Learn from home
The year I homeschooled my boy when he was in 7th grade many people were curious about it. When I was exploring the homeschooling option due to the relocation most of the parent friends were worried about my boy and me. They were skeptical. And, I could understand why. My homeschooling parent friends were supportive. They were so supportive that they took the time to walk me through their journey and told me their stories. A physician friend who has a homeschool family said, “You only need to be one chapter ahead of what you will be teaching.”
That was about four years ago. And, I have to tell you that I was so glad I made the decision to homeschool. Was it stressful? Yes, it was at the very beginning. Was it interesting? Absolutely. Was my child able to catch up after going back to school? He didn’t need to catch up. He went back to the school system the following school year without any delay or drama.
It was a great semester for my son. He had a couple of classes online. We did world history together using the Story of the World program by the author of the Well-Trained Mind. The science class could last three hours because he wanted to learn more. We did Latin and he realized that the Spanish language he learned a year ago was connected with Latin. There was PE every other day. We walked all over the place and bonded in Mandarin, the target language. It was a precious semester with personalized learning, hands-on exploration, and a curiosity-inspired learning experience.
My story of the short term homeschooling has some similarities with what we are going through now. Your child is off school and has schooling with you or with a distance learning platform. It is a new lifestyle. You and your spouse are working from home and your child is learning from home.
It might be challenging at the beginning, a few weeks ago. But, how about now?
For the past eight weeks, I have seen you joining the Storytime Online with your child. There is a new routine you have set up at home. For Fridays, one of the activities is storytime online. You and your child have been joining in well-prepared. Once I saw the heart cutouts big and small held by the kids on the screen. There was even one with the Chinese character, love ài 愛|爱 on it.
You are a champion for your child.
Every one of you is a champion for what you have been doing at home with work and for the family. You now can give the meaning to “Learn from home” from the perspective of before the pandemic and after the stay-at-home order was issued.
There are many distance learning resources for Mandarin available online. They are a click away. If you want your child to be more active with the target language then your child will need to have more of the active and playful engagement of the target language.
So, here is what it is like for me to read from home on the other side of your screen.
I used to read stories with kids in person.
Now I read stories with kids online.
I used to show the kids my pet stuffed animals and have them come to me and pet them.
Now the kids bring their favorite stuffed animals to the storytime online and have me check them out on screen.
I used to read stories in one location with families near me.
Now I read at home for families across the U.S. and beyond.
I am on one side of the screen and the kids are on the other side of the screen.
A constraint and an opportunity for us to connect.
I was grateful to see that the kids were trying to share their cookies with me the day we read “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” by Laura Numeroff.
Are you and your child ready for Storytime Online? This program started in March and I have been reading for kids and families who are learning Mandarin as a second language. If you are new to this Live event and are curious about it you can find out more about this event here.
p.s. I read the stories in Mandarin with some support in English.
Learn from Home
Image by Hal Gatewood