and screen time, your work schedule and flexibility, ages of your children, and learning preferences and styles, what modes are best for you for each student and each subject. Minecraft Official Site. You can research options for full-time online schooling, which some states offer for free (Digital Learning Collaborative, 2018). Note that this option and how it is implemented differs greatly per state. Best Kids Yoga Videos on YouTube. The fourth consideration is the schedule of the subjects you have selected to teach. 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. Common Sense Media, for example, provides a list of Kid-Safe Browsers and Search Sides, accessible here: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/kid-safe-browsers-and-search-sites. Small wins go a long way. 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. Bauer, S. W. (2016). Khan Academy Schedules for School Closures. Digital Passport. With some states canceling in-person schooling for the rest of the academic year and others extending the closures for additional time periods or indefinitely, but messages coming from politicians that we need to re-open the country, we are in a state of wait and see. (n.d.). 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. Resources for Families During the Coronavirus Pandemic. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from https://hslda.org/legal, HSLDA. To commit to common goals, everyone on the team has to be aware of the goals, understand why those goals are important, and be aware and accepting of their role in helping the team attain those goals. 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. Retrieved March 16, 2020 from, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/schools.html, https://responsiblehomeschooling.org/policy-issues/current-policy/, https://www.digitallearningcollab.com/state-virtual-schools, Common Misconceptions about Working and Homeschooling, https://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/2218929/how-many-hours-homeschooling-per-day/, https://welltrainedmind.com/a/what-are-the-non-core-subjects/?v=7516fd43adaa, https://montessori-nw.org/what-is-montessori-education, https://www.sheknows.com/parenting/slideshow/2173553/coronavirus-school-closings-keep-kids-busy/1/, https://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-reviews, https://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/age-appropriate-chores/, https://grownandflown.com/soft-skills-for-teens/, https://www.commonsensemedia.org/about-us/our-mission/about-our-ratings, https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-passport, https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-compass, https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/kid-safe-browsers-and-search-sites, https://nu.libguides.com/CommonCore/ccss_publishers, https://www.earthcam.com/events/animalcams/, https://www.commonsensemedia.org/resources-for-families-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic, https://www.steamsational.com/free-printable-homeschool-planners/, https://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/611770255064350720/remote-learning-with-khan-academy-during-school, https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSZhOdEPAWjUQpqDkVAlJrFwxxZ9Sa6zGOq0CNRms6Z7DZNq-tQWS3OhuVCUbh_-P-WmksHAzbsrk9d/pub, https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html, https://awakeandmindful.com/best-kids-yoga-videos-on-youtube/, https://hellobestow.com/blog/gratitude-games/, https://www.dropbox.com/s/xbwyrg21rbg79fj/conferencecallbingo.pdf?dl=0, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html, https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_school_closures_can_strengthen_your_family, https://hbr.org/2018/12/how-timeboxing-works-and-why-it-will-make-you-more-productive.
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