Teaching to different age groups

Do What’s Doable

Start with setting realistic expectations for yourself and your family. “Don’t expect kids to do schoolwork for seven hours a day,” advises Mary Fister, a Chicago Public Schools librarian, elementary school teacher and mom. Instead, she recommends, “set realistic goals for each child based on their age, attention span and areas where they need the most help.”

For many of us, the gap between our goals for children and the reality of what we can accomplish with them is frustrating, overwhelming and defeating. Forget defeat and take the win another way: focus on what you can do. Accept that it may not be feasible to follow all remote learning plans or do all assigned activities on a daily basis. Instead, try focusing on a specific time window each day when you can devote attention to helping your child tackle a specific project or assignment, and then build up your family’s remote learning stamina from there. Surrender what cannot be achieved that day or in that moment or—honestly—at all. Trust that whatever you’re doing is enough.