Top 5 Tips For Learning at Home
Written by Hannah Trenowden
Copyright 2020
Adjusting to learning from home can be challenging for even the most experienced teachers.
Here are my top tips to make the transition from the traditional classroom to learning from home as smooth sailing as possible.
1. Set Up an Environment Conducive to Learning
An environment free from distractions is essential when setting up for learning at home . There should be no phone conversations taking place, televisions on or too many other things happening in the space. This can be hard in a big family, but if everyone can work together it will benefit all the members of the family. High school aged children will often benefit from being able to learn in their own space, while primary aged children will need a space shared with you. In our shared learning and living space I even avoid running the noisy dishwasher or having music playing when we are focused on learning.
There also needs to be plenty of space, so that children can organise their resources and not feel like they are competing for space with their siblings or parents. We spread out on the dining room table, with one child at each end of the table.
Another obvious but often overlooked tip is to always have devices that can be used for learning tasks fully charged at the beginning of the day.
2. Create a 'power hour'
In our ‘power hour’, no one is allowed to talk unless they are asking for help for the task they are working on. This might sound draconian but it switches everyone from family, chatting mode to focused, learning mode. It means that there are less distractions from each other but the children also know they can get help for their task; keeping the focus on the learning. It can also encourage children to be somewhat independent as they look within themselves for ideas knowing they are well supported as an adult is there to answer their questions should they have any.
In our home this ‘power hour’ is as soon as the ‘school day’ starts at 8:50am and it starts with literacy activities. I don’t actually time the hour; sometimes we can stretch it out much longer than an hour, while other times we need to break for a snack just shy of an hour.
3. Structure the day to suit your family.
For some parents this will be obvious but some of you might feel the pressure to complete six hours of learning every day or stick to the planner provided by the classroom teacher.
Children do not learn intensely for the full six hours of the school day so you can let that go once and for all. Furthermore, any good teacher will not be worried about when you engage in the tasks set for at home learning.
Most pre -school and primary aged children will be able to concentrate best in the morning sessions. Having said that no two children are the same. One of mine will be raring to start her school time while still eating breakfast while the other needs another half an hour to shower, cuddle and just generally wake up and then she is good to go. Don’t be tempted to force your children onto schedules that are exactly the same. Although some common time will help with organising the day for you, try to be aware of your children’s different needs.
If you are also working from home and you need to be on calls or in ‘meetings’ at set times then plan your children’s power hours before or after these work commitments so you can give them your time in the ‘power hour’.
Similarly if you have toddlers or babies, you might like to keep the power hour for when the little ones are taking their naps so you can give your undivided attention to your older child.
4. Use tools in the environment to keep children motivated and make life easier for you.
We are so blessed with all sorts of technology at our finger tips so why not use it to engage your children and make life easier for you. For me the most important of all are the headphones, they allow everyone to escape to their worlds of online stories, games and coding without distracting those around them.
As a teacher I know how hard it can be to get some children to write with pen and paper. For this reason I always set the writing tasks at the beginning of the day when the children are fresh and I use tasks that are more technology based as the day goes on. For example handwriting and spelling comes before listening to an online story and maths sums come before mathletics tasks.
But technology is not limited to online resources, some other great technology that is much more readily available at home than at school are things like cameras, timers and devices like Google Home. Why not record a video journal or reflection of an activity if your child is not motivated to write again?
Or use a clip board and a camera to go on a hunt through the house/garden for the thing you are learning about (2D/3D shapes, angles, mini beasts etc.). Children of all ages love a clip board or mini whiteboard.
5. Be flexible and differentiate
While it is important to have a structure for the day planned to guide both parents and children it is also very important to let them go if they are in a state of 'flow'. When learning at home we are in an enviable position as we only have a handful of students who we need to meet the needs of. So if the children are engaged and productive don’t feel the pressure to move on to the next task just because you want to tick it off the list.
Good classroom teachers will also adjust their lessons if they find students are engaged and not keen to stop so why not do this in your ‘classroom’?
Having said that, it is important to discuss this with the children. “I can see you are really enjoying this activity, do you agree to doing your next activity after lunch?” Last week my daughters both agreed to doing their spelling tests on the Saturday as they didn’t want to stop what they were doing on Friday. It felt incredibly strange to sit down on a Saturday and give them each their weekly spelling test but they were more than happy to do it since they had agreed on it the day before.
Having said that if a task is too hard and causing too much stress don’t be afraid to abort mission or adjust the task to suit your child. Keeping the goal of the task in mind will help you to differentiate to suit your child.
For example, is it research but your child is not motivated enough to read anymore? Find a fabulous clip to watch and share it with your teacher and classmates or jot down some notes after watching the clip (always watch twice: once for pleasure, once for learning).
Or have they completed a coding task but rewriting the code will bore them to tears? If so let them record a video reflection of the task. This will definitely give you a chance to engage in your ‘Zoom’ work meeting as they watch their video again and re-shoot again and again until they are happy with it.
I hope these ideas help you to support your children in their learning at home and also relieve some stress during these challenging times.
