If we’ve learned anything in the
last seven months of the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s to broaden our sense of what’s
possible. In fact, we’ve been forced to do that, like it or not. While this
development may conjure mostly negative thoughts – global crisis, widespread
business closures, no more handshakes – it need not.
Speaking for myself, my weekly
visits to a Woodstock preschool have all been outside since April. For years
now, I’ve shown up at this little building, played singalong songs, and
encouraged dancing and interaction, often coaxing some very shy little ones out
of their shells. These music classes have always been inside a cinderblock
room, under fluorescent lights. Now, outside, beneath trees turning color, I’ve
incorporated a lot more nature teachings.
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I was well into adulthood before I
could discern the difference between a spruce tree and a cedar tree, but
hopefully most of my students will be able to do that by kindergarten, because
that’s just one of many new environmentally-based things we’ve been singing and
talking about. Also clouds, bugs, and the birds that fly overhead while we sing
and dance. Just today, some teachers and I were lamenting the coming time when
we’ll need to go back inside.
Like me being forced into nature to
teach, writer Sarah Robsdottir, homeschooling mom of six boys, turned
to homeschooling out of necessity, but is thankful for it. She offers some helpful
“hacks” she has used over the years with much success, all examples of what she
calls “dual-tasking.”
She writes: “We pair one specific
academic discipline (memorization work) with one specific
household chore (washing dishes).”
The Robsdottir family also listens
to audiobooks when running errands, studies geography posters while sweeping
the hall, and practices phonics while folding socks, among other “dual tasks.”
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It’s worth noting that the elder
Robsdottir boys have excelled on standardized tests, and the 16-year-old is
gainfully employed at a job he loves.
Notably, Sarah also attributes a lot
of her boys’ success to “not having a TV in the living room.”