Category: Parenting

Whether you are a parent assisting kids for the first time at home in a distance learning situation, or a regular homeschooler, home classroom management strategies plays a major role in a students success.  Or you may be a parent who simply wants to supplement what your kids are already learning in a regular school classroom.

Whatever your situation, here are some valuable tips to help you enhance your child’s “at home” learning experience. We will cover home schooling structure to ensure kids stay engaged, as well as teaching ideas for parents which can be implemented on a daily basis. Throughout the article you will find helpful resources to equip your home school with the latest educational resources available to ensure an effective learning environment.

Learning Strategies at Home

Some learning strategies happen naturally at home.  Providing quiet areas for independent older students who need to work on a paper is important, especially when younger siblings are being loud.  Making the environment more conducive to study can also help.  Using music, games, role playing or charts to present information are excellent ways to engage students. You can take it one step further by having them help create the games or make the charts to further engage through in active learning while teaching at home.

Breaking up the lesson into twenty-minute segments can help.  Before returning to the lesson, review what was learned before moving on to new material.  And of course, one should always give prompt specific feedback about a student’s work.

Allow for Flexibility Within Structured Learning

Interacting with adults is much easier to do at home, but teachers in classroom have also seen success in allowing students to move away from their desks and interact with classmates.  This can be done in a form of activity or allowing the student to freely go for a drink of water throughout the day.  At home, this is a good example of keeping things free flowing within a structure.  Getting up and moving around allows for blood to flow and keep the mind alert.

This brings up another important point about exercise. While you may not be able to have structured sports daily, make sure to include some kind of exercise routine throughout the day. It can be simple floor exercises or going for a walk.  If you find that your kids are having trouble paying attention, it may be a good time to stop the lesson and so some kind of physical activity for five minutes. It also brings additional benefits such as reducing screen time to ensure more balanced life.

The Importance of Asking Questions

There are other strategies that might not occur so naturally at home, such as allowing three to five seconds of wait time after asking questions throughout the presentation.  These pauses allow students to process the information before, during and after the presentation of the new concept.  It will also help you determine what the student knows and correct any misunderstandings.  Don’t be afraid to adjusting your presentation to re-teach anything that needs clarifying.

As kids get older be sure to ask questions that involve critical thinking, such as…

Do you agree with why or how something happened or is the way it is?”

How would you prove is there a better solution?

How would you rank the importance of various situations or options?

This helps students develop critical thinking skills.  Using words like “evaluate, justify, support and critique” when discussing material can help them make judgments about reality.

Remember too that the high school student is naturally interested in questions that challenge the status quo. In subjects such as Social Studies, kids care about whether a proposed course of action was expedient or inexpedient.   They care about whether someone deserves praise or blame.

If any of these suggestions are making you feel overwhelmed by the sheer notion of having to supplement or replace the teaching your child was receiving in school, start with the fundamentals; Language, Reading and ways to homeschool math.

Educational Games

Educational games play an important role in helping kids get a grasp of their subject, help them see how things actually work through gameplay, and enable them to learn subjects at their own pace. Moreover, educational games help kids feel rewarded after completing a task / exercise as in-game rewards serve as gratification after they finish games and score well in after-game questions, which encourages them to think critically and try to find the right solutions. These games also help them keep a track of their lessons and mistakes, and help them assess where they need improvements. Such games do not bore kids and keep them interested for long without making studies feel like a burden.

There may be innovative educational resources that are already in your home.  This is a great benefit to parents working hard to bring new teaching ideas and techniques into the homeschooling experience. Consider opportunities outside of daily teaching routines, such as the introduction of educational video games.   For your children who already play online for entertainment purposes, you can engage their interest during “school hours” by allowing game play during the day with an educational focus.  

The Importance of Continuous Discussion

Whether or not asking questions leads to a discussion about a topic, creating an environment for open discussion throughout any lesson is vital to keep students engaged and even excited about what they are learning.   Discussions can help participant learn and stay interested in a way listening to a lecture doesn’t.

