I was contacted by a television news program, Global TV for an interview about how parents can help prepare their kids for return to school after a very difficult two years which is to be aired nationally. I was kind of nervous when I jumped onto the Zoom. Would I sound professional? I do have a ton of expertise and experience as an educator, but is my voice relevant? Do I have a booger in my nose? I prepared my answers to the best of my ability but realized two things: a) they would likely only show a few seconds of my responses; b) I forgot to mention a few things that I really wanted to make sure got on air, but that in my nervousness I totally missed. Below are the questions and my answers. The bolded text is what I really wanted to share but did not.
1.How can parents help prepare their kids academically for a return to school in fall after two years of the pandemic?
Often parents think that the best way to support kids academically is to buy the many number of workbooks out there and make your kids work through them and we might be more so tempted to do this because of the pandemic. I would encourage instead, that parents focus on helping to support literacy and numeracy skills in more natural but just as effective ways.
Go to the public library, free community libraries and encourage reading for pleasure; any kind of reading including comic books, magazines, etc…, setting aside device-free time every day for reading will yield positive results and if you could talk about what they read, what they liked, didn’t like, even better. Word games are a great way to challenge your brain and build literacy skills; the daily Wordle, Worldle or the number of other daily puzzles you can find online.
Other literacy-rich activities include journal writing. Model this by taking a few minutes a day to write a gratitude journal or a diary entry. Have your child (of any age) plan the menu once a week, help with shopping, or if you can afford to take a day away, plan a vacation or day trip or create a scavenger hunt for the family. This is reading, writing, creativity, critical thinking and problem solving all rolled into one. Encourage math skills by playing cards together, sudoku puzzles, or baking something together. Encourage in person socialization skills by going to a local park, inviting one friend over at a time.
We should also acknowledge that the connections they have made online (group chats, online games) are genuine connections to friends and so we should ask, “Are you chatting with a friend?” instead of jumping into rages about screen time all the time. As parents we can help our kids gradually add in person opportunities for our kids to socialize; we need to, but this may take a little coaxing and a little time.
Digital literacy skills can be reinforced by doing the Google A Day, creating videos (even TikToks), or checking out Snopes.com to talk as a family about what “fake news” is out there.
Establishing regular routines again including earlier dinner and sleep times will also help kids prepare for the new school year.
2. Many parents had opted for homeschooling, how can they help prepare their kids for in-person learning fulltime?
It is important to acknowledge that there is going to be anxiety not just around being there in person, but also about getting sick, wearing a mask OR not wearing a mask, working in groups, etc… Regardless of a child’s age, I recommend a strategy I talk about in my book, Raising Digital Leaders called a Think Aloud. It is about saying out loud what you are thinking. Here are a few examples of think alouds that would normalize worry:
“I always used to get so anxious at this time of year. Just change I guess–not knowing what to expect, who my teacher was going to be, whether anyone I knew would be in my class. Once school started, I was ok, though but man it always made me worry.
OR
Gosh, two years since you were in person at school. Every time I think about how heavy or big that is, it almost makes my momma heart cry with worry for you. But then I take a deep breath and remind myself that so many other kids are feeling the exact same way, and I realize that the first couple of days might be tough, but I have a feeling it’s going to be a great year.
OR
It’s really interesting to me that at work, many people are comfortable without a mask, but others still wear one. I am glad that we can respect each other’s choices when it comes to masking; pretty sure school will be like that too.
NOT expecting an answer or a conversation. Just moving on with what you were doing. You are normalizing a feeling and your kids hear you. Later, because they have heard you express your own emotions and worries, they may feel more comfortable sharing their feelings.
For a teen, I recommend doing think alouds in a car–no eye contact, kids don’t feel interrogated.
3. Is there something schools should try and do to bring all students on the same page?
There are such limited resources and personnel to support everyone, to be honest and that’s something that needs to be acknowledged and addressed with appropriate funding for our public education system.
Schools and school boards are very much aware of the psychological, emotional, social and academic stress that kids have been under. I know that at our school, it has been a “start where they are,” mentality whereby we try to differentiate our instruction so kids can access learning from a variety of entry points. We have also tried to focus on kids over content; relationship building and socialization through collaboration are really important right now and skills we all need to prioritize.
In terms of resources, School Mental Health Ontario for https://smho-smso.ca/ is a great resource that I know our District uses and there is a page for students and parents as well. I like that this resources emphasizes that schools, community, and family need to work together to ensure that our kids thrive.
We are also focusing on social emotional learning in our schools which is comprised of interrelated competencies such as self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. These are skills that when addressed, at home, complement the skills we are reinforcing in school.
So as parents, every time we help our kids to make decisions independently, help them to manage their screen time, give them room to share and listen attentively when they are sad or lonely or scared, and when we help them navigate friendships online or in person, we are reinforcing these competencies.
4. Anything else that you’d like to add or share with me to help kids transition back to school fulltime.
The best thing we can do to ensure our kids know we love them, provide appropriate boundaries, listen attentively to their worries and let them know that, sometimes life can be challenging, but every problem is a challenge that you can solve together.
As I suspected, they only shared a small part of what I said. Here is the news segment.