How to Work from Home with Kids

Coronavirus has turned many school parents into school-at-home parents, so I (Marlow) have been providing resources to families to help them navigate. Three blog posts on my personal website may be helpful, whether or not you are fortunate enough to be working from home during the pandemic. The ideas here may also be helpful if you as a parent just need to be able to get stuff done while your kids are in need of your time and you’re all shoe-horned into the same room in your house or flat.

How to Work from Home with Kids: Introduction

How to Work from Home with Kids, Part 2: Be Flexible

How to Work from Home with Kids, Part 3: Be Creative

You may note that I said “school-at-home” instead of “homeschooling.” During quarantines and shelter-in-place, and especially if your child’s normal school is providing curricula, lesson plans, and/or videoconference check-ins, you’re not really homeschooling in the normal sense, because most homeschooling is actually out-and-about-schooling, or as many homeschoolers call it, “carschooling.”

What does that mean? In the pre-covid world, most homeschooling is done out in our communities, in co-ops with other families, in field trips, park days, play-dates, museums, small (and big!) business tours, project-based learning, classes from various providers, on the road (travel-schooling!), and more. We really don’t have that luxury now.

If you’re in a school district that is providing little or no support, you have more flexibility. You’ll find articles online about learning at home during coronavirus, like this one in Dwell magazine. You can also learn about “unschooling,” “child-led learning,” and “eclectic” schooling. Providers like Outschool (full disclosure: I’m an advisor) offer myriad learning opportunities online, and regular homeschooling websites from before the pandemic offer many ideas. “Gifted homeschooling” or “homeschooling 2e” are also good search terms. And if you can’t find what you need, you can also just ask for guidance from specialists like me and others.

Lastly, remember that for generation upon generation, kids learned from the people around them, their families, and their communities, rather than factory-scale schools. They’ll learn; it may not look like what you think it should, but learning is all around us. Allowing them the leeway to learn more on their own may just be the leeway you need yourself to be able to work or be productive while they’re at home with you.

 

The Critical Role of Identification

As we design our selection process and program to support asynchronous scholars, we have been thinking a great deal about how critical it is for these asynchronous kids to be identified as early as possible – not by the Fund, but by their families and schools.

Two recent articles reminded us that the most underserved of asynchronous kids are English language learners and those who come from underprivileged backgrounds. The current focus to narrow the achievement gap takes the approach of bringing the lower end of achievement up. This helps some kids reach their potential to be nearer to the middle of the heap, which is laudable. But kids already at the middle don’t benefit much, and those whose potential is higher – especially much higher – are left out in the cold.

And woe be unto those whose potential is very high, but who are misunderstood to have little potential, because they are English language learners; have learning disabilities despite high IQs; or suffer from low motivation, poor work skills, and corresponding poor performance in school, also despite high IQs. Some of these children may be assumed to be the beneficiaries of No Child Left Behind, because the approach may help bring their test scores closer to the norm. But what is still left behind is their critical need for intellectually challenging material, accelerated pace-of-learning, and assistance learning diligence and persistence.

Identifying children as being asynchronous – many ages at once, with the potential to work above their chronological age – is critical for several reasons. The first is that it brings the child one step closer to having his or her needs met. The Davidson Institute for Talent Development has an excellent database of articles on identifying such children. Not only might identification gain access for a child to a GATE program or other learning opportunities better suited to his or her needs, but permits both educators and parents a much better understanding of the child. This makes a critical difference in a child’s self-esteem and emotional well-being. For some, it’s life-saving.

The challenge is in identifying these children as belonging with other asynchronous scholars. Schools that use IQ scores alone as indicators of potential have larger disparities among minority and non-minority groups, according to a 1993 study on developing America’s talent. But other indicators can be taken into account to assess the whole child, and these factors become more important to include in assessments when the student in question comes from a minority group, an underprivileged background, or is an English language learner. These include how fast the student is learning a second (non-native) language; whether the child is street-smart; how well they get along with older children and adults; creativity and resourcefulness; and more. Both educators and parents should be familiar with the traits of asynchronous, advanced learners. We’ll be keeping them in mind as we begin to reach out to school districts, homeschool groups, communities, and elsewhere to identify children and families who need our assistance.

Join Us!

We’re excited to be on Facebook (new!) and Twitter. (Like us! Follow us!)

You can make a difference! Advocate for the creativity, persistence and intellectual well-being of asynchronous scholars in need. By helping us advocate for in-depth learning resources, assessment, and educational support for these children, you are helping to create a dramatically increased, more diverse pool of innovators, leaders, and non-linear thinkers to work on the world’s most intractable challenges, thanks to equal access to appropriate educational resources and support in childhood.