A focus on starting a discussion can also be what it takes get the ball rolling into kids asking the questions they may not even be thinking about.  While this is going on, students are working out what they believe about ideas and concepts while being an active participant in learning.

Whether kids are receiving online teaching or tutoring through distance learning, parents can always enhance the education of their children.  After all, the most important reason we educate our children at home is to form their minds and hearts. This can’t be done without conversation, so the best learning strategy is to talk to your children.  It can often be easier to begin any discussion within an educational framework as simple as when you are helping them with homework. 

A Word About Online Jobs in Teaching

If you are a parent with teaching credentials you may want to consider exploring online jobs in teaching.   Let’s face it, your consistent presence at home with your kids prevents you from working in a traditional teaching job.  However, there are various opportunities to teach online.  These include teaching English as a second language (ESL), as well as seeking out educational jobs in an administrative role. 

Find companies hiring for online teaching jobs that may work with your goals to stay at home raising and teaching your kids, whether part time or on a full time basis that allow you to set your own hours.

Creative writing skills boost problem-solving, innovation, and resourcefulness. Helping our kids build these skills is important. Plus, it also gives them an outlet for all their creative ideas. How do you build those skills without making it seem like work?

Here are 9 ways to make creative writing skills fun:

1. Read Often

Books are the best precursor to writing. So get your kids reading! With repeated exposure to words, ideas, and styles, and in books, kids build the ability to mimic and adopt them.

Flood them with exposure to books and watch their skills rise. Yes, it will look a lot like what they’ve read at first. That’s ok! They’re just playing “dress up” with other people’s ideas. They’ll soon start writing like themselves.

Encourage your children to read more than one type of writing. If they gravitate toward non-fiction, maybe try historical fiction. If they only like superhero stories, introduce them to a story with a main character of a different gender or ethnicity.

2. Identify Ways to Practice

Just like anything, improving creative writing skills takes practice. Set your children up for success by making practice easy and fun.  This will only help them in future grades when they are required to write book reports. 

You can piggy-back creative writing off of other imaginative play and encourage your child to write down episodes of the games he plays. Allow the free flow of ideas – the more creative the better!

Focus on this type of activity can be tricky for kids. It’s important to give kids a dedicated writing space. Fill it with fun paper or a kids’ journal, great pencils, and few distractions.

3. Encourage Your Child to Write

Children are often predisposed to wanting to write. Even before they can form letters correctly, many children will say they are “writing.”

Nurture this desire!

When children feel writing is powerful, and their writing matters, they will want to keep trying. However, they want to start writing is how they should write.

If your child struggles with the physical act of writing, consider helping with that part. You can use talk-to-text features in apps or even agree to be their “scribe.” Then they worry less about the act of writing and pay more attention to the ideas they are forming.

4. Encourage Journaling

Journaling is a great way to encourage creative writing. It gives them a concrete way to see their “progress” writing.

A handful of kids’ journals often come preloaded with prompts and ideas, which helps kids get started. It also helps that journaling is usually a daily activity. By having smaller, but more frequent, writing sessions, it helps children develop a perspective on what writing can be.

Journaling also helps build emotional intelligence. By writing about their feelings, children work through their thoughts and emotions and are better able to recognize and accept them. It gives them the opportunity to talk about difficult things without embarrassment, advice, or recrimination.  

5. Use “Feeling” Words

Another benefit of building creative writing skills is children learn to use powerful words to draw in their readers.

You can encourage this development by helping them give their character’s feelings. When writers allow their characters to feel, they make them more relatable and interesting. But since the feelings of the characters don’t necessarily come to mind for kids, direct suggestion may help.  Help them get there by asking questions about the characters. Why was the hero doing that? What was she thinking? How was she feeling?

Additionally, use inclusive language to make readers feel part of the story as it evolves.  Educate children on the diversity of readers and encourage them to introduce characters that are from different cultures and backgrounds. 

