The Coronavirus also named Covid19 has swept into parents’ lives and brought with it challenges for their children’s future. Education has taken an enormous hit, and as such, most schools are closing their doors. Most governments worldwide are implementing these measures to reduce the spread of the virus. School closures not only impact teachers and students but also have far-reaching economic and societal consequences. Furthermore, many parents are looking more toward online teaching methods like homeschooling.
The effects of Covid19 on schools
Proving essential learning to students, school closures are depriving learners of the ability to grow and develop. The Covid19 pandemic has vastly affected education systems worldwide, leading to most governments temporarily closing education institutions. In a UNICEF statement, fifty-three countries are currently implementing nationwide closures, and twenty-seven are implementing local closures. As a result, the pandemic has affected more than ninety-one percent of students worldwide.
As such, approximately one point six billion learners are unable to attend physical schools. Lack of technology and or technology access can prevent students from disadvantaged families or rural areas from continuing their learning. The effects of school closures have seen a decline in academic growth and development amongst learners. In addition to this, parents have to undertake their child’s learning at home. This could be a struggle for parents, especially those with limited resources, even more so for parents with children who have special requirements.
Resources for students during the pandemic
Due to the recent closures of schools, distance learning programs and services have become increasingly popular. School teachers and learners can use these resources to reach learners remotely and can, therefore, limit the disruption of education. In response to the pandemic, various companies and platforms have made their services available. Tencent classroom has been extensively used as the Chinese government instructed full-time students to move their learning to online platforms.
Companies like Lark, a Singapore-based collaboration suite, began offering teachers and learners the opportunity to use their platform. Some of the features they are offering include unlimited video conferencing time, auto-translation, real-time co-editing, and smart calendar scheduling. In addition, education technology companies have stepped forward to assist educators in reaching students virtually. These companies are making their paid services more affordable or adding premium features to what’s free.
Additionally, Adobe has developed a resource hub with free templates, links to free software, and instructional software videos. These programs include Adobe Acrobat, scan, and tools for google drive. Age of Learning is offering families at affected schools free at-home access to ABCmouse. This learning resource caters to ages between two and eight.
Adventure Academy is open for students aged eight to thirteen, and Reading IQ is a digital literacy library for children twelve and under. Annenberg learner and Two Bit Circus foundation offer free access to one hundred and fifty plus STEAM projects for educators and families. These are just a handful of sites, companies, and platforms available to assist with online learning in different parts of the world.
The benefits of homeschooling
Homeschooling is a pretty self-explanatory concept that involves teaching your kids at home. However, when it comes to homeschooling, what are the benefits when compared to traditional schooling. Academic flexibility enables you to work regardless of whether your child is ahead or behind in class. Additionally, parents are free to choose the speed and approach that will work best for their child’s needs.
You can also prioritize and ensure your child’s overall mental, physical, and emotional health. Similarly, homeschooling provides the added benefit for social developments like values and standards. Mainly, homeschooling allows for a more efficient learning environment with more attention paid to your child, which will allow for individual attention. This is something that can’t be achieved within a classroom environment.
Fun activities such as projects, playtime, arts and crafts, and experiments are things homeschooling allows for more of. This provides a more in-depth, hands-on, interactive, and meaningful learning experience for your child. Most of these extra activities aren’t available in a regular classroom environment. Therefore homeschooling ensures your child can follow their interests and passions to succeed in the areas they enjoy most. Mainly, homeschooling provides added security for families that travel, have challenging work schedules, or deal with an illness. Homeschooling is becoming increasingly popular during the pandemic and could stick around long after, with school never far from home.
Will the pandemic change traditional education?
Online learning has become increasingly popular for educational institutions that want to minimize the transmission of the virus. Technology is enabling teachers and students to access online materials to continue learning even outside the class. The pandemic is leading to technology, playing a more significant role in the classroom, and homeschooling. Teachers are using more innovative means to provide lessons to students without having to leave home. This is paving the way for parents to take teaching their children into their own hands. With so many different resources becoming available many parents are choosing homeschooling as it gives them greater freedom. Additionally, catering to their child’s learning, interests, and overall well-being within a family-friendly learning environment.
7 Steps to follow the homeschooling process
Step One: Look up the Educational requirements for your country and area. Every city has its needs, so it’s crucial to find out what they are before you get started. This is because there could be individual assessments or criteria that have to be met first. However, this is not always the case.
Step Two: Find out your child’s remaining educational requirements for their continued or new learning. Knowing your child’s timetable and past subjects will help them better understand and relate to the work.
Step Three: Find out what interests your child. Homeschooling is a great way to dive deeper into what new or existing subjects they might be interested in. This will also allow them to improve on their weaker topics.
Step Four: Do your research and gather your resources. The availability of learning resources online is vast. Researching websites, apps, platforms, groups, forums, and educational games will help you put a lesson plan together.
Step Five: Once you have your resources, you can generate a curriculum suitable for your child’s interests. While keeping within your country’s educational requirements.
Step Six: Inform your child about how their schooling is going to change. There are different teaching methods and learning styles. Therefore, it is crucial to plan your teaching style around what caters to both you and your child.
Step Seven: Remember that there will be some learning curve for you both. You can’t perfect teaching overnight, and both you and your child are doing something new and unfamiliar.
Overall, homeschooling may be the way forward for many parents as it provides them with peace of mind for their child’s future. The Coronavirus could be here for a while still, and with it could come many unforeseen challenges. There are many superior resources available to assist parents in thinking of making the change over to homeschooling. With so many benefits that cater to your child’s personal, and educational development, homeschooling is paving the way for the future of personalized education. Most importantly, homeschooling allows parents the option to teach their children in a safe, secure environment without the worry of infection.
