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School From Home: Your Kid Will Embarrass You!

This may be coming late to some, but better late than never 😄. Children are mysterious creatures. I've learned many things working from home and sitting beside my 7 year old doing school from home. You watch them grow, learn, and develop. This is nice and fine until they do something completely off the wall or repeat something inappropriate you said. It is a weird and uncomfortable classic case of "monkey see, monkey do"! You may be tempted to scream at your child about, but don't. Read this first.

Why is this happening?

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Learning: A child's number one job is to learn! Everything the five senses have to offer, they are taking in, processing, and spitting back out as a chaotic routine of trial and error. Prior to adulthood, they are figuring it all out and testing every single environment, which does not exclude your nerves 😜. 

"My Hero": Children, especially younger children, will look up to an older child, adult, or a character in a movie or T.V. show. They will idolize them! So anything that sounds interesting, creates a reaction, or seems cool, they will try to emulate. 
Overall, they're little scientists hypothesizing and testing constantly. However, since they're young minds have trouble translating what they are learning sometimes, it all comes out like a game of the doodle challenge or the telephone game. Also, since these new learning experiences are so fun, so cool, and with excitement to try it out, it all gets vomited up during class.

How do I stop it? What do I do?

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Step One: Nothing. Teachers are trained professionals, experts to handle this type of behavior (scientific not acting poorly) and understand what is going on with your child. If it is something truly out of hand being said or done, your teacher can and will call your child's attention to it. Children are learning about their mental, social, and physical health, so stopping them can hinder development and make them afraid to take risks and grow.

Step Two: Give some friendly reminders and ask questions. If they're squiggling around, ask them if they're ok. If they are talking too much, ask them what they're supposed to be doing. See if they need help. A reminder I give my child is simply "please focus".

Step Three: If things get really out of hand or there's a bad word, don't start yelling. Quietly ask them to mute themselves, then calmly ask them if they could have said or done what they did differently. Screaming and yelling at your child can destroy their self-esteem, break friendships, and make things very awkward in class. Not to mention, you will invite bullies by giving them ammo to work with.

Step Four: This part's on you. If you don't want them to repeat anything weird, don't give them something to repeat or show in class. Review what they're watching on T.V. or the internet and what they're listening to music wise. Watch what you say and do at home. If you're yelling, screaming, saying bad words, or acting weird, they can and will copy it. The worst part, it only needs to happen once.

Overall, luckily it appears the pandemic could be ending soon, so you won't be experiencing much more of the awkwardness anymore. However, you need to keep in mind what is happening at home, will show up on campus. It really brings to light, "do you speak to your mom with that mouth" and basically what I'm noticing from this experience, "No, but mom spoke to others with that type of mouth, and I thought it was interesting"!