UT Extension shares advice, encouragement for parents homeschooling kids

UT Extension shares advice, encouragement for parents homeschooling kids

If you chose homeschooling as the way to go for your child this school year, you're not alone.

And, recently spoke i with a family expert who shares some advice on getting through the year.

School is back in session for many in the tennessee valley.

But, the way we normally envision school is different this year.

Because of the pandemic more parents have chosen for their kids to attend school not in the traditional classroom, but rather at home.

Ut extension family and consumer sciences associate professor heather sedges, phd, cfle: "this is having the structure of the school day and the requirements that are being put fourth layered over everything that is happening in the home already.

On top of that it's parents with full-time jobs working from home trying to navigate siblings that are doing different work.

It's, it's a lot right now."

Just in hamilton county schools, over 15-thousand students are learning through their two remote options.

Their virtual school had under 100 students enrolled last school year.

This year, over 700 students are enrolled.

Ut extension family and consumer sciences associate professor heather sedges offers some advice for parents of kids learning at home.

She says her biggest suggestion is to involve your children in creating some kind of structure.

Ut extension family and consumer sciences associate professor heather sedges, phd, cfle: "what i mean by that is you don't have to be minute by minute on your schedule, but if you say in the morning we're going to be doing this kind of work for 10 to 15 minute.

Involve your children in crafting a plan for your day so that everyone know what to expect around when to expect it."

Whether or not your child already has a schedule to go off of, keeping them engaged might be difficult.

Sedges says be open to letting your kids get up and move around.

Ut extension family and consumer sciences associate professor heather sedges, phd, cfle: "a suggestion that i've actually put into place in my home with my 9-year-old is we create a special learning nook in our household and that is nothing more than two chairs spaced apart and i through a blanket over it.

I put in a cheap little flashlight in there and he loves crawling in there to either read or do some workbook pages or something like that.

It kind of creates this space when we're all feeling stuck on top of each other these days."

Sedges also highly encourages parents to go easy on yourself and your children.