You want your children to succeed. You want to watch them learn, thrive, and excel. In new online and work-from-home environments, however, you may be worried that your child is lacking the support he or she needs to triumph over the challenges that distance learning poses to young learners of any age.
While your child is learning from home, however, it’s important that you both understand that YOU are your child’s biggest supporter! While he or she learns to grapple with the new changes and challenges imposed by COVID-19 and remote learning, it’s vital that you serve as a constant source of encouragement in order to fully support your child’s academic growth from home.
During this period of transition from the classroom to an at-home learning environment, it’s important to focus on developing the key skills that your child would be expanding upon in a traditional school setting. Maintain close contact with your child’s teachers and counselors to make sure he or she is achieving goals, learning course material, and hitting the appropriate academic milestones for his or her grade level.
In addition to supporting your child’s learning through key skill development, it’s important to keep him or her engaged in faith and in home-life. Ensure that your child understands the state of the country and your community, but you should also take moments out of your day to speak about feelings and thoughts outside of the COVID-19 pandemic. Reflect on your faith together. Cook your child’s favorite meals. Spend time together as a family. Incorporate bonding time into your routine as much as your schedules allow to ensure your child feels safe, supported, and encouraged throughout the distance learning experience.
If you’re starting to feel the toll that distance learning can leave on parents unexperienced with work-from-home routines, be sure to keep in contact with other parents. Share your thoughts and feelings with them, and find out what seems to work and what doesn’t. How are their children coping with distance learning? What are some of the activities their family enjoys doing to spend time together? What have they found to be the best ways of limiting distraction and increasing productivity?
At the end of the day, the entire family must work together to ensure the success of its distance learning children. Remember that this process is a group effort, and while there may be roadblocks along the path to success, we’re all in this together.
