How to navigate at-home learning for your child during the Alberta teachers’ strike

With schools still closed, many parents are trying to keep their kids engaged and up to date with their education. Steph Schuurman shared some tips.

With schools still closed, many parents are trying to keep their kids engaged and up to date with their education. That can be a struggle for those who aren’t trained to do so and the provincially issued teaching toolkit can be tough to navigate. Stephanie Schuurman, a professor with the University of Alberta, joined CTV Your Morning Edmonton’s Kent Morrison with tips.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Kent Morrison: Let’s start with the toolkit. What’s making this so tricky for parents?

Stephanie Schuurman: I think it’s a really overwhelming document. It’s almost 260 pages long from Kindergarten (K) to 12. If you’re not used to navigating this kind of document, it’s really overwhelming. The particular layout of this toolkit is disorganized, confusing and just really difficult to navigate.

Kent: What advice would you have for people who are trying their best right now?

Steph: It’s important to recognize that. I think there’s a lot of misinformation about what parents should actually be doing right now. Teachers don’t expect parents to be administering curriculum right now. There’s actually no expectation for families to be doing “at-home learning” that is attached to the Alberta curriculum. This seems to be news to people, but I think the last time that we did this was Covid. Schools shut down and “at-home learning” was very much a part of family life. This toolkit paired with a letter that came out on Oct. 8 from the minister that emphasized that learning should continue at home and then the release of a document for families to follow, it all puts the pressure on families that this is something that they should be doing. But it’s not actually necessary for parents to be teaching curriculum at home.

Kent: What would you say to parents as far as trying to establish a routine for their kids?

Steph: Establishing a routine is really important, especially for younger children. With older children, getting them dressed every day and making sure that you’re getting outside and even socializing with peers. People say “not all fun and games” but ironically, I think fun and games is actually one of the best ways that we can learn and keep them engaged. I think we can just chill out on this toolkit that’s been given and look for meaningful learning opportunities that just exist in our homes and communities around us.

Kent: For parents who aren’t quite sure what sort of lessons they should be attacking given the different ages. Should they be reading off their kid on what they need during that day?

Steph: Yeah, I think so. You can read with your children and you can go visit older relatives. I think subscribing to that curriculum, the toolkit is just totally overwhelming. They can go back to things like Google Classrooms if teachers have set that up prior to the strike to review things, but no new learning of curriculum needs to be happening during the strike.

Kent: I’ve heard from many teachers saying, “It just feels like summer break for my kids.” Is that a bad thing?

Steph: I don’t think it’s a bad thing. The whole point of a labour disruption is that, in this case, learning is disrupted, right? That creates the urgency for us to get back into schools as quickly as we can. It makes sense that it feels like summer holidays because learning isn’t happening because teachers are on strike.