Schooling Kids at Home

Keep a Schedule and Continue School Work

  If families can keep a predictable schedule and continue school work in some fashion we can reduce children’s anxiety, according to psychologists and educators.  Children respond well to ten to twenty minute segments of active and quiet activities similar to a school day with rest, meals, and snacks rather than passively sitting in front of media. 

Young Children

 Very young children can play with their toys, be read to, play ball games and other games. There are hundreds of suggestions at grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org - Learning Through the Seasons podcasts. These are easy science, reading, math, writing, social studies, art, music, active and quiet activities for children. If families start out with a plan for doing schooling now it will be easier than no structure and then after a week realize that watching Netflix or gaming is not going to work.

On-line Resources

  There are lessons and guides like khanacademy.org for K- college all subjects; teacherspayteachers.com; Scholastic.com “Learn at Home”; Google “home school sites”, or “online homeschool programs.” Your schools may also have suggestions.

Setting Up 

  Keep schooling simple. You will need a work area with a flat surface, comfortable chair seating, good lighting and bins or bags for storage.  You already have these in the home.

Set Up: Keep It Simple

 A kitchen table works well. Children can be close to adults or older children who will be helping younger children. Avoid working on the couch. That area can be kept for reading. Turn off the TV, computer games, and cell phone during school time.  Gather paper, pencils, crayons, markers, glue, scissors, other materials as needed.

Preparation

  Have a plan and a schedule before meeting as a family. Children can get up like a regular school day, wash, dress, make the bed, eat breakfast, clean up. Then it is time to start.

Children’s attention span varies by age and child. Early elementary activities often are 6-10 minutes. Then change activity. You have many choices. You can have a variety of quiet and active activities, snack, playtime, reading/ writing time, break/food, play outside for twenty minutes, reading, math, science, social studies, board games, cooking, art, checking, redoing, and cleaning up.

    Every family’s situation is different. We do what we can in our own circumstances. The important thing is to have some schooling in place so children have experience of normalcy.  

Plan to Have Some Consistency

Family Meetings

  Sit down as a family to set up a realistic schedule in your situation. Some families do a little bit every day. Some setup rewards of smiley faces on a refrigerator chart, give free computer time and free time outside as rewards for doing school work. Some families use rewards of Facetime, Skype, or Zoom time with grandparents. Families can check often, “How are things going?” Frequently meet to take a look and adjust to meet your needs. 

www.grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com

wnmufm.org Learning through the seasons, Podcasts and live on Public Radio 90 Tuesdays about 4:30 

and Saturdays about 8:30 am during the news on NPR

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos
Sketch: Mark Nowiki

Water and Milk Healthier for Kids

  

Offer Water Every time Children Eat

Sixty per cent of children and teens ages 2-19 are drinking one soda or other sugary drink on any given day-- sugar, water, a little flavor, chemicals, and a little fizz, according to federal statistics.

  Pediatrician, Dr. Natalie Muth states,” "For children, the biggest source of added sugars often is not what they eat, it's what they drink." Kids get about 17 percent of their calories from added sugars. About half of those calories come from drinks.

Kid Friendly

  How can we have more water and less sugar? Nutritionists note that toddlers and preschoolers need about 16 ounces of milk a day.  After that, plain water can be the beverage of choice. Two to five cups of water a day are good depending on children’s size and what they are eating. Children ages 5-8 should have 5 glasses; 7 glasses 9-12; 8-10 glasses 13+.   How do we do that?

The WIC program provides milk to families with infants.

  Offer water every time children eat. Dr. Vincent Iannelli asks,” Why not give them water or milk and a piece of fruit.? That is better for nutrition and their teeth. A medium strawberry has only ½ gram of sugar. Families can provide water during mealtimes and snacks rather than sugary juice or soda. Drinking water rather than soda is cheaper, caffeine free, sweetener free, and will become a habit.  Some suggestions to encourage drinking water include: providing everyone with really cool and safe reusable water bottles. Put cucumbers slices in the water to add flavor. Lemon may be too acidic on teeth. Send children to school with a water bottle. Choose water when eating out.  It is much cheaper.

  Nutritionists suggest families set a good example. Eat a small snack and drink water or skim milk with our children. Have our snack at the kitchen table rather in front of the TV, phone, or computer to be aware that we are eating. A very tasty milk snack is a smoothie of milk and a few strawberries. 

Detectives

  

Read Nutrition Labels - BYO Beverages

 Young children can be taught how to read numbers on nutrition labels looking for all the words for sugar-- real or artificial-- salt, and chemicals. Usually chemical additives have very long names. Children can look for the number of sugar grams and become very aware of what they eat. These little food detectives can compare labels to find the lowest amounts of sweeteners and salt in all kinds of food.

   One gram of sugar equals 1/4 teaspoon. One Coke has about 10 teaspoons of sugar. One eight -ounce glass of orange juice also has 10 teaspoons of sugar. Milk has a little over 3 teaspoons of sugar and many nutrients. Google images has pictures of sugars in drinks. Search for “one gram of sugar visual.” For more see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org.

WIC Photo: Stephanie Booth, Creative Commons, some rights reserved

Water faucet photo: mitwa17/Creative Commons

Transparent Water Bottles: Creative Commons (Attribution 3.0) Categories: Vector Background, Vector Food File Format: EPS - bottles, package, transparent, water