Alaska Wilderness Mom

In early winter (last year) the kids and I trekked to Anchorage where we had doctor and dentist appointments, and did some shopping for food supplies. Many communities in bush Alaska have small health clinics, but no doctor on staff, so when we need a doctor we hop in an airplane and fly to the big city of Anchorage.

While there Noel had her teeth cleaned as well as a check up. Afterwards the dentist informed me that Noel had just given her some excellent tips on homeschooling. I chuckled and nodded my head in agreement as the dentist shared her woes at having to delve into the homeschooling world due to coronavirus.

She was experiencing fear and anxiety, and swimming in the sea of the unknown. Like so many other parents- maybe you included- homeschooling is a scary and new world you are not too excited about tackling. I too was rather daunted by homeschooling when we began over seven years ago. I don’t have decades of experience under my belt like some, however, I must say I have survived and even thrived as you can too! So grab this bull by the horns, wrestle it down, and stand tall! Whether you believe you can….or can’t….you are right, so start believing you can!

The 6 R’s: Homeschooling Tips from the Alaska Wilderness Mom (and Noel!)

Tip 1: Relax – many kids are adept at reading sign. I’m speaking about body language, and the energy in people and situations. Nervousness and anxiety in others is read by them like a giant billboard blaring in your face as you drive along a highway. If you want your kids to maximize their learning, they need you to be calm and relaxed.

You don’t need to know everything to do a good job, and you especially shouldn’t pretend you know everything because your kids will see right through that. Let’s face it, many parents are stuck teaching and overseeing their kids schooling at home during these trying COVID times, and are not real excited about it. Want your kids back at their brick and mortar school? Have little interest in schooling them at home? You are not alone, but whether you like it or not, that’s the way it is going to be for awhile. Learn to love it…..or at least learn to endure it……and relax, stay calm, and carry on.

Tip 2: Research – Determine best learning styles. Get to know how you learn best. Then determine how each one of your children learns best. Kids are all different- some are visual learners, some are auditory, and some are kinesthetic. I had no idea what that all meant when I started. I found a learning style test for all of us to take and discovered which ways we learn best.

Adults tend to teach in a style that reflects how they learn best, but that might be very different from your child’s best learning style. Once we discovered our styles amazing things began happening! My kids learned quicker, retained more and “got it” so much faster, making my job a whole lot easier and more fun. Check with your homeschool group, school district or trusted Facebook school group to find a good solid test. They don’t take long to do, and the effort will pay off in HUGE ways!

Tip 3: Reward – I am a big believer in rewarding a job well done. Who doesn’t like incentives and rewards for doing work? Adults work hard and receive a pay check. Kids work hard at school and what do they get? A report card and maybe a flimsy award certificate for an extra good job. Kind of boring, isn’t it? Motivational systems typically work best if there is a reward and consequence. I will focus on rewards.

Incentives verses bribes: Don’t bribe, give incentives. Incentives and rewards are not bribes. As IEW’s Andrew Pudewa puts it in one of his popular podcasts , “A bribe is typically something offered to another for an immoral deed or unethical act.” (paraphrased by me). Getting a reward for doing well does not fit into that category. Incentives and rewards offer encouragement, and a “push” for your kiddo- doing amazing things for their motivation towards school work. Discover what your child wants or desires and figure out a reward system that fits. Don’t go overboard. If your child starts refusing to do work unless they get something out of it, it’s time to back off the rewards. That’s never happened to us, but I’m careful to continually stress that rewards aren’t “expected” but earned.

Track the work: We use a sticker chart with shiny jewel-like stickers for each day (see pic below). It may sound elementary, but it’s worked great for my kids grades 2-8th. At the end of our homeschool day (usually about 3 pm), I tell the kids what they’ve earned for the day:

Blue or pink (superb job, highest), green (excellent), yellow (could have done better), and red (oh man, what a horrible day! Lot’s of bad attitude and rebellion).

Mainly the stickers are related to attitude and hard work, not grade. (The blue or pink stickers can be substituted for your kids favorite color.) IF they earn the top 2 highest stickers all week they get to pick out a prize from 3 options in their shimmery gold treasure reward box I created. If your student does well all month- or year- you can choose to give them an end of the month, or end of the year reward. If they get one or more yellow stickers in a week, or a red, they don’t get an end of the week reward. That said, make sure your rewards are what they like and want.

