QUARANTINE LIFE: TEACHABLE MOMENTS

There may be a lot of reasons to push in-person learning, but declaring that kids won't be able to learn anything otherwise, isn't one of them.

If you have internet access, or a television, or even a library card, you have the keys to a wealth of information that some of us WISH we had when we were in grade school. We had to actually leave home and WALK to the library, HOPE the book we needed was available, learn the Dewey Decimal System, and how to use the card catalog.

Back in the day, an in-home set of encyclopedias was an investment. It gave students an edge. The internet, however, gives students a whole set of knives and swords.

Every subject imaginable is now online. There are lectures, documentaries, audiobooks, games, maps, printable worksheets, songs, illustrations, how-to and do-it-yourself videos, and even the objectives and standards for school districts and grade levels.

PBS is free. Google is free, and teachable moments and resources are everywhere--at the kitchen table, outside your door, in your neighborhood--everywhere...and we still have good ol' fashioned books.

Kids all over the world should be geniuses.

You don't have to have a degree to teach your child basic sight words, numbers, colors, etc.

This notion that kids can't, or won't learn anywhere except inside a classroom, is ridiculous. Just because some short-sighted, politically motivated school systems have banned virtual learning options, because they didn't prepare, or they stupidly thought the Coronavirus would follow their schedules, doesn't mean your home computer or smart phone has to shut off. Search for things for your family to learn together.

If school buildings close again, and that's a very real possibility with the Delta variant enjoying the aggressive surge that anyone who’s been paying attention, and not in denial, knew it would, that won't doom your child to being an imbecile, or woefully behind unless you allow it. Find out what your child is set to learn this year.

I guarantee it's online.

Technology is your friend, and the same way that children can master the games they play, the dances they learn, the lyrics they sing, and how to order stuff from Amazon, they can master their grade level objectives, too. Make it a priority, not an option.

Parents must always remember that they are their children's first teachers. You may not be a rocket scientist, but you can still teach your children SOMETHING worthwhile, motivate their learning and encourage their curiosity and interests during this pandemic.

Children take their cues from the adults around them.

If the adults make excuses, throw up their hands, and go full gloom and doom, don't expect the children to be inspired.

Keep them engaged--and safe. Their learning is not dispensable, and neither are they.