Harold B. Lee, an author, once said that “The most important work you will ever do will be within the walls of your own home.”
And this gives me inspiration for homeschooling. Furthermore, this thought rushes through my being: “Parents are the first teachers of children.”
Embracing the challenging transition between traditional modes of learning and distance learning caused by the COVD-19 outbreak is indeed very overwhelming. As the world faces gigantic challenges due to COVID 19, parents opt to homeschool their children.
Both parents and teachers have to be well-acquainted with the aspects of homeschooling in order for it to be more effective. However, if you still have qualms about homeschooling, go over this article to let you know if you have made the right investment in education.
Educating children at home can be very challenging as well. That a parent or a teacher will ask, “Why is homeschooling more effective?”
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Maintaining the interest and engagement of our young learners while homeschooling is very critical. We know the interest span of these children. And so I say, homeschooling is not for all parents. It’s only most fitting to parents who are willing to go the extra mile to motivate their children to learn and to review the curriculum to ensure quality student learning.
Practically, most of us appreciate face-to-face interactions, but because of the global threat of COVID-19, our young learners are also facing a global learning crisis that some of them are homeschooled.
What is homeschooling?
Homeschooling is an educational trend that heightens home-based education that greatly involves the parents to deliver instruction. It is a model in education which uses the home as the immediate learning space of children with the parents as the main learning facilitators.
However, if parents really find it helpful, they hire homeschool teachers to take responsibility as home educators to keep children excited about learning. Moreover, the best thing, homeschool teachers are also adaptive to distance learning to demonstrate quality student learning.
Essentially, home education signifies the roles of parents as mentors who plan for the learning experiences of their children. The literature study, The Role of Homeschooling in the Modern Era, emphasizes the advantages of homeschooling as an education alternative to provide children comfortable learning environment where they can always interact with their parents as the leaders in student learning.
What is the difference between homeschooling and distance learning?
To have a reliable pick, let’s differentiate the two models of education. Homeschooling as mentioned earlier in this article takes place at home where the parents or homeschool teachers are in charge of learning delivery.
On the other hand, distance learning also takes place at home, but the delivery of content is done by an online teacher.
Both are great options for today’s education situation due to the global health crisis. However, parents have always had their reasons why not to enroll their children in formal education in an institution. Whatever it is, it’s ought to be respected because they know what’s best for their children more than anyone else.
Why Is Homeschooling More Effective During the Pandemic?
Homeschooling Makes Learning Accessible and Equitable to All Despite the Pandemic
This time, let’s take it from David O. McKay, an American educator, “The home is the first and most effective place to learn the lessons of life: truth, honor, virtue, self-control, the value of education, honest work, and the purpose and privilege of life. Nothing can take the place of home in rearing and teaching children, and no other success can compensate for failure in the home.”
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As the world continues to fight against the invisible enemy, the education sector is also facing the enormous scream of the teaching-learning crisis.
Thus, as a teacher, I need to educate myself with different distance learning modalities to make quality teaching and learning still accessible and equitable.
As a teacher, I extend my teaching horizons, so as not to make my young learners disengaged from the wheels of learning. So, I am open to the possibilities of becoming an online teacher or a homeschool teacher.
To give our children a full grasp of what homeschooling is, as concerned parents and teachers, we are always on the back end giving our full support.
The pandemic makes us plunge into the scene for remote online teaching and learning. All right! We are in a huge transition of learning modalities and embracing them with all our eagerness will ease things up!
Now, bear in mind, from the vantage point of a teacher like me, we can make this happen and we can make learning still enjoyable and fun although we are performing behind screens.
Having a good awareness of the challenges of this pandemic crisis, educators in the world thought of opportunities in education that would benefit the learners. Hence, we jump into different solutions so homeschooling will become accessible and equitable to all.
1. Makes Perfect Tandem with Other Learning Modalities
How can home-based education make quality learning accessible?
Today’s situation makes parents choose digital learning resources to educate their children. With the advent of technology, homeschooling is made more accessible to children at all learning levels.
When some schools choose Modular Learning Modality, parents act as co-facilitators of learning. Where there are low-income families, the chosen learning modality is most beneficial.
Parents help their children process content in the learning modules. However, students receive instructions and follow-up from their teachers on different online platforms such as FB messenger and Google Meet. I find this very helpful especially when parents aren’t confident teaching their children.
Well, as one of the concerned educators of the world, I will not let my students experience unequal educational opportunities.
