Schooling in the Time of Coronavirus

UPDATE 3/13/20  Sno-isle libraries are closing today at 6pm and we don't know when they will reopon.  You'll still be able to borrow digital content online but if you want some hard copy books, DVDs, or CDs, hurry today and get what you can!

Did you just find out your child’s school is going to be closed for 2 weeks or more?! I’ve heard some schools in Washington State are closing for as many as 6 weeks! Are you totally freaking out? Don’t worry that’s a normal reaction. But also, I’ve got you. It will be fine. It might even be fun.

Who am I? My name is Jennifer. I have been homeschooling my kids ages 11, 11, and 16 from the beginning. None of my kids have been to public school. To be clear, I am not opposed to public school and I’m really glad public schools exist. It isn’t what my family has chosen as our best option - but that’s just us. I truly don’t believe there is one right way to school. Each family can and should decide what is best for them. That said, I have some experience homeschooling kids. I have also coached a lot of moms who are figuring out how to homeschool their kids. 2 of my kids have special needs. 1 of them is on the autism spectrum. So I’ve had to figure out how to work with a variety of different circumstances.

Also, between my kids special needs and the Homeschool Group and co-op I help run (LEAF, if you’re curious) I basically have a full time job. So I feel you, working parents who now have to homeschool your kids on top of it!

Please note, all the advice I’m about to give is specific to this, short term, emergency situation. If you were just beginning homeschool and were planning to continue it for the next few months, I would have some different advice for you. Not wildly different, but different. If you happen to be contemplating homeschooling for more than a few weeks, check out this blog post I wrote a while ago.

Ok, so you have 3 or 4 days to prepare and then BAM! You’ll be homeschooling for at least 2 weeks, maybe longer. To begin with:

1. Take a Deep Breath. The rest of your child’s future does not hang on these few weeks. Even if your kids do nothing productive the whole time, it won’t ruin them. Really. You may have heard of the summer slump, when kids regress academically after 2-3 months of no school. Yes, it’s a thing. But your kids probably won’t be out of school for 2-3 months. And even if they are, the summer slump can be mitigated by reading a few books. Really. All kinds of research on this. You don’t have time to look it all up so just trust me. I’ve read dozens of books on this and I’ve seen it in action.
2. I’m gonna share lots of ideas. Think of this as a menu, not a checklist. You shouldn’t try to do it all. Pick a few things that resonate with you and try those out.
3. You’re all gonna get a little cagey and house-bound. Make sure you all get outside, every day. Even if it’s just a family walk to the mailbox, get outside. Every. Single. Day. It will improve everyone’s mental health, it can help you all reset after a rough morning/afternoon/moment, and it will really help the kids with ADHD. I try to do school with my kids in the morning and encourage them to spend a lot of time outside in the afternoon, especially my son who has ADHD and autism. Trampoline time saves us all.

What to Do With Little Ones

With kids ages roughly 0-8 I recommend that you mostly let them play. There’s tons of research showing how beneficial creative/free-play is. Creative/free-play means the child decides what and how to play. Obviously within safety and household limits, but you don’t need to convince your child to play something specific. If your kids are out of practice, they might need a few hours of boredom to figure it out, but they will.

Little ones often enjoy playing while listening to an audiobook. While I enjoy reading aloud to my kids, I can’t do it for hours, and sometimes I really need to work so I can’t be the reader. Audiobooks to the rescue! Put an audiobook on and let the kids play (as quietly as they can). If you need suggestions, here is a list of favorites that I read to my oldest when she was 4-6 years old.
I also recommend the booklists on the Read Aloud Revival website. And the book Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease has a giant booklist in it. You can get the e-book version right now but this is a book I personally want in hard copy. There are plenty of other great lists out there but you don’t have time for research so just try one or all of these.

Where to get audiobooks? 

