The coronavirus pandemic has caused schools across the nation to reconsider the necessity of physical classes this academic year. Many school districts are incorporating a hybrid or entirely online curriculum to decrease the risk of having large numbers of people in a confined area for 8 hours a day. With many students opting for the online option comes a lot of adapting and learning how to receive an adequate education from home. Without an ability to physically socialize with classmates, it can make school much more difficult and less appealing for children. A way to counteract this is by becoming an active participant in their learning and academic pursuits. School isn’t all about grades as it is a place of great social development and fun. Ensuring your child is having fun is one of the single most important things to do for your child while homeschooling and online schooling. Below is a breakdown of the reasons why your kids need to have fun while learning from home and some easy and simple solutions to make schooling a little more fun and exciting for your child. 

Being a kid

While being a student is important, it is important to realize that your child is more than just a letter grade. Being a student is a part of many children’s identity but it is important to ensure these kids understand that school is not what their life is all about and that they are able to have other hobbies and interests besides school. While schooling from home, it is important to keep children on a similar schedule to that of normal school. This ensures that school does not overwhelm their life and that they still have time for pursuing other endeavors and interests. One way to ensure that school does not become overbearing is to give your kid a recess or time to play outside. This will allow them to get some fresh air and to simply be a kid. These breaks will also allow them to burn off some pent up energy which will ultimately allow them to stay more focused during lessons and less likely to doze off. 

Love for Learning

The best way you can help your child in school is not by helping them with every problem and babying them but actually by encouraging them to find the answer for themselves. Many parents fall into the trap where they want to help their child succeed but they often go too far and give them the answer to help them out. This is actually to the detriment of the student and doesn’t encourage students to be confident about their own answers. Rather than helping in this way it is advisable to promote children to love a challenge and seek out the answers themselves. This goes a lot like the saying of giving a person a fish they will eat for a day, but teach a person to fish they will never go hungry. Teaching your child how to utilize their resources and find the answer to their assignments will set them on a route to success and independence. Making a challenging problem a fun thing to solve is important in your child developing a love for learning and for deepening their understanding of concepts.

Motivation

Kids are motivated by a variety of ways but a large motivator for any child is fun. When homeschooling or doing online school it can be easy to forget that your kid may not be motivated because they lack the motivation to learn something they may not be interested in. WHile kids do not need to be excited about everything they ar elearning they should have an optimistic view of school and feel motivated to learn. An easy way to accomplish this is by ensuring your child is having fun throughout the lesson. This will enable your kids to get past potentially boring subjects because the act of learning is enjoyable for them. Teaching is all about engaging students and by providing the information in a fun and exciting way. Supplemental learning tools like primer make this easy for parents by giving them topic based activities to keep their child engaged and having fun.

Overall if your child is having fun while they are learning they are less likely to see school as a negative thing. Many high achieving students achieve high grades because they genuinely enjoy school and the process of having a deeper level of understanding of the world around them. Intrinsic motivation is one of the most powerful forms of motivators out there and by making schooling fun for your child you are promoting this form of motivation. Kids need to have fun while learning from home to make them a better student, to allow them to be a kid, and to facilitate a lifelong love for learning.