Hilltown Families and Mass Appeal (a weekday, hour-long lifestyle program on NBC) have teamed up to offer a live monthly segment on WWLP 22News!  Each month, community-based education specialist and Hilltown Families’ Founder, Sienna Wildfield, joins Mass Appeal hosts to talk about ways to engage in your community while supporting the interests and education of your children (and yourselves!).

This monthly segment continued on Friday, May 29, 2020 with Sienna and Patrick discussing the differences between these past couple of months of remote learning and full time home schooling.

During this past couple of months of distant learning at home, families with children in public school have experienced virtual facilitated learning at home, where their education has been physically isolated from their school community, teachers, and peers on assigned subjects in which the student may or may not be interested, and within prescribed time-frames and school deadline that may or may not work for their family.

Home-based learning can look a lot different than remote learning from home. It can be facilitated by the parent (homeschooling) or self-directed by the student (unschooling), and based on the interests and needs of the student and their family. And it will look different from family to family, depending on several factors:

• Family Values & Dynamics.
• Lifestyle.
• Where they live (rural, urban, suburban).
• Community-based educational & personal resources in which they have access.
• Time of year.
• Interests of the child/family.
• Learning styles.

Things to consider when supporting your child’s learning from home:

• Remember that school environments and home environments are different spaces in which to learn. Embrace the difference rather than attempting to replicate the structure of school at home.
• Map out and utilize community-based and personal resources.
• Trust your child’s innate ability to learn.
• Get curious together and be okay with not knowing the answer.
• Follow your interests and integrate learning into your family lifestyle.
• Make it intergenerational, learning together.
• Search for answers. Question those answers.
• Learning is everywhere! Have fun and look to Hilltown Families and other resources for learning ideas, both online and in your community:
  • Sienna Wildfield, Community-Based Educational Consultant
  • Hilltown Families: Community-Based Education Network
  • Curly Willow: An emerging space for the passionately curious.
  • Oak Meadow: K-12 Curriculum and Distant Learning School
  • Acorn Naturalists: Resources for the Trail and Classroom

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Mass Appeal is a live weekday program that airs at 11am on 22News (Springfield, MA).