Help With Home School

Teaching

Mar 24

Written By

This is not something I thought I'd be blogging about post-spring break, but hey, here we are and we're rolling with it. Now that I'm basically retired until next August, I'm channeling my efforts and trying to make the home school life easier on all of you work-from-home-parents-turned teachers.

What I told the parents of the kiddos in my own class is this: give yourself some grace. Regardless of what does or doesn’t happen over the course of the next eight weeks, you're not going to fail them in any way. I promise. Do not let social media, the neighborhood mom group chat, or the do-it-all mom on Facebook, tell you differently. If your child has been in school this year, they've been equipped with a solid 7.5 months of curriculum; that's a lot more than you think.

What you can do over the next couple of weeks will only help them. Please don't think that if you're not working with them 8 hours a day like they would be in school, that you're not doing enough. You cannot be a full time teacher, parent, and work from home employee, and stay sane, all at the same time. We as teachers, do not expect that of you. Set a goal of working with your child for 30 minutes per day.

What you can do outside of those 30 minutes? Keep them busy, let them play, and spend time with them! Educational activities and lesson plans are both important, but ipad time, couch snuggles, and making messes are good for them too. Yes, you heard me, IPAD TIME IS OKAY.

Below are learning mats, educational websites, and my top 5 favorite iPad apps. I hope these are helpful in some way! I will mention that because I teach Kindergarten, a lot of these are geared towards younger kids, but these should be helpful for anyone with kids Pre-K through second grade!