Dear Parents,
As we conclude week three of virtual learning, we want to extend an enormous THANK YOU to each and everyone of you for the myriad of ways you have been supporting your children’s learning at home. We appreciate the effort and commitment going into this and also thank those of you who have taken time to provide us with feedback. We hope you will notice the tweaks and enhancements we have been making based on this feedback, and encourage you to continue reaching out to us to let us know how it is going for you at home.
As we conclude week three of virtual learning, we want to extend an enormous THANK YOU to each and everyone of you for the myriad of ways you have been supporting your children’s learning at home. We appreciate the effort and commitment going into this and also thank those of you who have taken time to provide us with feedback. We hope you will notice the tweaks and enhancements we have been making based on this feedback, and encourage you to continue reaching out to us to let us know how it is going for you at home.
Parenting Tips for Learning at Home
We will be hosting a virtual parent coffee on Tuesday 21st of April from 8:45 - 9:45 a.m to share ideas and strategies for supporting virtual learning at home.
Across the world millions of families are engaging in learning at home. This is a new chapter for parents as they figure out how to manage their own responsibilities and their children’s learning. When setting expectations with your children about their learning, it’s critical that you have already developed clear daily routines as a family and have established clear spaces for your own work and where your child will be engaging in school activities. Below are some other strategies to consider as you support your child’s learning.
- Create a Schedule - Think about creating a schedule for yourself and your children so your children know what they need to accomplish that day and when you are available to help them.
- Prioritize Needs - Prioritizing needs is important. Knowing that each family has their own unique demands, so it may not be possible for your child to accomplish all of their activities for that day or week. That’s okay. If an activity is not completed then it could be completed the next day when you have more time to help your child. Communicating with your child about your own responsibilities is important so they don’t feel frustrated in not being able to get all of their schoolwork done.
- Family Meetings - Have a family meeting at least a couple of times a week where everyone can share their thoughts, their big priorities for the week, their concerns, anything at all! Everyone should speak their own thoughts and be able to share openly.
- Set Goals - Encourage your child to set a daily goal for what they want to accomplish with their schoolwork. Setting goals is a great way for children to own their learning and have a concrete target to achieve.
- Reinforce Children’s Engagement - While all children take pride in their work, some children are more motivated when they are working towards something. Whether your child sets and achieves their goal or still completes their schoolwork without setting a goal, consider rewarding them for their hard work. Examples of rewards include playing a family game, being read to by a parent, having a five-minute dance party, doing a puzzle together, etc.
- Stay Active - An important way to keep our brains engaged is to stay active. Schedule breaks for yourself and your children to do some movement, yoga, stretching, GoNoodle, and so on. This will ensure that when you and your children are ready to get back to work that you can remain focused on the task ahead.
- Communicate - share your needs or your concerns directly with us. Teachers are experts at this and can easily share tips or strategies for you to try at home. Also talk to your children about this unique situation; share that this is new for you too!
- Practice Patience and Flexibility - Be patient with your children and meet them where they are developmentally. Although we want to challenge our children, we also don’t foster a sense of frustration and helplessness when we ask them to do things that they are not ready to do.
Lastly, remember this is a work progress. We are all taking this one day at a time and each day is different. Making our routines and our family work habits sustainable will keep us healthy and happy. We are also all learning and growing and improving at what we do each day.
New challenges in time for the long weekend!
Collaborators work together to get things done! AISC students in Elementary School have a lot of experience with teamwork and collaboration. Even apart, we can work together virtually in many ways. Choose one of the collaborator challenges and don’t forget to share photos of your work by emailing aiscesdesign@aischennai.org or post on Twitter with the hashtags #AISCESDesign. We would love to see what you do!
From the School-wide Counseling Team
This article can help students manage fear and anxiety. While this article might not be directly relevant to the COVID-19 it provides a comprehensive picture of what to expect age-by-age around anxiety and offers parents strategies to support kids manage their anxiety. If you are interested in learning just about these suggestions, scroll down to the bottom of the article. If you might not have time to read the entire article, we have recapped below the strategies shared in the article:
- Give them plenty of information.
- Meet them where they are.
- Play.
- Be careful not to overreact.
- Don’t avoid.
- Let them explore their fear safely.
- Don’t give excessive reassurance.
- Understand the physical signs of fear.
- Something soft and familiar makes the world feel lovelier.
- Be alive to what they are watching on TV or reading in books.
- Remember they’re watching.
- Validate their fears and let them put word to their fears.
- Acknowledge any brave behavior.
For parents who would like additional resources to tap into in the upcoming long weekend, here is a suggested podcast. In this podcast, grief expert David Kessler and a renowned writer and professor Brené Brown walk the listeners through individual and collective grief, what meaning is, and what finding meaning isn’t. In light of COVID-19, their conversation might be relevant. In fact, it is suggested in this article that the discomforting emotion we might all be experiencing right now is grief. Grief is a challenging subject to talk about and we hope that the podcast and the article shared here would be of a helpful starting point for parents who would like to learn more about grief, processing grief, and finding meaning in grief.
Challenges from the Athletics and Activities office
The athletics and activities office is challenging AISC families to GYFT - Get Your Family Together. There are 15 different activities for you to earn points for the GYFT Challenge, most of them are largely offline and are meant for you to spend time together. For more information go to the Athletics and Activities blog.
The athletics and activities office is challenging AISC families to GYFT - Get Your Family Together. There are 15 different activities for you to earn points for the GYFT Challenge, most of them are largely offline and are meant for you to spend time together. For more information go to the Athletics and Activities blog.
Have a relaxing screen free weekend!
Keryn Dowling, Dave Allen, and Calley Connelly
Elementary School Leadership Team
Elementary School Leadership Team