Escape Stress by Reading Together

Hello everyone! We hope you are staying safe and healthy during this chaotic time. Here at Brainspring, we are committed to providing as many tips, tricks, and resources as possible for caregivers out there scrambling to homeschool their kids during this uncertain time.

Take a Pause

While some families are receiving a weekly schedule from their child’s school with explicit daily instructions on what and how to teach, others are left handling this on their own until their school’s staff can find their bearings. If your school is in the latter group, we encourage you to pause and free yourself from any burdensome expectations.

A poignant statement to parents from a principal regarding school closures made the rounds on social media this morning. This principal advised parents to take a pause. Push aside the pressure of trying to figure out how to homeschool your kids and try to see the current situation from a child’s eyes. They more than likely are feeling anxious and possibly scared, which makes learning a challenge.

The principal suggested the simple way to “escape” this stress is to pick up a book and read. Students are continuously learning when they read. Imagine when you were a kid, reading or listening to a good book or story. You likely stepped out of your head and current situation, and dove into a place of peace or a fabulous adventure as you put yourself in the shoes of the characters and setting of the story.

How to read when reading is not yet an independent task

Many children do not yet know how to read and were actively working on becoming stronger readers at school.

If you are a caregiver who is unsure of how to pick up where the teacher left off— keep it simple. Does your child know how to read independently yet? If not, read to your child or allow them to listen to the audio version of a book. This way, they are still following along with the text, building a “film strip” in their mind as the story unfolds, picking up new vocabulary words, and strengthening their comprehension skills.

If your child is not quite interested in stories, think of what you have around the house that contains some sort of text. Cereal boxes, board game directions, old science/math textbooks (from when Mom was in school, whoa!), recipes, the mail, magazines of interest, the newspaper (something positive!), etc.

Audio Book Resources

Most audio books are available to listen to on a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop. Most subscriptions to audio book collections allow free trials (some as long as 30 days). Check out Audible, Learning Ally, Google Play Books, Apple Books, to name a few.

Written by Brainspring

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