Create workbooks and lessons that incorporate different learning styles. Young children in particular need a lot of stimulation, and switching up the learning styles will keep them more engaged for longer.

Especially if you’re homeschooling as a temporary measure during these confusing times, make lessons fun and engaging for your kids. While you still want to maintain discipline and a routine, your days don’t have to mimic a regular school day, sitting at a desk.

Organize some activities so the kids can have some fun.

Record your students presenting as news anchors for a world issues, history, or social studies lesson. Create a project that involves them recording a skit, or explaining a book report. The opportunities are endless!

At home, you can give your kid undivided attention. Where they may get lost, fall behind, or slip through the cracks when studying in large class sizes, you can make sure they’re getting all the attention they need to really master a subject.

Take this time to focus on helping your child excel in a subject they previously struggled with, and/or plan for more time mastering the subjects they already love.

Join with other homeschoolers or co-ops in your area to provide support for each other (in small groups, six feet apart, of course). Along with the shared teaching resources, these groups give your children a chance to socialize with others.

If you’re under a full on quarantine you can find online groups as well.

You know your children best, and you’re in control of your homeschooling. The lesson plans and daily schedule are yours to curate, but don’t be afraid to use the regular curriculum to guide you. It’s there for a reason.

Take a break from the workbooks and learn a skill. Help your kids learn to follow a recipe as you cook lunch or dinner together. Talk about the science behind basic foods like the chemical compound for table salt, or what happens when you mix baking soda and vinegar.

Even if you’re in a full-on quarantine, you want your children to continue developing social skills. Especially if your children are young, or if you have an only child. Arrange with some other parents in your neighbourhood for a set hour per day in which the kids can chat online, play games together electronically, or talk on the phone.

Any kind of peer socializing you can offer your child in these isolated times will be valuable.

If your child is struggling with certain subjects like math, teach that in the morning when they’re most alert and their mind is still fresh. Save the easier subjects for later in the day when motivation is fading.

It’s the best way to stay on track! Keep a daily planner and set goals to achieve each lesson. Make note of everything from chores to school work and breaks throughout the day. To encourage focus, try to keep your school space organized, too.

Teaching from home doesn’t mean you have to do everything on your own. Speak to other homeschool parents for advice whether it be in person or digitally. Online forums are a great place to find and share information.

Younger children might enjoy having dolls or stuffed animals in your learning space. Older kids might like to have some time to study in their rooms.

Take note of your children’s interests, learning styles, and what they might like to be when they grow up. You can channel those key bits of information into tailored lesson plans that they might not otherwise get when at school. Now is a great time to help them capitalize on their strengths.

If your kid(s) are in high school, this preparation time is precious and the schools being closed might feel like a bump on the road towards post-secondary education. But you as a parent can capitalize on this time to make/organize for college visits and help with college applications.

Don’t try to make yourself into someone you are not, or stressing that you are not as talented as other homeschooling parents seem to be. You know your child and will know best how to teach them! If education is not your speciality that’s okay. There are resources to help you get set up for success.

Don’t compare your child’s learning style to others or assume one style is best. There are benefits to all of them, and ways to focus on those benefits for the best results to suit your kid. Accept and tailor your teaching to your child’s learning style to help them thrive!

Of course, if you can’t, you can’t. But if you have a backyard, or can safely practice social distancing outdoors, then try to incorporate some sunshine and fresh air into your lessons.

Instead of reading alone and in silence, read aloud together often. You as a parent can read to your child, siblings can read to one another, and your child can read to you. You can also consider using audiobooks for some lessons.

Look for ways to spice up regular activities.

For example, tell your kids to answer questions in different voices. It’s funny, encourages creativity, and will get them more engaged! Use a different room of the house for one subject, move around, sing songs. Use your creativity to keep lessons interesting.

Especially when starting out, or if you only plan to be homeschooling for a short time, see if there is another homeschooler who is willing to offer their help. As you gain experience, find someone you can mentor in turn.

Forming good habits is incredibly important! Time management, chores, personal hygiene, exercise, healthy choices, and work ethic for example, are all important to keep up while learning at home.

Just because school is put on hold or you’re trapped inside, doesn’t mean you should let good habits fall by the way side.