6. Use Writing Prompts

Does your kid express an interest in writing only to freeze when they actually try to write? Writing prompts could help your child overcome it.

Writing prompts can be found in many places. Look for interesting signs, funny pictures in advertisements, or even just asking “what if” and “why” questions. You could even play a song to inspire ideas and writing.

The idea is not to make them write about something, but to give them enough of an idea to push past the fear of getting started. Once kids get past the first few sentences and are “in” their story, their ideas will come to the surface.

7. Practice Storytelling

The reason why many creative writers write is their love of story. To help your child build creative writing skills, foster that love.

The key is to focus on telling a great story, not the writing. Let your child’s imagination run free as he piece together details that can complete a tale.

You can build stories together, with each person telling a few lines of the story before passing it along to the next. Or you can “get stuck” telling your story and need their help figuring out what happens next.

Whatever twists and turns in the plot happen are magical because it shows your child is learning they are driving the story. They get to create.

8. Play Games

A robust vocabulary is another important creative writing skill. To help your child build their vocabulary, try playing word games.

Word games are great because they put the emphasis on the game, not the vocabulary learning. The competitive aspect increases their intrinsic motivation to learn the words. The games themselves are great family activities.

If your child isn’t competitive, there are plenty of team-oriented options. You could also try magnetic poetry, other game-like world builders, or even a cool journal for kids where they write down fun words they’ve heard.

9. Provide Inspiration

The best inspiration for kids to write comes from loving the work of other writers. When your child has a book or series they love, keep it going! Encouraging their love of reading – and their love of story – will help them internalize the way their favorite authors write.

Reading to your children helps too. Because you can read higher-level books while your child listens, it allows them to focus on the story. It also gives you a chance to have conversations about meaning, characters, and plot.

As children read, they build vocabulary and understanding of how good stories develop. They will eventually be able to incorporate these ideas into their creative writing.

Creative writing is sometimes seen as a hobby- something to enjoy, but not to be taken too seriously. But building creative writing skills positively impacts children because they learn to express themselves, they practice writing about emotions, and they practice making their writing compelling to their readers.

Whichever strategies you use to help your child improve their creative writing styles, make sure you keep it light-hearted. When it is fun, they’ll want to keep trying, and that’s where the growth happens.

About the Author:

Alexandra Eidens is the founder of Big Life Journal, an engaging resource to help kids develop a resilient growth mindset so they can face life’s challenges with confidence.

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Read more about writing and why it’s important to teach your kids cursive writing.

Children always look forward to downtime, whether it’s the summer, a holiday, or just a homework-free weekend. For most kids, this is a time of relief, joy, and freedom. For many parents, however, breaks bring additional stress and worry for a variety of reasons.

Working parents may even have to rely on additional childcare, and many parents worry about how to keep their children out of trouble during these periods of downtime. There are also additional stress points in a child’s personal and school life, such as bullying and peer pressure.

Here are some ways to help keep your kids healthy during down time.

Be Open and Honest

How can you ensure your child has a safe, fun break while also encouraging them to say no to drugs and alcohol? Experts say you can start by talking to your child about drugs. Don’t just assume that your child is getting the message from other people. You have a much bigger impact on your child’s life than you may realize. Therefore, never underestimate the power of a sincere, heartfelt conversation.

In fact, developing strong communication practices with your child will lay the foundation for a strong relationship throughout their lives, which means your child will be more likely to come to you with questions and even after missteps. Aha! Parenting emphasizes the importance of starting with trust and encouraging your child even when it’s difficult. And don’t worry if your child is older and you don’t feel like you’ve started on the right foot. Relationships are processes, and you can always work together to build these practices even later in life.

