Remote learning has been practiced long before the majority of the world went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than a year into the SARS-COV2 outbreak, schools across various corners of the globe are barely ready to welcome students into their academic halls.
With variants continuously emerging and wreaking havoc in different countries, distance learning still emerges as the safest and the most effective (in the meantime) approach in ensuring education continuity of children.
As much as we would like to consider distance or remote learning as a viable alternative to face-to-face classes, the former as an approach is still not as equally effective as the latter.
Moreso, parents, teachers, and especially students are faced with various challenges at home and in the online world to ensure high-quality instruction and learning.
However, our natural resilience has always been our greatest weapon against various adversities and distance learning is just another obstacle putting our resolve to the test. Here are helpful tips on how to make the best out of your child’s remote learning journey:
Table of Contents
Understand Your Circumstances
First and foremost, you need to have a good grasp of you and your child’s situation both in personal and academic aspects. Will you be able to provide time and guide your child from time to time? Will there be other adults at home who can take your place while you’re away or when you’re preoccupied with other things?
How many of your kids are having distance education? You also need to consider evaluating your child’s school with its capability in ensuring the efficiency of their remote learning approaches. Will it offer online classes and how often will it be per week?
How many hours of screen time will your child behave during school days? What will the school be offering other than online classes?
These questions will be your guide to making a comprehensive assessment of your current situation. This way, you’ll be able to pinpoint critical setbacks and eventually determine appropriate resolutions such as free worksheets for kids to render additional learning initiatives for your child as a supplement to the school’s distance learning approach.
Facilitate
In schools, teachers play the role of facilitators of learning as adherence to the education’s shift to a learner-centered approach. Students are given the direction to develop and boost their independent learning skills with the guidance of their teachers.
In distance learning, you will be the one to perform such a role in the absence of your child’s teacher. Although teachers will still be interacting with their students via online classes, parents, in this case, are the main facilitators of their children’s learning.
As a facilitator, your job is to guide your child and never to directly involve with his or her academic exercises. You can give out pointers or suggestions but never the actual answers to the activity.
It’s much better for your child to commit mistakes in his/her activities through answers that he/she has derived on his/her own than to gain a perfect score with your help.
As much as you hate to admit it, overindulging impede your child’s learning. You can look for effective pedagogical strategies that you can apply to your child through our Kids Website.
Keep in Touch with Teachers
Teachers and parents are equal partners in a child’s education. Both stakeholders play crucial roles in ensuring that the child enjoys high-quality learning as well as the best opportunities for academic success. And that partnership is tested now more than ever.
Fortunately for parents and teachers, the internet and communication technology have been making tremendous progress even before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Parents and teachers can connect and communicate with each other in real-time on various platforms.
Files can be easily shared and a plethora of extra tools are available to make communication as effective as possible. Be it through a simple text message or a Zoom conference with other parents, see to it that you make the extra time and effort to connect with your child’s teacher to discuss various important issues.
Monitoring and Trust
Although it has been established earlier that you will be your child’s facilitator of learning, it doesn’t literally mean that you’ll have to be physically present throughout the entirety of his/her online classes. Monitoring your child’s progress every now and then is a must but needs to be observed with certain limitations.
You can check in on your child before the start of the class and when it’s ended. You can simply ask if he/she already has everything he/she needs or if his/her lessons have been too hard for him to cope with.
Spend some time to discuss things academically and personally. This will give your child a message of reassurance at a time of educational uncertainty. On the other hand, you also have to recognize your child’s ability to tackle academic hurdles on his own.
