Who Needs School Help? by BB
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Before I had kids I was a teacher. I absolutely loved my job but I knew once I had kids I really wanted to stay home with them. When Bubba was born I continued to run a learning support class at the school I worked in Washington, but it was only 12 hours a week. It was an ideal job! I got to work a little but mostly be home with my boy. When Bubba was 16 months old my husband got a new job back in Minnesota. I was really sad to leave my friends in Washington but I was thrilled to have Bubba grow up with our families around. This was also the time I hung up my teaching hat and was a full time stay-at-home mom.
As our state just declared that school will be cancelled for 2 weeks in order for teachers to prepare to teach remotely I am drawn back to my teaching days. I have so many friends who are still teaching or working in schools and I think about how much this CoronaVirus is effecting their lives. Teachers already invest way too much into their career and now they are basically asked to create a whole new way of teaching their students. Can you image you’re job being converted into a totally new job? It’s truly insane!!!
I have to say that I don’t think it could happen to a better population. Teachers are pretty much willing to do whatever they can to support their students. Their students are just like their children. I’m not sure there are many professions that will adapt and remain as flexible as teachers. They can handle it! You won’t hear them complain…they’ll do that with each other. They’ll put in way more time than you’ll see or understand.
I’m preparing to get a teaching schedule together for my kids. Otherwise we might just kill each other. We’ve already had a lot of time together during spring break. I think this initial time off will progress into a longer period of time. I think this is only the beginning, just my opinion. I believe they are doing the right thing to help protect our kiddies. But I think we NEED to remember that our teachers need to be taken care of as well!
I continue to think about how lucky I am that I am a stay-at-home mom. I don’t have to try to juggle a job, my household, and now be a full time teacher. I really have empathy for all those families where the normal crazy juggle act has just been given another boulder to juggle. The stress must be insane.
Now I think the key to survival is going to be to schedule time to work with my kids. My kids love their downtime but they thrive with structure. I figured if I started right away with a schedule that will help us stay on task and get learning done. I plan to incorporate some baking as science and math. I plan to transfer some plants to pots (it’s been a list of to-dos for awhile now) and teach about what plants need. Clean up, clean up everybody everywhere…hello it’s a lesson my kids could use some work on. We are going to have to be proactive and much more interactive with our kids. I figured I could share some ideas to help you mamas out!
I have a former colleague and friend who has taught for at least 23 years (she can’t remember) who sent me some great information to help us all out. She really sent me some awesome resources. I didn’t feel right not sharing it with you all! I really hope these resources can help ease your stress and encourage your kids to learn, learn, learn!
Khan Academy
- Khan Academy has provided a schedule and unique learning experiences to help students out during the school closures. This is AMAZING! All the hard work is done for us.
I have one Kiwi Box waiting for us to do but I thought I would order a few different ones that could help us with activities to do that I don’t have to really think about or prepare! I know this is going to come in really handy in the coming weeks.
https://kiwi-crate.7eer.net/c/2031442/454078/4034″ id=”454078″>Virtual Field Trips (I will share a few but if you want more please reach out and I’ll share more!)
- San Diego Zoo https://kids.sandiegozoo.org/ This includes facts about animals, stories, fun facts, save animals, videos, activities, and games.
- Yellowstone National Park https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/photosmultimedia/virtualtours.htm This includes virtual tours of many different parts of the park!
- Farm Food 360 https://www.farmfood360.ca/?utm_source=domain&utm_campaign=www.virtualfarmtours.ca&utm_medium=redirect This is an incredible virtual tour of every aspect of farming including dairy, animal, grains, and many other types of farming.
- The Great Wall of China https://www.thechinaguide.com/destination/great-wall-of-china You can take a virtual tour of The Great Wall. So cool!
Mystery Science
- This is an incredible link to free science lessons! Wow what a resource! https://mysteryscience.com/school-closure-planning Go check it out and look by grade level. I know I’ll be using it for sure.
Scholastic Learn at Home
- We’ve all heard of Scholastic Book Fair! Well Scholastic is offering some awesome cross-curricular lessons and activities, free of charge. It’s easy to look up activities by grade levels and will provide 4 separate learning experiences each day! https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html
TLSbooks.com Educational worksheets for pre-school through 6thgrade
- TLSbooks.com is a great place to print out worksheets that correspond with your child’s grade level in all subject levels! http://www.tlsbooks.com
I hope these resources can help you get prepared to teach your kiddies! We all need to support each other and band together to survive. This pandemic is new territory and we are going to have to learn how to be our best selves. It’s definitely going to test our patience and wear us down, but hopefully if we isolate for a while we can kick this stupid viruses butt. Please reach out and let us know if you have questions or inquiries and we’ll do our best to help find answers! bbandbinks@gmail.com