An Open Letter to the New COVID-19 Homeschooler

Missy Andrews | March 19, 2020

As I sat rubbing sleep from my eyes this morning, wondering what new coronavirus mandates might come to disrupt our routines today, I found myself on social media. The comments and videos that most affected me were those from you moms who recently discovered that you were homeschooling by government mandate. You look tired, bewildered, and overwhelmed. You look like beginning swimmers who have been thrown in the deep end of the swimming pool – with your infants, toddlers, and teens. My heart goes out to you.

Homeschooling is a daunting proposition at the outset. I mean, how can one woman (or man) without training replace a virtual army of professional educators? At least, that’s what I thought when I first became acquainted with the idea of home education. But after 23 years of homeschooling my own six children and 15 more helping other homeschool families, I can assure you that the task of home education is absolutely possible. As a matter of fact, I’d like to encourage you that you’ve just been given one of the greatest gifts of your lifetime. So, don’t worry that your kids will fall behind, or that you’re not qualified to lead the educational charge in your homes. Instead, remember that God gave your children to you, and you are just what your kids need right now.

I learned a few things in my years of homeschooling that I hope might help you as you ramp up to do this newly allocated job with your own kids. Consider them a life preserver I’m throwing to you. Four things kept me sane through the crazy:

1) Organize

2) Utilize

3) Prioritize

4) Maximize

First organize: Embrace the “new normal” and meet it with a new routine. Homeschooling is a job, and like any job, it requires organization – a plan. After you and your kids have had a rest from the daily grind, make a reasonable daily schedule and try to stick to it. Think of it like a family budget, but for time rather than money. Include things like times to rise and dress, take meals, do chores, and complete classwork. Your students are used to schedules. In fact, no day school could function without one. A schedule builds structure into the day, which facilitates getting things done by making time and space for them. This is true not only of daily schoolwork and chores, but also of recreational activities. Be sure to factor in some free time too! Once you have a schedule, you don’t need to feel guilty for doing something non-school related. Your time is accounted for.

Now utilize: The best way to keep pace during your school’s shutdown is to continue making use of daily assignments and classes. If your school is offering online instruction, make sure your kiddos participate. If they send work home via emails or discussion boards, make sure your kids are doing them. In this paradigm, you are merely facilitating what the teachers are assigning. They need you to partner with them to be effective.

If, however, your school system has offered you no help, you are in no way at sea. There are a variety of online classes in which you can enroll your students. Many of these are offering temporary access to classes at discounted rates and some are graciously making classes and materials free in view of the comprehensive and unexpected nature of the current crisis. #thanks!

That being said, it’s probably not necessary for you to spend a lot of money acquiring curriculum and books right now. Use what you have. How many of the books in your home have your children already read? Likewise, the majority of libraries have made many of their holdings available virtually. Investigate these before sinking a lot of money into new purchases.

Next prioritize: It’s hard to go from 0 to 100 in 1 second flat. Likewise, it’s not necessary that you cover every subject under heaven with your children. Homeschooling looks different at different ages and grade levels, but the following suggestion applies to them all: Dial back your expectations.

Scale back to the fundamentals: reading, writing, and arithmetic. If you and your kids did nothing but read during this time, they would benefit. The fact that your kids were doing 8 hours of school a day at the local brick and mortar school doesn’t mean that they (and you) must spend every waking moment schooling at home. In fact, lots of the time they spend at school is wasted changing classrooms, transitioning between teachers and subjects, having recess and bathroom breaks, and navigating crowd control. Additionally, most teachers will admit they spend a good bit of class time dealing with discipline problems. Factor all of that out, and you’d virtually cut school time in half.

So much can be gained by simply reading, discussing, and writing about books. Spend time reading aloud. If your children are young and still working on reading fluency, let them read to you. Take turns. Mom reads a page; junior reads a page. That way, they’ll learn inflection (reading with expression) from you. As they’re able, spend time talking about what you’ve read. With the youngest, ask simple, fact-based questions. Who is the main character? What does he want? What did he do? What happened? Fostered narration facilitates reading comprehension. With late elementary and middle school kids, amplify these fact-based questions by asking them to fit the facts together. Move from the what to the how of the matter. How did the main character achieve his object? Or how was the main character thwarted in his attempts to get what he wanted? This question sets kids up to consider the thematic ideas within a story. With high schoolers, ask them to interpret the facts, going beyond the literal language of a story to explain the big ideas implicit within it. A great place to gear up for these conversations is with CenterForLit’s Teaching the Classics. This parent teacher training program contains a generic list of questions designed to stimulate conversations about stories with students of every age. Or if you’d rather someone else lead the conversations, CenterForLit runs an Online Lit Academy with classes for elementary, junior high, and high school students too. Check out our offerings at centerforlit.com. If you would like to jump in mid-semester, email us at adam@centerforlit.com and we can make arrangements.

If math seems daunting to you, there are a variety of online resources and curriculum companies that might help. Check out Teaching Textbooks. This program contains video instruction for every lesson and a digital resource that works out every problem contained within the text for students. That way, if the student gets stumped, he can learn along with the virtual instructor. The program provides additional problems of each sort so that the student can get plenty of practice with concepts and work for proficiency. Another great math program, especially for the younger students, is Math-U-See, which uses manipulatives so that students can learn math conceptually. This is a really great program for tactile learners. Let’s not forget Khan Academy, a coup of free resources in math and science for students of all ages. Of course, this only touches the surface of the programs available online. Look around. You might be surprised by what you find!

