Most states are leaving it up to the school districts to decide if they will start in-person classes or not. While many states encourage schools to open for face-to-face classes, it will depend on the district’s public health conditions.
With this, there’s a good chance that remote learning arrangements will continue for the kids until the end of the school year. Due to this, parents will have to continue facilitating the learning process at home. Facilitating means they also have to motivate the kids so that they’ll learn from the online lessons.
Motivating the kids is a challenging task for parents who are also working from home. Aside from the stress from their jobs, they also have to deal with using the online tools provided for remote learning. Here are some ways parents can motivate their kids while attending online classes.
Manage Stress
The demands of remote learning can overwhelm the children and cause stress. When the children are stressed, they will find it challenging to concentrate on their lessons. They will lose the motivation to learn. This makes it important to help the children to manage their stress.
Parents can encourage their children to talk about what’s on their minds and what they are feeling. They should also set time every evening for de-stressing sessions with the children. Aside from helping the children, the parents also need the same activities to reduce the stress they feel from their work.
They can also take breaks during the day. The parents can let the children decide on what they want to do during the breaks. If they have no idea about what to do, they can listen to music, color, or even take a walk.
The parents can also take a trip to the local laundromat with the kids. Aside from getting fresh air, it will allow parents to connect with their kids during the walk. But they should make sure to follow minimum health protocols when going out of the house, even for less than an hour.
Let the Kids Be Kids
Even as parents want to guide their children on what they’re supposed to do, it’s still important to let them go sometimes. Parents should let their kids be kids since the good intentions they have for their children can cause them to become stressed. Due to this, they will lose their motivation and their learning will suffer.
Parents should allow them to make mistakes since experience is the best teacher. In these situations, the parents can stay on the sidelines just if the children will ask for their help.
Additionally, they can try to make learning fun by engaging the children in areas that pique their interest. When the children are having fun in their lessons, their motivation level will increase and they will learn more. For instance, when tackling Math lessons, the parents can use dinosaur figures to demonstrate addition and subtraction if the children love dinosaurs.
Focus on Learning
The parents should also focus on learning rather than the grades they get at the end of a term. They can ask the children to teach them what they learned during class at the end of the day rather than asking their grades on a math test.
When parents focus on learning, they can show their children they value learning over grades. It also shows them that their parents; interest in their welfare and do not prioritize test results. Additionally, focusing on learning strengthens what they learned since the children can express the lessons in their own words.
Communicate
Children will feel motivated to learn when they see their parents supporting them. Even if parents are concerned with their children’s results, they should dig deeper and find the reason behind it. With this, they can encourage their children to communicate and express their opinion about the situation.
The parents should make their children comfortable to express themselves. This gives the parents an idea about the things they can do to motivate the children and encourage learning. It also allows them to address any concerns their children have with their remote learning arrangements.
It’s also possible that the children are not comfortable in opening up their concerns with the teacher. In these instances, the parents communicate these concerns with the teacher to make the necessary arrangement to facilitate learning. The children will be motivated when they see their parents addressing their concerns.
Remote learning is a challenge for the children and the parents. Due to this, parents should make an effort to keep their children motivate when they attend online classes so they’ll learn until regular face-to-face classes resume after the pandemic ends.