Reduce Temptations

If you or another adult in your family uses drugs or alcohol, or even uses prescription medication, keep them locked up and out of reach of children. Even common over the counter cold, flu and allergy medicines can spark an interest in kids. Kids are smart and curious. They will often find ways to get into things they shouldn’t, or friends might encourage them to sneak into your indulgences when you’re not around. Peer pressure is very powerful thing.

Keep unsupervised time to a minimum – even for teenagers. Research has shown that increased parental supervision reduces alcohol and drug use, especially in younger children. Don’t allow your child or teen to attend unsupervised parties, especially unsupervised sleepovers. If you can’t be around, hire a babysitter for younger children and tweens or pre-teens. You can also arrange for children and teens to spend time with a trusted relative, friend, or other adult during times when you are unavailable or have to work. By keeping your children supervised, they won’t be left to their own devices – and are therefore much less likely to get themselves into trouble.

You might be surprised to learn that the internet can also lead to temptation to try drugs and alcohol. As Addiction Center explains, though, 75 percent of teens surveyed reported seeing people on social media using and feeling encouraged to try alcohol and marijuana. Kids should be aware of social media best practices, and know how to implement them.

Relieve Stress

There are many ways to reduce stress in the life of your child.  Seeking professional help is one way and may be necessary, such as anxiety treatment. It can be extremely helpful to prevent unhealthy habits and addictions before they present themselves. Options include counseling, therapy, and medical integration.  There are also activities you can incorporate into the every day life of your family.

For inspiration, look at the country of Iceland. Iceland has seen some success in reducing drug and alcohol abuse among its teenage population by simply encouraging people to boost their moods in drug-free ways. Known as “natural highs,” these activities might include organized sports, music, art, dance, and more. In addition to uniting children, teens, and parents of various backgrounds and income brackets, this technique has encouraged children to find healthier, drug-free ways to relieve stress.

Exercise and physical activity have been proven effective for people in recovery, and many of those same benefits can aid in prevention. Plus, you can do them together as a family, which will relieve stress and increase relationships. Find an activity that you all enjoy, like bike riding, kayaking, running, or just a family walk. Then work it into your weekly schedule together.

Spend Time Together

Probably one of the best things you can do is to spend time together as a family. Take time to plan some healthy and fun activities you can all enjoy. Don’t just plan activities that you like; find out what interests each member of the family. Then, try to incorporate each person’s interests into your summer plans.

Planning regular time together while working from home can seem impossible, but there are ways to keep your kids occupied and be involved without sacrificing your productivity. Plan your work schedule according to your child’s age and needs, and build in time for breaks where you can take a walk together or play a game. The mental break will be good for you both!

Is there a family-friendly movie your youngest child has been wanting to see? Are you interested in relaxing on a beach? What about exploring meteorology by doing some experiments and even some storm spotting? Whatever you decide, be sure to discuss your interests as a family. Try to find creative ways to incorporate activities that each of you would enjoy throughout the coming months.

Next Steps

There is so much in our children’s lives that we cannot control. Luckily, good parenting mainly involves caring and effort. If you try to set a good example, sincerely take an interest in your child’s life, and plan activities that will benefit the whole family, you’ll set your child up for success.

Read more about educating your child about drugs.

Riding a bike is a great way for kids to get exercise and have fun. It’s also a major confidence boost for them to achieve such an accomplishment, especially when all their friends are learning as well. Some kids have more trouble than others and it can be a bit daunting for parents who are new to the process of teaching their children how to ride.

Luckily, we have put together 10 helpful tips that will make the journey easier and enjoyable.

How to Teach Your Child to Ride a Bike

Whatever special challenges your child may be facing when learning to ride a bike, they are not alone. Every kid has reservations and at least a tinge of fear. You can help calm their concerns by explaining that you will be along their side every step of the way, making sure they are kept safe.

1. Safety First: Check Bike Setup, Clothing, and Helmet

Before you start the process of teaching your kid to ride a bike, it’s important to make sure the bike is set up properly. The following tips will help you do just that:

• Make sure the seat is at the right height. It should be positioned so that when your child is sitting on the seat, their feet can reach the ground.
• Check that the handlebars are at the correct height and angle.
• Make sure the chain is lubricated and there is no rust on any of the parts.
• Inflate the tires to the proper pressure.