Writing might be the most difficult subject for parents to teach. It requires some specialized skills and individualized attention. In fact, the only way to really learn to write is by having someone who already knows how to write edit what you’ve written. Because this is such a time-consuming enterprise, most writing instruction will cost you. You can begin teaching writing, however, through the Institute for Excellence in Writing’s lessons in Structure and Style. This curriculum works well with second graders but was originally designed for use with college freshmen. Consequently, it’s universally useful! Once your student has managed the basics of composition, however, some individualized attention might be in order. Find subject specific writing instruction through CenterForLit’s online academy, or through companies like Write at Home, a mentor-based creative writing program.

Contrary to public school paradigms, curriculum-based science instruction is not essential before high school. Cover the subject of science through interesting books, many of which can be found free online. Check out your library app for free downloadable books. If online classes are more your game, Apologia Science offers good ones. What’s more, everyone will enjoy Lyrical Life Science, which sets the substance of science to music for memory. So fun!

History is another subject that can be continued through reading before high school. Combine it with geography to expand your child’s world. Make a scrapbook of the places you “visit” from your armchair. If you’re looking for more formal instruction in history, try the Classical Historian. His resources include discrete reading, discussion, and writing assignments for the various periods of history. If you’d rather he teach for you, his online history academy is offering enrollment now.

Finally, maximize: I just can’t emphasize enough what a gift this time you’ve been given with your kids is. When you’re in the throes of childrearing, it feels like it will never be over and that you just aren’t going to make it. But it will, and you will. Soon you will stand at the finish line looking back and wondering where all the time went. There will be good things about that, too (like the house will stay clean and quiet and you’ll be able to drink your coffee in peace instead of refereeing a fight between kids). But trust me. You’ll miss it. Each day has its blessings, right? The secret is to capitalize on what is in this moment. It is good.

Maybe you’ve got a straight A student. What if you give him his head? Require that he read daily but let him choose the subject. Maybe he’d like to pursue a language that isn’t offered at the local public school. Or maybe he’s interested in a subject like logic. Now is a good time for him to explore!

What if you’ve got more than one kiddo at home to school? How do you handle multiples in various stages of reading development? You might try a family read-aloud and discuss it CenterForLit style. Too busy to read aloud? Try listening to an audio book during dinner and discussing it together. Study a period of history as a family, choosing age appropriate books on the subject for each kiddo. Combine art and science by taking some outdoor junkets and sketching some flora and fauna. Research what you find together online. What kind of tree (flower, bird, etc.) is it? How does it propagate? What are its uses? What is its classification? You get the idea. Really no matter what you are doing, your goal is to model learning for your kids. It’s not necessary that you as the parent teacher know everything. That’s impossible! Here’s a secret: their teachers don’t know everything either. Instead be a model learner for your kiddos. If they learn how to think, how to ask questions, and how to investigate, there’s nothing they won’t be able to learn!

One more word about homeschooling multiples. Consider this: It may be the first time they’ve done this “daily life” thing together. As they work together, suffer together, and are forced to find a peer in each other, they just might be building lifetime friendships. That’s what happened with my six. In fact, my own kids tell me that their siblings are their best friends in the world. What a gift.

Remember that life skills are important too. Kids can learn plenty from helping with the cooking and the chores. Lots of school subjects and assignments try to simulate these activities. Remember home economics and shop class? Time spent learning these skills is worthwhile.

Maybe the pressure of academics has stifled your child’s creativity. With this windfall of time, play! Letting the littles play imaginatively is highly underrated and largely linked to growth and learning facility. Or maybe you give some time to arts and crafts. Pull out your paints and crayons and duplicate a masterpiece. Play with perspective. Illustrate a story that’s being read aloud. The possibilities are really limitless.

What if you’re homeschooling multiple kids and caring for a toddler? I’ve found that a box of special toys made available only when I was working with a sibling sometimes helped to occupy them. Of course, it depended upon the day and the hour! I’ve also taught the times tables while changing a diaper. It works. What’s more, by having everyone together, the younger ones seem to learn more quickly. They’re present when their older sibling is learning his phonograms; so, when their turn comes, they’re that much further ahead. Likewise, the older ones are spurred forward because their little brother or sister is always nipping at their academic heels. Ask your grandmother about the old one-room schoolhouse paradigm. Lots of kids skipped a grade this way!

I can hear some of you now: That all sounds fine and dandy if your kids are game, but my kids are running around in circles in their underwear, dropping cheerios all over the floor and screaming at each other. Boy, do I ever hear you. I had six kids of my own, and I’ve been there. What if your kids are just out of control? First, let me just say that a little of this is the inevitable result of their world order being turned on its head. Remember, this pandemic is happening to them too, and they don’t have the perspective you do to cope with all of the changes. Maybe give them just a little sec to adjust! But once the dust has settled a bit, if they continue to terrorize, give thanks because, guess what? If they’re perpetually disobedient and unruly at home, they were probably difficult at school too! Now that they’re home with you all day, you’ll have time to address that. Veteran teachers will attest to the fact that undisciplined kids are virtually impossible to teach. This means that even if you spend your time doing nothing but disciplining over the next few weeks, you will be making academic progress with your kids. A fringe benefit is the permanent peace you’ll establish in your home in the process. Furthermore, you’ll be storing up jewels in your proverbial crown – and with their teachers when your kids return to school respectful, obedient, and ready to learn. Who knows? Maybe by that point you’ll even decide to continue this homeschooling thing. Well behaved kiddos are a real joy.

Regardless of how you choose to move forward after the Corona Apocalypse, try to enjoy your homeschool experience. Capitalize on the good stuff. Read in your jammies. Discuss big ideas as a family. Learn together. Play together. Love each other. In this way, we’ll turn this crisis into a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Let’s face this crisis together.

Follow this link to discover the free resources CenterForLit is offering during COVID-19.