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Dec 15 2020

Family Best Practices for Distance Learning

Family Best Practices for Distance Learning

Kenji, my grandson, has limited opportunities to socialize with his classmates and friends since the shelter-in-place orders in March. When school started this fall, students were not able to talk together in class because the online platform would garble students’ talking if more than one child spoke at a time. In recent weeks, my second-grade grandson is now able to socialize with students online during breaks and small group discussions. Although he does not visit with his classmates outside of class time, he is very happy that he now can enjoy his friends. When I supervise his remote classroom participation, I have observed the following best practices that support students’ academic success:

  • Students in the same family can have different schedules and breaks. Ideally, children can learn how to use an alarm to monitor when they need to log back into the classroom.
  • Students need an adult to supervise their participation and to help them with any computer glitches. Many working parents alternate their work schedules to supervise while other families gather students together and rotate parents, grandparents, or a nanny to supervise small groups for added tutorial support.
  • When students are fully engaged in learning, they are excited and motivated to apply newly developed skills to other daily activities. Children are engaged when they participate in scavenger hunts in their neighborhood that may include collecting nature products for math, reading, and writing activities. For example, students can gather different sizes of rocks, count them, and organize the rocks according to shapes and sizes. They can construct a math problem of how they added specific groups of rocks. Students can create a chart on how they grouped the rocks. They can take a picture of their collection and insert the image onto a Goggle slide. A reflective story can describe how a student found the rocks, grouped them, and solved a math problem. This reflective activity can reinforce what a student learned when participating in this activity.
  • The physical fitness teacher has students collect specific objects in the home. Then the student uses these objects when participating in physical fitness exercises. The teacher also has students learn exercise moves when dancing to music.
  • In addition to phonics review, Kenji has learned how to write a book. He creates books on various subjects. Kenji also learns how to research new concepts and facts in his reading materials.
  • Students are learning how to recycle and collect trash. They repurpose these items when completing art projects. They study how to conserve community resources in their social studies and science lessons.

[Read more…]

Written by Joyce Iwasaki, Early Parenting · Categorized: Elementary School Parenting, Grandparenting, Social-Emotional Health · Tagged: academic success, Educating children, family values, Grandparents' Influences, Parenting, parents as teachers, teachable moments

Nov 10 2020

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…]

Written by Joyce Iwasaki, Early Parenting · Categorized: Academic Support and Play Activities, Elementary School Parenting, Grandparenting, Social-Emotional Health · Tagged: academic success, Educating children, Education, Parenting, parents as teachers, teachable moments

Mar 31 2020

Preparing My Grandson for a Third Cultural Heritage Experience

Preparing My Grandson for a Third Cultural Heritage Experience

My grandson’s mom recently returned from an extended trip to the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. During Mom’s travels, Kenji’s dad relocated his business to Bangkok, Thailand. When I talk with my grandson about his mother’s recent trip and his dad’s business relocation, I realize that my grandson will be expanding his cultural heritage to another new country when he lives with his father in Bangkok. Our family will prepare for this new cultural experience by participating in the following activities:

  • Continue to talk with Mom about her recent trip to the Elephant Nature Park and view the pictures of his mom’s trip on Facebook.
  • Have Dad send Kenji pictures of his new cultural experiences in Bangkok and talk about these experiences during their FaceTime phone calls.
  • Meet with family friends to look at photos of trips to various sites in Thailand. During this visit, Kenji will also receive some historical postcards that he can use when he writes notes to his father. Kenji and his dad can talk about these postcard pictures during their FaceTime phone calls.

[Read more…]

Written by Joyce Iwasaki, Early Parenting · Categorized: Elementary School Parenting, Grandparenting · Tagged: family values, Grandparents' Influences, Parenting, teachable moments

Mar 10 2020

Mom Is on a Trip

Mom Is on a Trip

While Kinji’s dad visited his son in the United States, his mom traveled to Thailand. When Kenji was with his father, he did not miss his mother because he was excited to spend this time with Dad and his relatives. Once I took care of my grandson at his home for four more days (beyond time spent with Dad?), Kenji commented that he missed his mom when playing because his mom was always there. I immediately acknowledged Kenji’s feelings about his mom’s absence. Through this encouragement, he returned to playing with his toys.

When mom was gone, we also talked with her on the phone. Initially, Kenji did not want to use the FaceTime feature when talking to his mom because he said it would make him sad. Eventually, Kenji decided to talk to his mom on FaceTime. During the conversation, he said it was hard to see his mom’s face and not be with her. After that phone call, we stayed busy until mom’s return with school and various outings. [Read more…]

Written by Joyce Iwasaki, Early Parenting · Categorized: Elementary School Parenting, Grandparenting · Tagged: family values, Grandparents' Influences, Parenting, teachable moments

Feb 11 2020

Wonderful Experiences with Dad Across the Miles

Wonderful Experiences with Dad Across the Miles

Although Kinji’s dad works in Japan, my grandson thinks his relationship with his father is quite normal when he shares extended time with his father in the United States or in Japan. Between visits, their close relationship is maintained through regular FaceTime phone calls throughout the week. Ongoing phone conversations focus on:

  • Their daily life activities and Kinji’s new Lego creations
  • My grandson’s exciting adventures at school
  • Kenji’s participation in various afterschool programs including Karate and swimming
  • Math discussions on prime numbers, multiplication, and how to identify number patterns

[Read more…]

Written by Joyce Iwasaki, Early Parenting · Categorized: Elementary School Parenting, Grandparenting · Tagged: family values, Grandparents' Influences, Parenting, parents as teachers, teachable moments, time with Dad

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