This may seem like an obvious one, but it’s easy to slip into the habit of staying in your pyjamas all day. In order for your children to feel like they’re having a regular school day, and not having a sick day, or a long weekend, it’s important to make sure they get up and get dressed for school like they would on any other day.

It’s just another great way to keep them in the educational routine, which will keep them more alert during lessons, and make it easier when they go back to school.

Also, side note, can we talk about how this 6 year old girl has a nicer closet than anyone I know? The dream.

Whether it be a half hour quiet reading period, or some time to complete a math worksheet, give your kids some time to work on their own.

If your child is learning Spanish and you can barely muster an “hola como estas”, you may (okay, definitely) struggle to help them with these lessons.

Look to Duolingo to help with their language podcasts and gaming app. Find online courses or an e-learning tutor to help your child keep up their language practice. You don’t have to be fluent to help them!

It’s there to help you! But it’s not the bible – use it as a guide instead of a master.

We should foster our children’s passions and interests, but they should also be introduced to areas that may not be their first choice to ensure they get a well-rounded education. We all hate math, but we need it to function and succeed.

You aren’t expected to do all of this on your own! Outsourcing includes online classes, correspondence, tutors/teachers, and other avenues. You will almost certainly need to find other resources to fill a need.

If your homeschooling is only during this period of social distancing, you may hire an online tutor to help get you through a short period of time, and find that their help is so valuable that you want to keep them on one night a week once school resumes as normal. They can be extremely helpful and you’re helping someone find work during uncertain times.

Snacks are delicious, using them to teach is engaging, and you all deserve a treat. Use some chocolate or whatever your snack of choice is, and help use it to get your kids into math. You can keep your own little stash under the table.

Explain that you’re all navigating through this ‘new normal”. Communicate and let them know that while they may be at home, assignments still have to be completed on time, quizzes will happen, and your expectations are the same.

There will be times when both you and the kids get frustrated or overwhelmed. Don’t let it discourage you! It’s as simple as taking a break. If you organize set breaks throughout the day it makes it easy to avoid the levels of frustration building. You don’t want to only take breaks when it becomes too difficult.

Focus on using this time to nurture relationships; your relationship with your spouse/co-teacher, each child, and the relationships between siblings.

If you want to extend your children some luxuries during the school closure that’s fine. Instead of waking up at 7am for school, maybe you’d like to let them sleep in until 8am as a short term novelty until school resumes.

That’s fine, but make sure it’s consistent. Having some structure with your daily routine is necessary to keep focus and the work ethic strong.

If all else fails, try Pinterest. There are so many DIY, how-to, and personal blog links that you’ll have an endless supply of tips from experienced homeschoolers, who can in turn provide some of their own resources that helped them succeed.

Take this time to teach your kids some important subjects that you think may be lacking in schools. If you still think cursive writing is important, you can teach them on your own. For some reason, the education system doesn’t teach our children about important life skills like how to do your taxes, invest or save money, how health insurance works, how to interview for a job, and the list goes on.

These are just some examples of skills you can teach your children from home! It will be a huge benefit to them when they’re off on their own. (Obviously if your child is 10 it miiiiiight be a little early to start on these topics, but you get the idea.)

You may find that your child’s behavior changes when being educated at home. It’s an unusual environment compared to what they’re used to and they may try to push the boundaries to see what they can get away with at home that they might not have done at school.

Tailor sensory activities to the needs of your child. A student who is oversensitive to sound might be helped with soothing music. A child with an under-developed sense of touch should be encouraged to use tactile sensations by touching items that are soft, rough, slimy, wet, etc.

Especially if you’re teaching during self-distancing or quarantine, you know (or at least, we hope!) your children will be back at school shortly. You can still help homeschool them while school is out, but it doesn’t need to become your full time job. You can take notes from our friends in Norway who have implemented 4 day weeks, or just dedicate half your day to keeping up with your children’s education.

The entire system across the country has been affected by this suspension of classes, so it will inevitably have to take some measures to catch everyone up when they resume.

The way you choose to manage homeschooling will depend entirely on a number of factors including your job situation, experience, and even relationship status.

So obviously the way you manage teaching is up to you, but in order to teach your child about healthy balance and sharing relationship responsibilities, you can split teaching days or subjects with your partner. If your partner works in finance… maybe let them handle the math classes!

