25 Remote Learning Tips For Parents Helping Children At Home

Due to the outbreak of the widespread pandemic Covid-19, classes have moved online and remote learning is carried out everywhere.

Remote learning was reported because of its role in supporting learning and maintaining a routine and sense of normalcy for kids when the schools and colleges continue to remain closed. You have to manage your work and ensure that your family’s basic needs are all met. At the same time, you cannot afford to overlook the importance of keeping your children engaged with learning at home.

It is not easy to come up into terms with this new reality easily, but fortunately, I have listed some tips below that can help you to reduce the stress in this transition process.

#1: Set and Follow a Schedule

You should try to make it closer to the school schedule as possible. This will make things easier for everyone.

Of course, you can incorporate changes as required to suit your circumstances at home, your work schedule, and sleeping times. However, once it is created just stick to it.

#2: Ensure the Availability of Required Tools

Your children will need many things ready at home to complete their assignments. Whether it be a pencil, paper, gum, scissors, pens, or any other thing, ensuring their availability makes life less stressful.

It is also important to ensure that you have a fast and stable WiFi connection. Further, all account log-in information should be kept handy. Finally, it pays to have a PDF reader, note-taking apps, and anything else they need to get their work done.

#3: Make Sure the Home Environment is conducive to learning

This may be a challenging task, but very important. If your kids remain isolated, you may not be able to keep an eye on them. If they sit at the kitchen table, they may be distracted. When everyone is at home, it is important to create a conducive learning environment.

#4: Chalk out a Daily Plan

The daily plan is not the same as the schedule. A daily plan involves listing the to-do items for a specific day, keeping the schedule in mind.

#5: Never Teach, Help Them Understand

This is one of the top remote learning tips as far as parents are concerned. Never try to teach your kids, help them complete their assignments. The kind of help needed can vary from one kid to another and depends on grade as well as the subject.

#6: Make Sure they complete their work

As a responsible parent, you must make sure that your kids complete their assignments on time. Leaving anything incomplete, including a clarification sought by the teacher on email, can affect his/her performance.

#7: Help your kids check messages, communicate with school

Encourage your children to check daily for emails/messages from teachers and/or other students and send replies to those emails and messages, if required.

#8: It is about your kid, don’t worry about the work

This is not easy when there is a lot of pressure from all fronts- home, office, and kids’ studies. But it is all for the well-being  of your child. You will have to take it in your stride. The additional stress brought in by remote learning is not going to last forever.

#9: Learn to understand your Kids’ problems

Teachers have to learn to find out as to why a student’s performance is going down. In the remote learning scenario, the onus on you. You need to find out why your child is struggling. Is it focus? Is it motivation? Are they yearning for a hug? Do they want you to sit with them?

#10: Make use of the School’s Resources

Contact your kid’s school for resource support. This is very critical if your kid needs additional support and the school’s special services.

#11: Personalize your Kid’s Learning Space

It is a good idea to personalize your kid’s learning space in terms of sound, light, equipment, etc. You can also make small adjustments to their schedules.

#12: Encourage him/her to have a Growth mindset

A growth mindset is not about what or how they should learn. It is all about how they should think about whatever they are learning. Encourage them to develop a positive mental attitude about everything.

#13: Help them Use the Right Resources

The goal is to help them have a clear idea as to where they should go for whatever they want. This enable them to save their precious time.

#14: Encourage your kids to follow their Passion

Set apart some time in their schedules on a weekly basis so that they can explore a little bit and find out what their real passion is.

#15: Help them Organize their Learning Environment

There is no doubt about the fact that the remote learning environment needs to be kept organized for your child to derive maximum benefits. However, it needs to be done depending on your circumstance.

#16: Encourage Ownership Attitude

Train your children to take ownership of whatever they are doing. The more your kids own their learning, the easier and more fulfilling it will be for all.

#17: Accept the Complexity associated with Learning

You need to think differently when it comes to helping your children with their school assignments. Know that your children need a lot of support – academic, collaborative, psychological, disciplinary, technological, etc.

#18: Help them to Find Motivation on their Own

Children are different when it comes to motivation levels and what motivates them. Further, parents-children and parents-teachers-children dynamics are different. However, motivation is one area where parents could be better than teachers. The goal is to motivate them to learn without psychological punishments.

#19: Understand the working of the brain and how learning happens

Read about learning theories and basics of neuroscience.

#20: Make Learning Interesting

Decide points, set challenges and achievement levels, and draw out visible progress markers. Read a little bit as to how you can gamify learning and how it makes learning more interesting.

#21: Encourage your child to create a Learning Network

Help your children connect with their peers who have similar goals and attitudes towards life. For example, encourage your child that is desirous studying medicine with other students or groups that have similar ambitions.

#22: Help your Kid realize the value of acquiring specific knowledge

Emphasize the need to develop critical thinking apart from acquiring academic knowledge. This may be a homeschooling tip but, ideally, it should happen in all formal learning scenarios.

#23: Watch News Occasionally

Set a limit on viewing news. Young children can get scared. Assure them that they are very safe and that life would soon be normal.

#24: Enjoy Family Time

Do whatever it takes to enjoy family time. Play cards, make new/favorite dishes, sing/listen to songs, go through old family photos, or play games. Your children will be learning as well as having fun!

#25: Be your Children’s Role Model

Develop and practice healthy habits. Your children will be encouraged to do the same. You may be working from home, but you should get dressed, take breaks, continue to maintain your bedtime, get sufficient sleep, exercise, and eat right.

This is a stressful time, but it also presents an opportunity. It gives you more time to talk to your children about their interests, strengths, and where they need more support. This is also a good time to bond well as a family.