Kids Sitting in Front of a Computer Isn’t Bad IF it’s the right page!
As a mom of three partially-homeschooled teenage boys who built and runs a business from home, Holly Homer has been in-training for this ‘new normal’ of “stuck at home” for 15 years! She is the blogger behind the wildly successful, KidsActivities.com & the Quirky Momma Facebook page. Her expertise in juggling work-from-home, learning-at-home and common-sense parenting has encouraged many that if she can do it, they can too!
Q&A:
Question #1: Many parents are finding themselves “accidental homeschoolers”, what is your advice about teaching kids at home?
Answer: This is a unique time in history that our kids will look back on and tell their kids about! With that in mind, I think each family needs to decide what their goal for this scenario and then craft their days around that goal.
Question #2: What is the biggest mistake parents are making with distance learning?
Answer: I never expected to be a homeschooler myself, but we ended up choosing it because it gave my family more freedom and independence. Raising independent kids is the ultimate goal, yet many parents feel that they have to keep up the “teacher lecture” model used at school. It is OK to step away from kids learning at home! Let them work on their own. Let them be responsible for their work. You might be surprised at the results. <–by the way, they know how to use Google Classrooms & zoom way better than we do!
Question #3: How do you recommend juggling parenting, learning and working from home?
Answer: Creating a schedule is really important that includes both classwork and work-from-home. Add times that you are available to answer questions and participate in activities. Add the times that you are UNAVAILABLE. When kids can see that you have time to answer their questions or spend with them, it preempts many of the problems ahead of time.
Question #4: The Coronavirus has caused families so much stress. What do you recommend to get parent’s minds off of that and available for making memories with their kids?
Answer: The first thing is to recognize the amount of stress we all are under! My biggest recommendation is to lower our expectations. I know that may sound weird, but it is about what is best for OUR family, not about the family next door or the one we see on social media. Find those little things your family likes to do together. It might be cooking, board games or taking a walk together. In my house we have a game of Settlers of Catan going!
Question #5: What are your readers at Kids Activities Blog doing to enrich this time?
Answer: On Kids Activities Blog, our readers are obsessed with several things: simple learning activities & crafts and easy download and print worksheets and projects. It makes sense that giving kids simple things to do can not only keep them occupied but inspire their creativity and learning. Our readers are also devouring the free resources that we find for them like 40 virtual field trips, companies that offer free subscriptions and so much more.
Question #6: How can people get more information on all these things?
Answer: Go to KidsActivities.com – we have new things popping up all day long. For more resources, click on the “stuck at home” button on the home page. On Facebook, you can also find me at “Quirky Momma” <–Momma is spelled “momma”. Thanks so much!!
About Holly Homer…
Holly Homer has been a blogger since 2007. Her blog started as a substitution for a very expensive scrapbooking habit and has turned into a job that she adores. She is the married, partially-homeschooling, work-from-home mom of three very active boys and a dog named Panda. She realized early on that wearing out kids before bedtime was a self-preservation strategy.
Holly is a bit social media-obsessed. She loves the strategy behind the algorithms and teaching what she has learned the hard way! She speaks at conferences across the country on blogging, social media and social selling. She has been featured on multiple radio interviews, TV appearances, websites and podcasts.
Her early career as a Physical Therapist and clinic manager has helped
her tackle kid-related issues like Sensory Processing Disorder as well as organizational skills to handle what has turned out to be a not-so-small business run from her living room.
Her blog, Kids Activities Blog opened the door for two books: 101 Kids Activities that are the Bestest, Funnest Ever! and The 101 Coolest Simple Science Experiments – both published by Page Street.
Her FB page has 3.5 million fans – Quirky Momma and KidsActivities.com
A work-from-home evangelist, Holly Homer shows other moms how to “have it all”
<—just not all at the same time!