Examples for rewards: I usually keep the rewards in the $2-8 range per week per kid. When my daughter was in 3rd grade, I offered rewards in the style of Calico Critters/Little Critters because she was totally into those. They come in different animal varieties: rabbits (ie. Bell Hopscotch), dogs, hedgehogs, and baby chocolate labs among others, and of course, there are loads of accessories to buy (what good company would forget about the add-on’s, right?!) One can buy the grand house (a good end of the year reward), hot dog stand, playground, or treehouse (good options for an end of the month reward), babies, baby strollers, donut stand (my favorite), playhouse, and even a boat and water slide!

I used to give more little toys, but now have shifted to consumable types of rewards to cut down on clutter. Examples are: milkshake treat, outdoor picnic party, gift cards, face masks, hair scrunchies, $ gift card to the local store, Rubik cube and other varieties, Nutella (my son loves this!), desk items like little lamps, tundra/far side desk calendars, sand timers, unusual coins like 50 cent pieces, Susan B. Anthony dollars, $2 dollar bill, unique erasers, books they really want, nerf gun bullets, cooking utensils now that they are into cooking, hot cocoa/tea tumblers, their own mugs, pen knives, survival gear, first aid gear and equipment (huge assortment of items in this category). On-line black Friday sales and cyber Monday sales are excellent times to stock up on items while receiving enormous discounts. And that is coming up soon!

Tip 4: Read – if you can do nothing else in a day….read aloud to your kids, no matter what their age is. Get a stack of good quality books, including some classics and appropriate mainstream books (I say appropriate because there are some fairly shabby, recently published children’s and youth books that are supposedly “best sellers” yet full of inappropriate content and bad language). Make sure the books you read aloud are fun and enjoyable. Nothing is worse than suffering through a read aloud book that no one is enjoying. Don’t be afraid to put the book down and move onto another if it is too complex, over your kids heads, or has too many huge vocab words that nobody understands. Everybody should be enjoying it.

Reading aloud is super rewarding and super important and super great in tons of ways for kids. Parents and their grown children have time and time again said that the most memorable parts of their K-12 schooling were reading books aloud together. My kids aren’t grown up and out of the house yet, but I can already say that reading aloud to them has been very memorable! Sonlight.com has great book lists by age range, lots of good quality books, many Newberry Medal, and honors book authors. The Read-Aloud Revival (RAR) website and podcasts are an excellent resource for everything read-aloud including book lists.

Tip 5: Refreshments – this is one of Noel’s additions. In order to have a productive day- offer good snacks, new snacks and a variety of special treats. Time and time again, I’ve heard camp counselors and teachers say, “It’s all about the good snacks!”. I have led lots of student groups and activities at my park ranger job and I wholeheartedly agree. Switch them up, make sure you’re kids are well fed and keep the sugar treats to a minimum. Avoid foods with the dye red #40 at all costs, unless you like seeing extra hyper, low attention span mindsets. Jerky sticks, Nutella, good ol’ cheese and crackers, muffins, and healthy smoothies are a few ideas.

We don’t have access to the typical grocery store food where we live, so I home bake most of our breads, muffins, baked goods and goodies. Costco is a favorite for us to explore when we fly into Anchorage- it is the land of wonderful snack options, but if your budget does not allow for their at-times spendy offerings, then it is time to get creative, crank up the oven and find something new to bake up.

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Tip 6: Recreate – Get enough outdoor play time- and that goes for all ages and grade levels. Kids aren’t meant to sit around all day. They need fresh air and running around time. That may seem obvious, but in general many kids that are schooled at home don’t get enough exercise. One great way to make sure this happens is to schedule it in at the same time everyday so it’s habitual. I know it can be hard with COVID, but try to go for a hike, or a walk in a park- even if you have to drive a little it is worth it, and certainly beats your kids bouncing off the walls of your house and not being able to focus. Try to start some new family habits with outdoor activities! It can be a very fun, memorable experience.

In Conclusion– Relax around your kids. Research how they learn best. Reward them when they have a great day/week, and if you have to, institute consequences. Read with your kids! It’s a great way to form happy memories! Hand out Refreshments, if your kid has high metabolism this step is important as they will focus much better with regular snacks. Recreate– get enough exercise or you will have hyper, unhappy, and loud kids on your hands, besides, you can even take it as a challenge for yourself to get outdoors more often! I hope this blog post helps you with homeschooling your kids!!!