Geoff, Esther and their kids, Joshua (age 12) and Sophia (age 15) tell us how their kids are doing with remote learning during the pandemic.

“Class starts at 7:20 in the morning and they’re online with school until 3:30pm. My daughter, Sophia, who’s in 10th grade is doing fine – she’s an honors student and getting A’s. My son, Joshua is a 7th grader and is really struggling.

We promote independence, but Sophia and Josh support each other like telling each other to stay on track. Sophia will help Josh with his homework assignments and we’ve asked her to sit with him and help him improve a writing assignment. It’s been helpful to Josh for Sophia to work with him.

Josh is still learning to manage himself. We work with him daily and lately we’ve been setting goals together. Before I was making the goals for him, but after looking at Plan in UNBOXED, I realized he needs to make his own goals. He’s decided his own goals are raising his hand to answer questions five times a day, turning in assignments on time, and taking notes in every class.

We look for opportunities to celebrate how the kids are doing. I do a check-in with them every day based on the Prepared Parents’ resource. It would be easy to get upset, especially with Josh if he doesn’t do an assignment, but we see how hard they’re working and how well they’re doing.

We talk about the things we’re grateful for and celebrate at the end of the day.”

– Geoff in Los Angeles