‘I need help’: An email from a parent

A parent wrote to me and said:

I need help. I am trying to keep all the schoolwork organized for a fifth-grader, a fourth-grader, a third-grader, and two kindergartners with two different teachers. Any tips or things that would help each kid and mom not go crazy? PS: Our teachers don’t get paid enough. 

We do school from 9 a.m. to noon. This includes their reading time. Most of their stuff is on iPads. We can get it done if our Internet doesn’t crash. ???♀? The kids eat lunch, do chores, and have the rest of the day to do whatever.

My response:

If I were you, I would set up a flexible schedule in this way: You can’t help all of them at once, so make a grid for each child. In that grid, you put nine boxes. There is a box for reading, there is a box for math, physical activity, science, social studies, cooking, keeping the room/toys organized, an outside group activity, and a chore activity. What you do is you rotate these things so that for reading and math, e.g., you are only dealing with a limited grade level.

 For example, I would work with the fifth-grader alone, put the fourth- and third-grader together, and put the kindergartners together. I would give them a half hour for reading and a half hour of math. That’s three hours of your time. The rest of the time they are doing one of those other things. (You don’t have to keep such close track of science or social studies.) They check off each box on the grid when they get it done. I would have the fourth- and fifth-grader identify the time frames during which they want to get things done. Let them have some choice and flexibility. They’ll feel like they’re more in control.

 I would not have any of them do more than one hour of academic tasks at any given time. The way you’re going to keep track of all of them is with that grid. You’re also going to need to tie a reward to the grid. Is that video games? Is it social time on Zoom with their friends? What is it?

 Cooking is a fabulous tool because it teaches math and reading. Your kitchen will be a mess, but they will love it and they’ll be very involved. Then make them clean up the kitchen. This way your Internet will not crash either. You could even put the third-, fourth-, and fifth-grader together in the kitchen, but the kindergartners need to be separate. The other way you can reward them is by saying that each box that gets checked each day is worth a quarter. They can redeem their money with an Amazon gift card or by getting something in Fortnite or another game they like. I would tell them that it is their job every day to get those things done, and just like people get paid for work, they will get paid for their work as well.

 The first thing you do every morning is make those grids. You oversee the development of the grid. They sit together and do their grids. What you are watching for is your own schedule. These grids have to work for your schedule to oversee everything. If they get their work done earlier than the 30-minute time frame, that is okay. They can use the time for themselves as long as they’re able to get back on track when it’s time to move to the next square in their grid.