• Most libraries have amazing selections of audiobooks that you can checkout and download online, for free.
• Librivox.com offers free public domain audiobooks. The quality of narrators can vary but it’s free so try a few out.
• I love my audible.com membership. I get a credit for one free audiobook every month (worth up to $42) and there are tons of inexpensive audiobooks (like under $5 each) available on audible.com. The Read Aloud Revival website keeps track of the deals and recommends good ones. It doesn’t take a lot of money or time to build a great audiobook library of your own. I also love that my audible account is connected to my Alexa so I can easily tell Alexa to play any of my audiobooks.
• CDs of anything narrated by Jim Weiss. Jim Weiss is hands down my family’s favorite narrator. My kids know his name and will listen to anything he narrates. A few of his recordings are starting to show up on audible but most of his work is only available on CD. Worth the hassle though, seriously. The sno-isle library system has dozens of his stories available. You can also buy them on amazon.com. You’ll need a CD player to play them on, but again, worth it.

What to Do With Middle ones

Kids between the ages of 8-14 would benefit most right now from a reading binge. No matter what reading level they are at right now, a reading binge is the best thing that could happen to them and it might change their lives. Many studies show over and over again, that lots of time spent reading increases test scores dramatically - in fact pages read is the best predictor of test scores! Reading books over the summer is more effective in eliminating the summer slump than summer school! And it doesn’t matter what the students read - it only matters that they read A LOT. If you need convincing check out The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease and all the work of Donalyn Miller (Book Whisperer, Reading in the Wild, Game Changer). But you don’t have time for that. So just trust me.

So how do you get your kids to go on a reading binge? You let them choose what they want to read and you get the books for them. Fastest way to make sure it doesn’t happen is to require your kids to read specific books. But if you let them choose and they get sucked in, you’re golden. Try to help them find a series they are interested in reading. Series really help suck young readers in and keep them going. And seriously, the quality of the writing is not important. As long as the book doesn’t conflict with your values, the reading practice will be a game changer for your child. Is there a book series your child has shown interest in? Maybe something you’ve sniffed your nose at? Again, as long as it doesn’t conflict with your values, embrace it. This could be your child’s golden ticket. I’m not exaggerating. If you had the time, I’d tell you to go read the research. But you don’t.

Some popular series for middle-grade readers include

• Magic Treehouse
• Harry Potter
• Land of Stories
• Dork Diaries
• Babysitters Club
• I Survived
• American Girls
• Percy Jackson
• Fablehaven
• Alcatraz
• The Giver
• Eragon

That’s just off the top of my head. So many options out there. Talk to your kids. See if they have a series they have wanted to read. Or start googling or searching on amazon. Don’t worry about books being right at your child’s “level.” As long as it’s doable for them and they want to try it, a reading binge is possible and that’s what we want. If you’ve found a series and you can afford to, buy it on amazon and make sure it arrives before Monday. You can also see if the library carries it and put all the books on hold. When the books are ready for you to pick up, you don’t have to linger in the library or interact with anyone. Just go to the hold shelf, grab your books, check them out and take off. You’ll have minimal exposure to people and likely no actual interaction with anyone. Some, but not all, libraries will stay open throughout the coronavirus outbreak so you may be able to get books and CDs from the library.

If your middle-grade child struggles with reading, I still hope they can find a series within their reading level that they can binge. It will make a massive difference for them. But if they aren’t capable of this yet or you just can’t get them inspired, audiobooks will be wonderful for them. Even better would be listening to the audio while following along in a hard copy of the book. This is also a good strategy for reading a book way above their reading level. Say for example, they really, really want to read Harry Potter but their reading level is well below that, they can listen to the book, It will do wonders for them.

I also highly recommend a binge of The Story of the World audio CDs by Susan Wise Bauer. Jim Weiss, my family’s favorite narrator, is the narrator for these CDs. Between the writing and the narrating, this series really turns history into a fascinating story. My kids have listened to the whole series multiple times. They LOVE it. I love hearing them talk about people from history like friends and acquaintances. My son regularly brings up the Visigoths and Ashurbanipal. Cracks us up. There are 4 volumes and each is 8 - 12 hours long. The whole set will cost well over $100. Worth it. Even if you only get one. Worth it. The library has them too but, get in line. There’s always a long wait for them.

Most kids can’t sit still while listening to an audiobook. If your kids are going to spend hours listening to books I recommend getting out legos, coloring books, art supplies, nail polish, fidgets and other things your kids could play with while they listen.

