Now that nearly all children are at home, there are hundreds of pages of worksheets for parents to download. Many are for teachers to assign. They do keep the kids busy for a while and it looks like the kids are learning something. But most of the time spent on these sheets, by adults up and downloading them and by children doing them, is WASTED time.
As I’ve said before, I’ve spent lots of time cooped up at home with my kids. With the exception of a few specific assignments sent by teachers, they spent nearly NO TIME on school work. While my kids were home, their classmates were in school, so there was catch-up when they got back. But now, all the kids are out. Of course, there will be stuff teachers will have to go back over when school opens again. But there will be less of a gap.
This is the time to BOND, to make memories, to show love, to encourage each child to explore her/his own interests and learn something new to share with the rest of the family. Skills that will help the family are wonderful – are they old enough to learn to cook? Even the youngest can tear up lettuce leaves to help make a salad. They can learn to wash dishes (yes, by hand). Maria Montessori had 3s and 4s washing their own plates and utensils. They can dry and put utensils away, sort and fold laundry, and do lots more around the house.
If you are in a house with a yard, planting is wonderful together. Moving small rocks to make a flower growing area and all sorts of re-arrangement of the garden is productive and real work. The vocabulary, physical science, math of it all are great additions to their knowledge.
We live in an apartment – my husband spent much of today moving plants from one planter to another – things he rooted on the windowsill are now in pots. This is real work, satisfying work, and work that makes our world a little nicer.
PLEASE, no worksheets!!!
