Helping Parents Cope During a Pandemic by Lyn Sharratt

Parents are our students’ first teachers and now their role as teachers is more important than ever! We may be able to reduce some of that extra pressure by helping them to understand some guiding principles of teaching and learning that we use every day:

• Learning is fun;
• Learning is best accomplished when it is relevant, meaningful, and hands-on;
• Learning can be in short bursts with breaks for snacks, drinks, exercise, not sitting for hours;
• Learning is safe, risk-free, adventurous and sparks curiosity;
• Learning is a social process that must include Talk;
• Reading together, every day and every kind of material, is gratifying, important and a bonding process. Writing daily can be fun when art is included;
• Learning can be all around the house.

Parents may find these links useful:

Learning Potential (Australian Government)

Whitehorse Manningham Libraries: eLibrary (some of our weekly Learning Tasks will use this fantastic resource) Join online here.

State Library Victoria (more great online resources - join for free to access the collection as a Victorian resident)

Department of Education and Training Learning from Home information for parents

(some useful resources from here are also listed below)

Literacy and Numeracy tips to help your child every day (DET)

Smiling Mind App for kids

Headspace App for kids

Junior School students:

Eleven games and activities for parents to encourage maths in early learning

Maths Challenge - Wall Frieze (Prep - Year 2)

Maths in the Early Years (everyday activities)

Numeracy at Home: Birth to Level 2

Maths at Our House (NZ Maths)

Numeracy at Home (Monash University)

NRICH (University of Cambridge) 

Middle and Senior School students:

Numeracy at Home: Levels 3 - 8

Victorian Maths Challenge (for Year 3 - 6 students, or try these as a family!)

NRICH (University of Cambridge)