Kids this age would do well with their own kindles to listen to audio books on and to read on. Especially if you have multiple children and they all want to listen to different things, kindles with headsets are a lifesaver.

It could also be fun to read a book and then watch the movie. It could motivate reluctant readers if they know the whole family will watch the movie at the end of the day or week. Here’s a list of kids books made into movies. Harry Potter is the best one I can think of. I’m kind of a fan...

If you are struggling to keep kids busy and they aren’t falling into a reading binge. You could try

• Crash Course kids on youtube. This is a well done PBS series covering all kinds of science topics. Just beware of all the commercials and additional content that will be tempting your kids. Youtube’s algorithm is designed to entice people to stay on as long as possible and this is accomplished by offering more and more extreme content to the viewer (on the side in the “up next” column). I recommend turning autoplay off and keeping a close eye on kids while they use youtube.
• Documentaries on Kanopy This site offers all kinds of documentaries. You should be able to get free access to it through your library.
• Documentaries on youtube. There are some cool ones on there like the one where they build a medieval castle from scratch without any modern technology. Just do a search. And keep a close eye on the kids while they are on youtube.
• Educational TV shows. No, this isn’t as good as school, but it’s better than you losing your mind or your job and it’s far better than mindless TV. Some series my kids have enjoyed and that I find value in
• Magic School Bus
• Annedroids
• Odd Squad 
• Wild Kratts
• I know there are others, search amazon and netflix and you’ll find them

For a little variety and to break up all the reading/listening/watching here are some more ideas

• Khan Academy online. It’s free, there are courses on dozens of subjects, not just math, and the instructional videos are pretty great. Khan keeps kids engaged with reminders to do it every day, and virtual rewards for mastering content and keeping a streak going. I’m amazed at how motivating and effective it is.
• Typing.com. Free and very effective way to work on keyboarding skills. My kids enjoy it.
• Duolingo.com. Free, fun, and effective way to learn languages. My kids love it.
• Code.org. Free, fun, and a great launchpad into coding. I hear that Khan Academy has more advanced coding for those who max out code.org.
• Board games and card games. Tons of learning happens with games. Lots of reading and math are usually required and more importantly lots of strategizing and problem solving which will translate to academics.
• Get an email pen-pal. Practice typing and writing skills and connect with a grandparent, cousin, friend etc. over email.

What to Do With Biggest ones

For students ages 14-18 A reading binge would be amazing, maybe life changing. It will definitely improve their test scores. There are tons of series that would be perfect for these students too. Here’s a few I recommend

• The Giver series by Lois Lowry
• The Mistborn series
• everything written by Brandon Sanderson (He has multiple series and really sucks readers in)
• The Hunger Games series
• Uglies, Pretties, Specials series
• Enders Game series and Ender’s Shadow series

Great Courses - this is an incredible resource. You can watch recorded lectures by acclaimed professors from prestigious universities on every subject under the sun. I think many highschool students would enjoy it. Especially those who are college-bound and thinking about what they want to study, this is a fabulous opportunity to try out some subjects they are interested in. I recommend a Great Courses Plus membership. You can get a free trial for 14 days and then it’s only $19.99/month to continue.

I recommend audio books for these students too. Any books they are interested in. These students can probably come up with their own quiet activities to do while listening but all the things I suggest for Middle kids would probably work for Biggest kids too.

All the other things I recommended for Middle kids, I also recommend for Biggest kids. These include

• Khan Academy online
• Typing.com
• Duolingo.com
• Code.org
• Board games and card games
• Email pen-pal

In addition, if your student is college-bound and starting to think about it, this is an excellent opportunity to research schools, majors, and careers. It’s also a good time to practice for the SAT and ACT. Khan Academy online is an excellent free resource for this.

I’m excited for you and your kids to have this opportunity. I am aching for and worrying about all those who will suffer from missing out on school lunches and childcare while the school closures last. This is a huge problem and I don’t want to minimize it in any way. But, for those of you who are able to work from home and have the means to feed your children at home, this just might be one of the greatest experiences of your life. Embrace it! Good luck! I’m here if you have questions:)