Kate’s home truths

Kate shares a lesson on teaching kids at home

With these strange, surreal times our kids are living through, we’re being told by the experts to keep up as much routine for them as possible. To keep the kids busy with books or household chores, or activities like board games, and keep their bodies and brains active. (Yes, there’s lots of scope for TV and mooching … but some semblance of a routine is important too.)

I interviewed a mum this week on my radio show. She’s a former teacher and now home-schools all three of her children.

I thought her tips would be super-helpful to share – not that all of us have the daunting task of having to teach our kids at home, of course. Many schools are lucky enough to have online learning facilities, or teachers who’ve set up digital worksheets for students. But at least 20% of schools in this country teach children who don’t have access to internet or broadband, so it’s not as easy as just clicking into a Zoom account or online school community platform.

We also don’t know yet how long our kids will be learning from home. So, here are a few key tips on how to keep our kids learning during these uncertain times: The first is to keep lessons brief. Less is more – it’s important to work at your child’s pace. Some days they may not be up for much and that’s cool too. Their mental health takes priority.

Another tip is to work the schedule around your own family life – don’t feel pressured to do a 9am-3pm day. The learnings from this historic period of time they’re living through will be more important than whether or not they completed a maths worksheet. Google what’s free for NZ home-school resources. There are handy websites available if you type the keywords “New Zealand”, “free”, “homeschool resources”.

Another suggestion is to keep breaks short. Morning tea and lunch should be taken early and kept short so focus is maintained and there’s plenty of room for downtime after lessons. Twenty minutes of reading in their rooms after lunch is a good catch-abreath moment to give everyone some space and let Mum or Dad have a well-earned cuppa!

With older children, give them a more detailed timetable with directions as to how they can work more independently. They don’t need as much hand-holding as littlies.

And finally, one tip from me: I’ve suggested to my daughter she start journalling about this time, so she has a good personal account of this moment in history. She’ll have something to show her grandkids, and something for her to look back on as an adult and feel proud of. I get her to read me her entries as it’s a good way to monitor anxiety levels and see where her focus is.

We might be worried about jobs and income, but kids’ concerns may be more around when they’ll next get to hug their grandparents. I do take great heart from my daughter’s first entry though, “Lots of dickheads are panic buying toilet paper.”

I think that about sums it up!