It’s not only schools that are closed – group sports and other extracurriculars have been cancelled as well. Your children will likely miss their ability to socialize and enjoy their favorite after school activities, so you will want to replace them with something else to keep them busy and happy.

Oral, visual, physical, and auditory. Incorporate some music, get the kids up and moving, make sure they’re engaged by speaking and not only listening. If you know what style of learning works best for your child you can cater more of the lessons towards that style, but it’s still important to expose them to a lot of different methods.

Use this opportunity to keep the kids informed and involved with politics and world news! There’s no school like the school of life and we are currently living in a situation which will be in future history books.

Talk together as a family about the coronavirus outbreak and how it’s affecting everyone around the world.

Something as simple as a deck of cards can help your children learn while playing! There are lists and lists of games that require some math skills. It gives math a real-world context and will help to recall the information more quickly next time they’re doing math equations.

Ask for details about what is expected of them (and you!) in terms of assignments and school work during this time. They may have some helpful tips about how to proceed, and it will make it easier on your kid when they go back to school.

Help them create their own work space and get excited about homeschooling. Spend some time helping them make it theirs, whether it be in their rooms, the office, or at the kitchen table.

If you have space in the house, it can be a good idea to switch up where you teach/study. Set some subjects to be taught in the office, others in the kitchen, some in the living room, and make it part of the routine to get a change of scenery when changing subjects.

No, seriously. Some students are self-motivated, but many need incentives and/or set limits. You have to finish math before we can move on to art.

Award time with electronics or playtime once schoolwork is complete. Make your expectations clear so there’s no confusion about what they need to get finished to earn their reward.

Invest in a dry erase or chalk board so you can list all assignments and chores for the day. Check them off when complete so they can see their progress and stay motivated to keep going.

The visual of their progress is more engaging.

Kids have more breaks than you would initially realize throughout the day. Maybe they’re waiting for other kids to finish their work, or they’re walking to another classroom, those little breaks add up. You don’t have to feel like your student needs to be busy for every minute of every day. The breaks will help you both stay sane during tough lessons.

Instead of the same day after day, give the students one day a week to try something slightly different. Use chalk for your spelling lessons, either outside or on an indoor chalkboard. Use rocks in the garden for basic math. Get creative! Learning in a different environment will keep them engaged and the information will stick.

Especially if this continues on for weeks and months, you might start to struggle with keeping things interesting, or keeping your child focused and motivated.

You can give them some control which will help! There’s no real reason not to let them decide the order in which they want to complete their assignments for the day. Let them work through the list in whatever order they’d like. As long as they get done – who cares!

It’s easy to underestimate how valuable taking time to make your own plan of for how you want the flow of your day to go too.

Even if it’s just scanning over the day’s reading materials, assignment requirements, or workbook pages, with your morning coffee, it will go a long way in preparing you for any questions your children might have.

Okay this one is super easy because who doesn’t love a fresh and sleek notebook? A thick planner. A leather bound book with gold trim around the edges. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

So homeschooling is the perfect excuse to go buy yourself the perfect planner. Maybe treat yourself to a couple special pens while you’re at it.

Schedule a 10-15 minute wrap-up meeting at the end of every day. It gives students the opportunity to ask questions, and for you to review their work with them and give any feedback.

You can grade the work with them, or in the evening after the school day is finished, but having work back to them as soon as possible will keep them motivated and let them know that you’re taking the job seriously. It will also give them a clear view of what to expect and look forward to the following day.

Review their grades with them in the morning if you don’t grade in front of them. It helps children feel accomplished and gives them a clearer view of what’s required.

In large class sizes kids don’t have the luxury of a lot of tailored one on one time. They just get a graded test or essay back with some remarks, and that’s that. Homeschooling has the benefit of dedicated time to really help your child understand where they can improve, and how to do that.

This is an unfamiliar and unplanned situation. You’re not expected to be the perfect teacher, and it will be a learning curve for both you and your children. Forgive yourself if a lesson doesn’t go exactly as planned, and continue learning as you adjust to the new situation.

You’re not alone, as millions of Americans and countries around the world are adapting to this new way of teaching during tough times.

