03/02/2021
‼️ LONG POST ‼️
✨My Top 5 Tips for teaching at home✨
As both a tutor and parent I sympathise with how difficult it is to balance working from home alongside homeschooling and so I thought I would share with you my top 5 tips on how to balance teaching in the home.
1. Keep children engaged.
Doing written work for long stretches can be hard and demanding, even for adults, but encouraging children to get up and move about is a great way to keep young minds interested and break up blocks of teaching.
In my lessons, I encourage kids to “shake it out”, shake their hands, arms, shoulders, alongside the stresses and worries they’ve had during the day. This means they sit back down at the piano relaxed, more able to not let their day impact their playing because during my lessons it is important that we are in a stress-free zone.
2. If you notice your children are losing interest, change it up a bit.
When my pupils start learning harder pieces, I find myself encouraging them to practice the beginner warm-ups we originally used during our first few lessons. If we are coming to a particularly difficult bar in the piece, it helps children to remember practicing can be fun, and the familiar feel of a rhyme and movement they’ve done before helps them feel confident in what they’re achieving.
3. Get involved with the learning.
During lessons, if I sense a pupil is struggling with a question I strive to work it out with them. We do the learning together, step by step, and discuss the process we need to find the answer. This one is particularly helpful to gain a better understanding of everyone’s learning process; it’s fascinating to discover how many different processes can lead to the same answer, which is something we should all embrace.
4. Let everyone learn at their own pace.
It can take some people days, weeks, or months to learn a music piece and the same rules apply to a maths problem. Some will understand it instantly while others will take longer, and that’s okay. Everyone is different but as long as you are getting there, whatever the pace, it’s still progress.
5. Last but not least, make some time after to relax.
As adults, we forget children or teens have their own stresses and worries which we tend to diminish since they might not seem as big or complex as adult problems, yet those worries still matter.
I would recommend making some time after lessons and homeschooling to relax with your children, discuss both the good parts of the day, and the bad, and really listen to what they have to say.
I like to find common interests with my pupils so we can communicate on a friendly level, as people tend to learn better when they aren’t intimidated by their teacher.
Homeschooling is hard on everyone. If after a long day you’re feeling frustrated and don’t know how you can possibly do it again tomorrow; take a deep breath, make a cup of tea or pour yourself a glass of wine and remember, they will be at school again eventually and we will get through this. ❤️
💕Stay safe & Take care💕
Connie at McKechnie Private Tutoring
🎵🎹🎶
