10 Tips for the Home School Fool

We had a meltdown at ‘home school’ today. I felt bad after but talked it out with my kid and admit that I’m learning too. In an instant I knew exactly why kids don’t like learning from their parents: We put too much pressure on them as we expect them to instantly know what we are expecting without the actual ‘teaching’ of it first.

We’re too directive and our kids are wired to not listen to us. We start and continue with question after question, and then our kids start to slouch and tune us out. Then parent gets mad, then yells and swears. Then kid cries. Then parent feels bad. I realized that it is within our own family that we show our truest traits within an instant, yes even the extreme backlash! This is the day that I break the cycle of aggravation and attitude or else learning at home will be nonsense!

My lessons learned as a home school fool to avoid these bad interactions!

1. Set up a schedule with visuals that’s tolerable for everybody – written, drawn, printed pictures.
2. Keep it consistent in some way – either the types of activities, order, length, who’s teaching, etc.
3. Set up work areas – be near the kids who need more support, older kids can work in another spot in house, or rotate stations, etc.
4. Have materials ready easily accessible – pencils, erasers, sharpeners, lessons to do, coffee, water, chapstick.
5. State expectations – short and sweet, use visuals always! Write it down with drawings next to a message, ie. Sit up, raise hand if have questions, no talking unless we’re working, clean up when finished, etc. This visual starts the home school mode.
6. ***** Change the tone of parent role to teacher role –

As parents	As teachers
-ask a lot of questions	-plan lessons
-more directive	-organize activities
-charging tone	-helper tone
-little to zero patience	-cheerleader tone
-get mad	-prompts/cues
-yells	-animated
-feel bad	-playful
-home school fool	-home from school – FOOL!!!

7. Don’t get mad.
8. Don’t swear.
9. Don’t de-grade.

Instead:

10. Praise, reward, and reinforce frequently – at the end transition into fun activities that’s not work, like outdoor time and ice-cream!

Relationships are different therefore the dynamics are different. As a parent, I have to switch my tone to prevent meltdowns. I have to teach what’s expected before expecting them to know it all. My kid has to be willing to work with me to get the right formula. These are tips that I will remind myself daily as I capture this role that’s not so new but looked at from a new perspective. As long as no one cries, we got it done!