Three ways to help your kids succeed in online learning
Hello Readers!
I hope the tips on giving emotional support to teenagers came in handy. Now, as we all struggle to bring resilience among children for online learning, with the announcement of no exams to determine pass or fail for the High School students, I am coming across many memes on the “All-Pass” for 2021. Again, it comes to the question, why do we send kids to school? What is learning look like in the future? How can educators and parents nurture future minds to be successful for the jobs not yet discovered?
COVID has hit the pause button to bring a revolution in the education system; it is time to reinvent the schooling system and reimagine the schools, making learning fun and interesting. We can explore about school reimagined next article.
This article gives you three simple ways to enhance the interest in online learning.
Focus
Distance learning will be around for more time than we imagined, are we prepared for the new normal. The distractions in the home setting, parents, working from home, grandparents talking, and the cooker whistleblowing. How to bring in focus on the young minds which are still in the process of developing. The first and foremost step is to allocate a private space with a study table that is only used to focus and study; if they want to talk or check social media, they have to come out of the spot. Reiterating them to move out of that spot helps in the 20-20 rule, where it is good for them to move about every 20 minutes to change their posture and get some break. Bonus the kids’ presence at the desk signals others to do their activities in silence. Encourage the children to move out of the place when they want to do other tasks.
Ask them how they feel: Distractions may be external (internet disconnection, noises from surrounding) or internal (overwhelmed or feeling stressed). Research shows that when kids don’t express their feeling, they undergo emotional suppression during their learning, and intelligence suffers. When they name it, they can tame it – parents can help the kids express their emotion verbally by “I’m anxious about the test now,” allowing the children to tell the story and rant their feelings out. Reassure them that you are there with them and you understand them. We need to be careful around here, as our focus is to identify the emotions and not find their reasons. We should not get caught up in narratives and problem-solving. It will not help in bringing back focus. Share an empathetic response, and ensure they can handle those emotions and no need to stuff them down.
Take one step at a time: Many research types show that multitasking is ineffective, encouraging single-tasking. With online schooling, multitasking is inefficient, but still being online always, kids find opening up lots of screens takes their boredom away. At the same time, we must remember, multitasking is the enemy of focus. Human brains are not made to handle many things simultaneously; it can only actively switch fast between activities. In many ways, multitasking drains energy and makes learning ineffective.
As parents, we can help kids configure their learning environment by turning off the alerts which makes them compulsively check social media. Turn on “do not disturb” on the phone and set a parking place for phones during school hours, allowing them to access just one screen at a time.
Motivation
Using traditional sticks and carrots is its unique form of parental hell. Without intrinsic self-motivation, it is pretty hard to learn. Fortunately, we can nurture self-motivation in kids by supporting their competence, independence, and connection to others. These are three core psychological needs that, when filled, lead to self-motivation.
Acknowledge competence: Identify their strengths where they can complete the tasks without parents nagging. Ask them, “Where do they feel more confident!? And then help them to see that it is their effort that led to that capability.
Allow independence: Our kids need the freedom to fail independently and the space to succeed without giving them credit. Our kids can’t feel responsible for their schoolwork if we are still the operating force. Asking them, “What’s your plan!?” gives a feeling of control instead of instructing and directing them what to do. The question about their plans makes them connect with their motivation and inspiration. Kids who are having nagging parents know that their parents will eventually get frustrated and do the planning.
Support a sense of belonging and connectedness at School – Especially during a pandemic, it is tricky to make new connections and nurture the old ones. Check with your children what groups or classes help them feel a sense of connection if the list is short. Ask them whom they think need help; helping others is the best way to make the connection.
Flexibility
COVID has taught all of the most tangible lessons; every plan we make seems to fall apart. We are living through a time of accelerated change and constant unknowns. That makes it critical for us and our kids to remain flexible. They may be in the classroom or not this year. Either way, they’ll need to roll with the punches. We can help them to do so.
Stick to a consistent sleeping schedule.
Exhaustion makes us brittle; it’s tough to stay on and going when we are so tired we want to lay down and cry. Despite not having much going on, many kids are exhausted (especially teenagers). Not having a school structure, for example, not to miss the school bus, it is hard to impose strict sleeping time. Besides, many teens want to have some private gaming time with peers after online schooling by staying up late at night, unmonitored by sleeping parents; unfortunately, irregular sleep cause grouchiness and grogginess. Even modest reductions in sleep quality, such as simply not sleeping deeply because of a blue light-induced decrease in melatonin, tend to make kids feel lonelier, even without reducing the quantity of sleep. If kids are feeling lonely, sleep disruption will exacerbate the problem. Parents can enforce consistent bedtimes, it does not mean they will immediately go to sleep early; the intent is to make sure they are getting enough sleep.
Practice accepting whatever is happening:
Our kids don’t like to do online schooling; the more they resist it, the more they struggle. We can acknowledge all the ways the school isn’t idle right now and how they feel about it. It’s okay to be frustrated or disappointed. Also, the sooner they accept reality, the better. When our kids drop the resistance the move forward, it doesn’t mean they stop complaining.
To be clear, acceptance is not resignation; accepting a situation doesn’t mean that it will never get better. IF we don’t take the things will stay the same forever; we only accept whatever is happening at the present moment.
Foster happiness: Happiness means positive emotion, not pleasure. Positive emotions enhance our ability to handle the change. Research shows positive emotions like gratitude and awe make dealing with change is less taxing, and they make us more open to new things. That’s the reason why students with higher emotional well-being tend to be more than one semester ahead of those with lower well-being.
Citation
Carter, C. How parents can support their children at the start of an uncertain school year. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/three_ways_to_help_your_kids_succeed_at_distance_learning.
