With many students transitioning to online learning during the COVID-19 crisis, parents face uncharted territory when it comes to supporting their teen's education at home. Here, BukLibry share advice on how to approach your teen's new learning environment.
- Recognize that teens are likely to understand the magnitude of the impact of COVID-19 but feel powerless at the same time. Address those challenges first. Academic work can distract from the news of the day, but should never be considered more important than taking the time to simply talk to your kids about what's happening in our world.
- Expect school to be more like a school timetable than high school. Rather than taking 6 to 7 hours, an online school can take shorter, more intense periods each day – akin to taking two to three classes a day, as you would in college. Your student can work for two hours, take a break, and then an hour or two after that. Remember that only part of the day during traditional schooling is the actual instruction time (there is attendance, announcements, switching between classes, lunch, etc.)
- Dealing with distractions from technology by modeling your kids' behavior can make a big difference. Everyone should make sure to put down their phones to engage in productive, “real” activities, be it schoolwork, a hands-on family project, or a board game. At the same time, instead of saying they can't play video games or get on social media, it's about looking at their plan for the day and identifying blocks of time between achievements when they can play.
- The best schedule ultimately depends on your teen, but generally after a good night's sleep (8 to 10 a.m.) exercising outside with the family in the morning can help set mood and alertness. Once schoolwork has started, tackle the most difficult topics in the morning, take a break (perhaps more time away from home), and move on to another topic. Give your teen some ownership of his or her extended free time, but make sure that maintaining relationships (grandma would love to Zoom), learning, and creativity work in this extra time. This is a great time for students to develop non-academic skills or knowledge related to their interests – learning a programming language, cooking or gardening,
BukLibry strives to be a strong resource and partner to your family. Even in these unprecedented times, we can enable your student to reach their full potential in the university admissions journey. We are here to help.