It’s also essential to ensure your youngster is wearing the appropriate clothing, such as a helmet and that they are wearing shoes that will protect them if they fall. A good helmet is an important part of preventing head injuries in the event of a fall.

2. Learn Balance Speed Without Pedals

When your child is first starting to learn how to ride a bike, it’s important to focus on teaching them balance and speed before adding in the pedalling component. One way to do this is to have them ride without pedals at first. This will help them get used to the motion of riding a bike and help them build up their speed and balance. Once they’ve mastered this, then you can add in the pedals and help them learn how to use them effectively.

3. Steering the Bike

Now that your child is able to balance on a bike, it’s time to start working on steering. This involves getting comfortable with using the handlebars to control the direction of the bike.

• Start by having your child hold the handlebars and steer back and forth while standing next to the bike.
• Next, have them sit on the bike and hold the handlebars while you push them from behind.

Encourage your child to keep steering even when they’re going straight. This will help them get a feel for how the handlebars work.

4. Put the Pedals Back On

Once your child has mastered balance, it’s time to add in the pedals. This can be a little more challenging, so it’s important to take it slow. Start by adding the pedals back on the bike. Have your child stand next to the bike, holding onto it for support.

Show them how to place their feet on the pedals and explain how the pedals work. It may be helpful to demonstrate yourself first. Once they understand how it works, let them give it a try. They may need a little help getting started, but soon they should be able to pedal on their own.

5. Braking!  Stopping Without Falling

When your child is first learning to ride a bike, you will need to teach them how to stop without falling. One way to do this is by teaching them how to brake. There are two types of braking: front and rear.

Front braking is the most common type of braking. This type of braking involves using the front brake to slow down or stop the bike. Rear braking is less common, but it can be useful in certain situations. This type of braking involves using the rear brake to slow down or stop the bike.

When teaching your child how to brake, it is important to start with front braking. This will help them get a feel for how much pressure to apply to the brake lever. Once they have mastered front braking, you can then teach them rear braking.

6. Choose a safe area to learn.

When you and your child are ready to start learning how to ride a bike, choose a safe, open area like a park or playground. This will give them plenty of space to practice without having to worry about cars or other obstacles.

7. Consider the teacher.

When it comes to teaching your child how to ride a bike, nothing is more important than finding the right teacher. Vuly play has some of the best bikes for kids on the market, and our team of experts is more than happy to teach your child how to ride.

8. Check the seat height again

Once your child is on the bike, their feet should be able to touch the ground with a slight bend in their knees. If they can’t reach it, lower the seat. Conversely, if their legs are fully extended, raise them. You want them to be as comfortable as possible while still being able to pedal and maintain control of the bike.

9. Consider a bike skills course

If you want to give your kid the best chance of mastering how to ride a bike, consider enrolling them in a bike skills course. Vuly play offers bike skills courses for kids of all ages, and our experienced instructors will help your child learn the basics of riding a bike quickly and safely.

10. Safety First, and Last

It is important to remember that safety is the number one priority when teaching your child to ride a bike. Make sure they are wearing a helmet and that the area is clear of traffic before letting them go. Explain the importance of staying safe while riding and be sure to enforce these rules once they start cycling on their own.

Summary

It can be a challenge to teach your kid how to ride a bike, but following these tips can make the process easier. Make sure the bike is the right size for your child, and help them practice balancing by having them stand on the bike with both feet on the ground. When they’re ready, have them start pedalling slowly while you hold the bike steady. As they gain confidence, they can start pedalling faster and let go of the handlebars. Soon, they’ll be riding on their own.

More to Read:

How great activities like riding a bike can boost the mood of your child.
Explore the world of kids motorcycles and mini chopper bikes.