With the World Health Organization declaring, Coronavirus (COVID 19) a pandemic, parents, and guardians who are used to sending their children off to school are now faced with the task of educating them at home.
"It's complete chaos at home and I am running out of ideas to keep them entertained," says Toshi, a mother of two from Bangalore, India, she is among millions of parents stuck at home trying to juggle work and kid.
In the last few weeks, there has been an increase in homeschooling related queries, with desperate parents looking for creatives ideas to keep the children occupied as begin their self-quarantine to fight off the spread of coronavirus (COVID 19)
Homeschooling has been around for some time now and to be honest, I personally find homeschool kids to be more creative and fun to be around. For those forced to homeschool their children, the task is a daunting one but for your information, 1.7 million children get homeschooled every day in the United States. So you are not alone in this.
AZ (she did not want to be named but doesn't mind being identified with her initials), a single mother with three kids from Columbus, Ohio who has been homeschooling her kids for the last ten years starting with her eldest son, who is 16 supports homeschooling and finds it a fulfilling task.
"But it is hard, you as a parent have to be 100% committed. However, it is rewarding to see the kids grow up stress-free and having real fun. They love their lessons and also have ample time to enjoy. They have friends in several countries and find it easy to mingle in different cultures," AZ.
With a perfect balance for study and leisure, AZ believes homeschooling has enabled her kids to be more independent and creative.
"Each of my kids plays at least two to three musical instruments, they participate in all the local sporting events and have been to several countries," she added.
Parents, however, have several misconceptions about homeschooling. Here are seven homeschooling myths that should be rejected right away:
Myth #1: Homeschooled Children Lack Social Skills
Myth #2: Parents Aren't Qualified to Teach
Myth #3: If You're Homeschooled, You Can't Get into College
Myth #4: Homeschooled Kids Can't Function in the Real World
Myth #5: Homeschooled Kids Don't Learn As Well
Myth #6: Extracurricular Activities Are Unavailable
Myth #7: Homeschooling Services Are All the Same
Are you now ready to homeschool your children?
As you stay put inside the confines of your home, remember you have the Internet and there is no lack of resources to help your children learn. Start with a plan, chalk out the number of hours you want them to study and prepare a timesheet. As a parent, you will need to manage or rather juggle between your work hours and study hours for your kids. In the beginning, it would seem daunting, but it does get easier.
Homeschool study material
Here we have compiled this list of online available resources and tools that will help you make homeschooling fun for your kids. Remember it is not just about studying, so we have included virtual tours and fun activities to make learning fun for the homeschoolers.
Online resources:
- BrainPop
- Curiosity Stream
- Tynker
- Outschool
- Udemy
- iReady
- Beast Academy (Math)
- Khan Academy
- Creative Bug
- Discovery Education
YouTube Channels:
- Crash Course Kids
- Science Channel
- SciShow Kids
- National Geographic Kids
- Free School
- Geography Focus
- TheBrainScoop
- SciShow
- Kids Learning Tube
- Geeek Gurl Diaries
- Mike Likes Science
- Science Max
- SoulPancake
Here are some classroom resources to help with kids at home:
- Scholastic has created a free learn-from-home site with 20+ days of learning and activities. (Classroommagazines)
- Go on a virtual tour of these 12 famous museums. (Travel and Leisure)
- This is a free curriculum that has everything from preschool activities to 12th grade is here. (Allinonehomeschool)
- Starfall
- Abcya
- Funbrain
- Splashlearn
- Storylineonline
- Pbskids
- Highlightskids
- Kids.nationalgeographic
- Coolmath4kids
- Mathgametime
- Uniteforliteracy
- Literactive
- Sciencekids
- Switchzoo
- Seussville
- Turtlediary
- E-learningforkids
