How to Teach My Nursery Kids Online?

This global pandemic is having a tremendous impact on each country’s education system. This health crisis helps our children think more proactively in the online world and get more creative remotely.

While lockdowns were in place, kids had started approaching other types of learning, such as e-learning and remote projects.

Preschools took the same approach. While offline play could no longer be a thing, the online environment started developing. Through remote play, projects, and games, kids learned how to deal with their emotions and interactions differently. Their academic skills improved along with the educators’ desire to teach.

To inspire kids to stay active and continue their daily interactions, parents and teachers alike searched for all the necessary tools to create a safe environment for children.

If you are still wondering how to improve your teaching abilities for nursery kids, here is a short guide that might help.

1. Use children as your guide

While it’s true that children don’t act the same at home as they do at school, it’s important to observe them. Their age shows through playfulness, exploration, and various learning techniques you might have not thought about.

Ask all the families involved to send you videos of their children exploring the new learning environment. Research trends, tips, and tricks on how to help them engage more. Observe their behaviors and attitude towards remote learning.

Let the children be your guide. If you are going to create a plan and stick to it no matter what, you won’t develop your teaching abilities too soon. Teaching is all about creating a rapport with the kids without being too strict about it. Pay attention to their wants and needs and let them guide you accordingly.

2. Keep it half-half

You cannot expect children to pay attention to the screen continuously, especially when younger. So, if you’re working with kids ages 2 to 7, they’ll probably need regular breaks and other forms of engagement as well.

While e-Learning is a popular tool to connect with them, make sure you invite the children to explore other types of activities as well.

For example, having them play various games in real-life with their parents is a good alternative. They could use the best assignment writers UK to brainstorm ideas. After they figured out a game plan, have parents take pictures of the kids and send them to you.

This way, you can ensure that they’re not glued to a virtual environment 24/7. Keep the learning setting half online, half offline to ensure the best results.

3. Interact with their families

Make sure that your interaction with the kids’ families is constant. Families make great allies and supporters. They can provide specific aid to improve their children’s learning process at home.

You could connect with the parents and give them certain responsibilities both during the classroom and outside of the e-learning environment. Make sure that you discuss attendance with them and let them choose whether their kid should or shouldn’t attend class each day. You cannot force them to become involved.

In case they miss too many projects, deadlines, or are not interested in an interaction at all, set up a Zoom meeting where you create a better rapport with them. Explain why this process is crucial to their kids’ emotional and intellectual development. In any case, the bottom line is, try to keep them as involved as possible.

4. Keep remote relationships active

Even though kids are not present in the classroom anymore, they should continue to build relationships. This is essential to their development. Even though they cannot be together with their friends, they should still be able to show that they care. So, the best way to go about this is to have families call each other at least one time per week.

You could pair two different families each week to promote communication between their children. Have parents observe how their kids interact and discuss it eventually with you. Ask children to be as open as they can be, even virtually. Have real conversations with the kids – you might think they don’t get it but in fact, they really do.

You could also create a weekly newsletter where every family could send their updates each week. Have the parents send pictures and videos of their children playing or engaging in various activities. Have them create a social, communicative environment. Who knows, you might find out things you haven’t even considered!

5. Play some music

Another great activity to improve the e-learning experience is learning how to dance or sing. Kids respond well to such activities; it not only promotes creativity, but it also engages them to think outside the box. You could organize poetry nights, follow the leader activities, or singing contests.

Important! Make sure to create specific rules. Kids can be hyperactive, and the online environment cannot support chaos. To avoid this activity from becoming overwhelming for everyone, impose regulations within the online classroom. Have them respect each other and get rid of all the possible distractions. Work with the parents on this if you have to.

6. Leverage the tech-savvy team members

If the parents you’re working with are tech-savvy, you could start an on-going partnership. Not every school has high-tech environments available, so sometimes, you might have to improvise. As a teacher, you might not know everything about technology, so have an expert take a look.

Tech-savvy families can be useful for the whole online community, so make sure you talk about that. You could set up a separate Zoom meeting with those parents who seem to be more involved. You could discuss creativity and the importance of collective effort in the reality that we’re living.

Empower them to become a team, if not a family. Learn from their creativity and help them learn from yours. Involve them in the e-learning process as much as you can, as often as you can. Make sure you don’t exclude anyone from it. In the end, it’s the kid who suffers the most, so you are not allowed to be selective.

7. Love yourself to love the kids

Being too tough on yourself is not an option. I mean, think about your past – you might have never done this before. So, love yourself enough and be patient with yourself. You are also learning and that is perfectly normal.

Previous success metrics are no longer valid since things have changed so drastically. If kids do not pay enough attention to you during lessons, come from a place of understanding. Do not freak out or become angry. Learn to accept that such abrupt changes take time and effort.

Connect with the families to know what the kids need the most and like the best. Ensure that they have all the necessary tools to thrive. You are doing your best to succeed, remember that.

Conclusion

Helping kids and families accommodate the online learning environment can be challenging. This is why you must have some strategies planned before you start. The above tips might be a good start for you. Good luck!

Author Bio: Tiffany Harper is an experienced journalist and writer, who began her career very early, with a professional dissertation service. Her work on human psychology in families helps to develop as a specialist and loving mother. Tiffany now plans to travel around the USA and find new areas of aspiration for writing. Please do not hesitate to contact her on Twitter.