GenParenting

Parenting resources for all who love and care for children

How to Help Our Elementary Children Learn Online and Write Stories

How to Help Our Elementary Children Learn Online and Write Stories

Many parents and students continue to struggle with remote learning. As a substitute teacher/tutor for second grade students using the Google classroom platform, I provide literacy writing units for students and tutor them in reading and writing. I also help students understand how to use their preferred learning styles when tackling difficult subjects. For example, one of our students loves to sing her math solutions. Other students love to calculate math solutions. Still others write and describe the steps to solving math problems as they complete the computations. When teaching students how to write about a topic, we provide students with options on how they can complete their assignments. [Read more…]

Understanding Our Children’s Preferred Learning Styles for Academic Success

Understanding Our Children’s Preferred Learning Styles for Academic Success

When I tutor students in the Goggle classroom, I listen and watch them carefully as they describe how they prefer to learn when reading and writing. For example, one student may describe how she gains lots of information about a story by looking at the pictures in the story first. Another student may want to write down his answer about what he just read before summarizing the story in two sentences. A third student may prefer drawing pictures or acting out the story before discussing or writing a story.

Most teachers consider students’ various learning styles when working with individual students. Below are five primary learning styles described in Data Driven Differentiation in the Standards-Based Classroom by Gayle H. Gregory and Lin Kuzmich:

  1. Linguistic learners like to write, play word games, learn vocabulary, debate, and create jokes.
  2. Musical learners love to sing, create tunes and rhymes, and make a song as part of a solution.
  3. Logical/mathematical learners problem solve through abstract reasoning with numbers, formulas, patterns, puzzles, and data.
  4. Visual/spatial learners draw pictures, solutions, and models with color and media.
  5. Body/kinesthetic learners use gestures, actions, and act out to demonstrate learning.

[Read more…]

Winter Break Activities that Reinforce Kids’ Learning at Home

Winter Break Activities that Reinforce Kids’ Learning at Home

What can parents do with their kids during winter break this year with persistent COVID-19 pandemic recreational challenges? The teaching strategies featured in Student-Engaged Assessment (Rowman & Littlefield: 2020) can be adapted to reinforce learning at home during the pandemic winter break.

Parents can support their children’s learning with relevant and engaging family play and household projects. Parents can help their kids (1) define an academic goal when organizing a family activity, and (2) show their learning through games, family projects, writing, illustrations, videos, performing arts activities, and pictures of completed projects. Children can reflect on what they learned while completing an activity and share their project with parents and teachers. [Read more…]

Simplified COVID-19 Daily Life

Simplified COVID-19 Daily Life

Since school closed in March, my life is much fuller and demanding as I help my grandson, Kenji, with his online learning each day. I have made the following changes with my family to simplify life and expand my time to support my grandson:

  • My new schedule for online learning is now 8:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. on Monday through Friday. My daughter and I alternate supervision of my grandson’s learning based on the demands of her job.
  • Kenji’s mother is the primary tutor for my grandson while I provide added supervision.
  • Although my household chores remain the same, I am far more flexible when coordinating our cooking and cleaning needs.
  • My work is now scheduled in my office after 2:30 p.m. and can be challenging to complete on busy days.
  • Our family still limits outside shopping and outdoor play. I used to take my grandson to the farmer’s market but we no longer enjoy those play dates. Our daily walks are now in neighborhoods instead of downtown. We enjoy looking at people’s gardens instead of participating in the hustle and bustle of our downtown shopping area. With the recent California wildfires, we must now monitor air quality to ensure that we only go outside when the air is relatively healthy.
  • Mental health continues to be a focus for our family as we keep our spirits up with lots of play and reading.

[Read more…]

Celebrating Summer with Dad from Afar

Celebrating Summer with Dad from Afar

Summer play and camps are being cancelled. My grandson, Kenji, does not know when he will be able to see his father again because he works and lives in Thailand. This country has struggled with similar challenges in managing the coronavirus like the United States. Parents have been working from home since April. Many of the businesses have been closed and community members must wear face masks when they go out in public. Travel to the United States and abroad is radically restricted. [Read more…]