In our district, school administrators make use of modular learning as the most feasible solution to address problems like unstable internet connections and a lack of reliable tech gadgets for online learning.
We have to reach out to those children who belong to underprivileged families. Hence, we are making educational opportunities equal to our learners.
Teachers were able to conduct the parents’ orientation. I realized that if we all have the determination to embrace this change, we can make things happen and we can seize our teaching-learning goals. And the idea of homeschooling really benefits children, especially that the world is still struggling with the viral spread.
In our division, teachers are busy crafting self-learning kits to accommodate all our students’ learning needs. This is a bit of a hassle, but this is what life has taken us so far.
We just have to accept it and face the challenges with bold determination. With our incredible resilience in facing the challenges, we can create an extraordinary impact on our student’s education.
For us, it’s the most outstanding way of reaching out to our students equally. We distribute modules that contain modified and simplified instructions that are based on the most essential learning competencies.
However, if parents can afford the necessary requirements of online learning modality, they are free to choose such. For this reason, schools have been preparing teachers through webinars and training to accommodate all students whether online or modular learning modalities.
2. Optimizes Family Interactions and Flexible Learning Schedule
How to optimize family interactions?
Homeschooling allows parents and their children to bond and create meaningful interactions. With this educational option, parents can customize their schedules and establish adaptive routines for their children.
However, again with some parents who are not confident enough to deliver content to their children, they decide to combine homeschooling with online learning. But, still, with the fact that students are to learn and study at home, they can always be with their parents to create meaningful moments.
In fact, some parents who are homeschooling their children will plan family vacations and spend quality time together while making learning very possible. In this way, children are more inclined to achieve academic goals as they gain more inspiration in the process.
Remote learning strategies are sought out to prevent disruptions to learning. This is to avoid the grand trend of learning inequality from happening all over the world. School administrators, teachers, stakeholders, and parents are working hand in hand and putting all their efforts together to give children access to quality education.
Online learning should never appear isolating to our students. That is why building a sense of community online is indeed very necessary. Let’s jump into having real-time interactions with our students and it should also happen among them.
Taking time to schedule informal and impromptu conversations for this will boost our students’ confidence and develop high regard among themselves. Integrating this opportunity into your online class will foster relationships and help students express their thoughts and ideas.
3. Fosters Parent Engagement
With homeschooling, parents become a major agent for student learning. This we realize even in in-person learning. Parent involvement in educating children is very imperative. That parents and teachers should work harmoniously to provide quality education to children.
Homeschooling fosters parent engagement while parents are making ways to meet the academic needs of their children. Fostering good relationships is made more meaningful. It is indispensable. It can impact students’ self-esteem.
Besides, the parents are the children’s inherent teachers.
4. Change instruction to better fit how students learn
Homeschooling is also a rewarding strategy just like regular classroom learning. With the combination of the efforts of parents, tutors, and family members, instructions are well adapted to the level and capacity of the learner.
But it requires commitment. Parents should be committed to the education of their children if homeschooling is a great option to continue student learning.
Moreover, for homeschooling to be effective, parents must identify resources and curricula that teach specific skills, and understand what is typically taught to children of a certain age.
With flexible instructions, students are more motivated to do better in mastering skills to excel in standardized tests such as ACT, CLT, and SAT.
5. Protect children from school violence such as bullying and discrimination
Parents who choose to homeschool their children invest time and effort in a task that was formerly reserved for qualified professionals.
Homeschooling alleviates a lot of the pressure that comes with attending school regularly. Children won’t be pressured to fit in and struggle with peer pressure. Most importantly, they are sheltered from bullying, drug use, exclusion, and other forms of social pressure.
Conclusion
Homeschooling becomes most pervasive nowadays and becoming a homeschool teacher is also an attractive career path. With a more relaxed environment, homeschool teachers can directly work with children and closely monitor their progress, especially on subjects or areas where parents lack the expertise.
This is an indication that the pandemic should not stop us from making our students learn and providing equal learning opportunities. With homeschooling, parents are given the best opportunity as home educators. And, this role, isn’t new for them, to be sure.
On an important note, if you are a homeschool teacher, eLearning innovations can help you craft interactive lessons to help your students learn life skills even though the world has been struggling with a global pandemic.
It may have wreaked havoc on human lives, but we should not allow it to deprive our children of the education they deserve.
Hence, let’s hop into our homeschool journey. It will be even more delightful if you accept the situation as it is and just make the best of homeschooling.
It’s quite comforting this way and will not make the situation more perplexing.
