I was the guest on a radio show in DC yesterday with Bram Weinstein, talking about Tom Brady’s terrible, tragic, no-good, very bad exit from the New England Patriots (a topic for another day) and the challenges of distance learning during the pandemic.
I know that many parents have been struggling to teach their kids reading, writing, and math in these unusual days, but on the radio show, I offered a bit of advice on teaching your kids, and it was this:
Forget the curriculum. Just let your child find something to study. An area of interest. Something they genuinely enjoy.
Our son, Charlie, for example, spent an hour on Monday collecting and sorting rocks in the backyard. Learned to use a multiplication table. Memorized a few multiplication facts. Read several books on the Titanic. Played Exploding Kittens and Sequence with us. Listened to me read a Hardy Boys book to him. Watched Iron Man with us.
This morning we played Garbage together. Then he read a book on magic and demonstrated some of the magic tricks for us. He built a volcano on Minecraft, reading about how volcanos work so that he could make it erupt. He and Elysha played Labrinth together, and later, they worked on a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. He played a storytelling improv game with me. We listened to Hamilton.
We’re elementary school teachers who could easily begun teaching our kids the curriculum, and soon, their school district will be doing just that. but when it comes to working with your kids, my advice is simple:
Keep their minds active. Allow them to pursue their interests. Limit their screen time. Don’t judge them for their interests. What they find fascinating – like backyard rocks – might seem silly to us, but collecting, sorting, comparing, contrasting, and treasuring are all great, great things.
These are strange, frightening days for our kids. The world is not normal. There is no need to push curriculum, onto your children right now. As schools begin to launch distance learning initiatives, allow them to offer your children instruction on reading, writing, and math, and perhaps guide you a bit as you try to support them.
But for now, allow their minds to wander. Let them build and explore. Draw and color. Climb and collect. Keep them active. Limit screen time.
There are many ways to learn, and many, many things to learn.
A lifetime to learn.
This is a time to keep kids happy and safe. Keep their minds working, but remember that they are probably nervous and frightened, as we all are.
No need to add any pressure beyond what they are already feeling.
In an effort to help parents, I’m doing storytelling workshops on Facebook Live. You can watch yesterday’s workshop on my YouTube channel here and here.
You can listen to my segment on the radio here:
