An OT’s main role is to assist clients in completing the activities or occupations that they need to and want to do. A homeschool parent's main role is to artfully apply science to build each child’s knowledge and understanding of the world. So, considering the possible impact of current events on executive function and balancing that with increasing knowledge had me thinking for many hours to create goals and devise a plan for our own homeschool.
My goals are the following:
I considered these executive function skills and these questions when assessing the possible impact of current events on each of my children:
With these outlined goals and answers to the above questions for our family and particular homeschool, we decided to watch a ten-minute news show each day. We are currently utilizing CNN10 with its balance of positive stories and day-to-day events. Then, each week, we locate and read a primary source of one chosen story. In the past few weeks, the story topics have ranged from President Biden’s speech on leaving Afghanistan to lobster diver Michael Packard speaking about when he was briefly in a whale’s mouth. As my children age and grow in their executive functioning skills, we will continue to reevaluate our goals and to make plans for how to best use current events in our homeschooling.
If your child is struggling with executive functioning or you have more questions about each of these skills, sign up for your private consultation or consider joining upcoming focus groups. The July, 2022 and January, 2023 group covers all executive functioning skills, including strategies to improve them and ways to adapt the environment to accommodate them.
Sources:
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2020). Occupational therapy practice framework (4th ed.). American Occupational Therapy. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2020.74S2001
Lindberg, S. (2020). “Is Watching the News Bad for Mental Health?” Retrieved 8 September 2021, from https://www.verywellmind.com/is-watching-the-news-bad-for-mental-health-4802320.
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