Why not take a break from traditional learning and use a craft to relax while still learning. It’s a great way to keep the kid’s creative minds working, and it feels like it isn’t work!

Depending on how long this situation lasts… we’ll all be desperate for some crafts and hobbies to do.

There are homeschooling templates online from full time homeschool parents, and you can use those templates to help guide your lessons. You don’t have to start from scratch – you can cheat a little bit.

Lapbooks are an engaging way to help your kids retain information and can either be adapted to include as a part of the curriculum, or as a side project. Kids love them!

If your children have an agenda provided to them by the school, continue using that agenda. Use materials that they are familiar with using at school, even if you think you’ve got something better. It will help them not feel too overwhelmed with everything new. And it will be easier for them to jump back in to school when the time comes.

Especially in the wake of schools shutting all over the country, there’s an increased need for educational support. Tons of bloggers will be offering guides and templates, and many of them will be free! Start with homeschooling blogs for their downloadable content.

It’s important to keep your kids engaged, and technology is a great way to do that. Especially if your child has been given an iPad from the school, they’ll be familiar with how to use it for learning.

But you don’t want it to take over your whole day, or use it exclusively. While it may be tempting to leave them to their own devices (pun intended), it’s important to give them a healthy mix of online and real world learning.

You can also try online quiz games like Kahoot, where you can find pre-made quizzes, or make one of your own tailored to the lessons you’re teaching.

If you have young kids, you can start your morning with a little bit of play. Have them put their backpacks on, line up some chairs two per row and one at the front, and pretend their on the bus to school!

Make the driver take some speedy corners and do some crazy driving so they have to act along with you. It’s a little bit of drama class, and a little bit of their daily routine still in the mix. It’ll give them something to look forward to when starting the day.

If you can, it’s worth getting a big world map for the wall, or a globe to help with geography. Things like this will help the kids feel more like they’re in a familiar learning environment, and will support you when you give lessons.

Put a festive spin on some of the lessons to keep them topical. We all remember the traced-hand turkey cut outs the kids bring home every Thanksgiving – activities like that are fun and still in keeping with the curriculum.

Getting up and presenting in front of the entire class can be nerve-wracking for most children. It’s a skill that has to be learned and plagues some people into high school, university, and the work place. Anything you can do to help your child become a confident public speaker will help in the long run.

Even though there may not be an entire class to present to, have them write a speech or present a project they’ve been working on to you and an audience full of stuffed animals, or the other members of your family.

It will give them some experience, and a boost in confidence for when they go back to school and have to present their next assignment.

You might hate math. Math is the worst, so that’s fair. And at a certain point in a child’s education, you’ll be behind or have a foggy memory of how to do what they’re currently learning. Pythagorean Theory? No thank you.

But, as their educators, it’s good if you can brush up on the subject. The kids may lose a little confidence in you if you have to shrug your shoulders and say you have no idea what they’re talking about. Or they’ll think (or, realize) that this information isn’t necessary in day to day adult living, and they’ll be less interested in learning it. And that won’t help them as the math continues to get harder and build on that foundational knowledge!

It may seem like a nice relaxing way to practice reading, by letting your students take a book and get comfy in bed. But the reality is that it’s not an active learning style… and there’s a real possibility they’ll fall asleep!

A quiet reading nook is fine, but avoid anything that could sweep the children off to dream land.

It’s got a reputation for being the easies subject, and that may be true… but in times like these activity is of the utmost importance. It’s easy to get stuck in a routine of sitting around the house and sinking into a couch, and that will just drive the kids even more stir crazy over time.

Give them some time to run around the house, dance, or go outside if at all possible.

If you have more than one child, get them to give peer evaluations. Use the hamburger method of two compliments sandwiched around one piece of constructive criticism (to avoid possible tears or fights).

They’re used to you constantly telling them how beautiful and special they are… but it will help to hear it from a peer as well.

There will be hard times, especially as you navigate these new waters together, but remember: you’ve got this.

There may be times when you are overwhelmed, feeling frustrated, or having trouble keeping your kids focused, but the time will pass so quickly, and when the schools re-open or your kids go off to college, you’ll miss these days together!

Committing to too many extracurriculars can leave both you and your kids overwhelmed. Try some different activities and re-evaluate your commitments throughout the year to see if something should go.