How to behave to parents who are locked at home with children? How to allocate the time free from attending school? How to organize the educational process when no one is ready for it either emotionally or physically? The main thing is to remain calm, says psychologist Ekaterina Kadieva.
In the first weeks of quarantine, it became clear to everyone that no one was ready for distance learning. Teachers have never been tasked with establishing remote work, and parents have never prepared for self-study of children.
As a result, everyone is at a loss: both teachers and parents. Teachers try to do their best to improve the learning process. They come up with new educational methods, try to remake the curriculum for new tasks, think about the form in which to issue assignments. However, most of the parents did not study at the Pedagogical Institute and never worked as teachers.
Everyone needs time to adapt to the current situation. What can be advised to make this adaptation faster?
1. First of all — calm down. Try to soberly assess your strengths. Do what you can. Stop assuming that everything that schools send you is mandatory. Don’t be nervous — it doesn’t make any sense. A long distance must be covered on an even breath.
2. Trust yourself and your intuition. Understand for yourself what forms of training are convenient for you. Try different techniques with your children. See how your child is doing better: when do you tell him the material, and then he does the tasks, or vice versa?
With some children, mini-lectures followed by assignments work well. Others like to read the theory themselves first and then discuss it. And some even prefer to study on their own. Try all options. See what works best for you.
3. Choose a convenient time of day. One child thinks better in the morning, the other in the evening. Take a look — how are you? Now there is a real opportunity to establish an individual study regimen for yourself and your children, to transfer part of the lessons to the second half of the day. The child worked out, rested, played, had lunch, helped his mother, and after lunch he made another approach to the study sessions.
4. Find out how long the lesson is for the child. Some people find it better when the lessons are quickly replaced by changes: 20-25 minutes of classes, rest and practice again. Other children, on the contrary, slowly enter the process, but then they can work for a long time and productively. It is better to leave such a child alone for an hour or even an hour and a half.
5. Create a clear daily schedule for your child. A child who is sitting at home has the feeling that he is on vacation. Therefore, parents need to make an effort to maintain a routine: get up at a reasonable time, do not study endlessly and, most importantly, do not confuse study with games. Rest is just as important now as it has always been, so plan time for it in your schedule.
6. Divide the apartment into zones. Let the child have a recreation area and a work area. This is an important condition for the organization of training. This is what some adults who work from home do: they get up every morning, get ready and go to work in the next room. This helps to change the home format to work and tune in. Do the same for the child.
Let him sleep in one place, do his homework where he always does, and do the lessons themselves, if possible, in a completely different part of the apartment. Let this be his workspace, where there will be no things distracting him.
7. Come up with a schedule for the whole family. And most importantly — include in it the possibility of relaxation for yourself. It is important. Now parents have even less time left, because remote work has been added to their usual duties. And this means that the load is even greater than it was.
Because at home, the processes that were going on as usual in the office need to be transferred to an online format. At the same time, no one canceled cooking and cleaning. There are more household chores. The whole family is assembled, everyone has to be fed, the dishes have to be washed.
Therefore, first decide how to simplify your life. If you try to do everything perfectly, you will only be exhausted and tired even more. When you understand how comfortable you are, it will be easier to figure out how to make life easier for the child.
Give yourself some time and some freedom. It is very important not to forget about yourself. Quarantine is not a reason to perform feats, because we have more free time. The main thing is to return to an active life healthy and happy.
8. Create a time frame for the child. The child must understand How long time he is given to study, and How long — to change. For example, he has been studying for 2 hours. Didn’t make it — didn’t make it. Other times, the process is better organized. In a few days he will get used to it and it will become easier.
Don’t let your child sit in class all day. He will get tired, start to get angry at you, at the teachers and will not be able to complete the task properly. Because studying that lasts all day will kill any motivation and desire in a child and spoil the mood of the whole family.
9. Let dads take care of the kids. Often mom is emotions, games, hugs. Dad is discipline. Trust the father to supervise the children’s lessons.
10. Talk to your child about why he is studying at all. How the child sees his education and its role in his life. Why is he studying: to please his mother, to get good grades, to go to college or something else? What is his purpose?
If he is going to become a cook and believes that he does not need school wisdom, right now is a good time to explain to the child that cooking is chemistry and biochemistry. The study of these subjects will help him in a complex and intricate process. Connect what he learns with what he wants to do next. So that the child has a clear reason for learning.
11. See quarantine as an opportunity, not a punishment. Remember what you have long wanted to do with your child, but you did not have the time or mood. Play games with children. Let them try on different roles on different days. Today he will be a pirate, and tomorrow he will be a housewife and cook food for the whole family or clean the dishes for everyone.
Turn household chores into a game, switch roles, it can be fun and funny. Imagine that you are on a deserted island or you are on a space ship, fly to another galaxy and explore another culture.
Come up with a game that you would be interested in playing. This will give a feeling of greater freedom in the space of the apartment. Make up stories with your children, talk, read books or watch movies together. And be sure to discuss what you read and see with your child.
You will be surprised How long he does not understand, does not know, and How long you yourself do not know. Communication is also learning, no less important than lessons. When you watch a cartoon about Nemo the fish, for example, you can discuss how fish breathe, how the ocean works, what currents it has.
12. Understand that in a few weeks the child will not fall behind hopelessly. No disaster will happen if the child misses something. In any case, teachers will then repeat the material in order to understand who learned it how. And you should not try to become an excellent student with your child. Better turn quarantine into an adventure so that you can remember those five or six weeks later.
13. Remember: you are not obliged to teach children, this is the task of the school. The task of the parent is to love the child, play with him and create a healthy developing atmosphere. If it seems that you should not get involved in learning, watch movies, read books and enjoy life. The child will come to you with a question if he needs help.