MANILA, Philippines — Learning begins and ends at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has practically left students and teachers on house arrest for the foreseeable future.
This is why in the first of a series of free webinars by Philstar.com, held Monday, experts discussed challenges in home-based education, as well as how parents and educators can address these.
Here is a list of tips shared on how families can make their households a viable learning environment as they weather through the health crisis.
Structuring
Dr. Richie Parr, a psychologist at the MLAC Institute for Psychosocial Services, said children are accustomed to the structure that school provides.
“As much as the children curse it and they're so happy to be free from it during vacation time, they look for this structure. So parents have to provide that structure,” Parr said.
Parents can make their houses feel more like classrooms by scheduling activities like learning and even playtime.
They can also simulate the school experience by arranging a "specific workplace for school hours separate from the play area [and] separate from the bedroom."
Relaxing
Fr. Aristotle Dy, president of Xavier School, said that parents should also learn to cut their children and themselves some slack.
“Aside from structure and discipline and routine and the importance of that, maybe it bears repeating also that self-care is important for everybody. For the students so that they get a holistic life environment at home, it's not all about getting their work done. Because sometimes, parents can put on that kind of pressure,” Dy said.
He recommended finding an "equanimity with the way things are."
This translates to self-care and appreciating free time, especially off the clock or during the weekend.
Good parenting equals learning
Homeschool Global chairman Edric Mendoza said that good learning and good parenting go hand-in-hand, advising families to return to basic parenting fundamentals in order to promote learning.
“Good parenting fundamentals such as we want to be able to demonstrate the right behaviors we want our kids to have,” Mendoza said.
He gave as example parents cutting gadget use, managing time and disciplining themselves if they want to teach their children the right habits.
“If there's any time in the world to help strengthen family relationships, it would be now. And if we're able to go back to that basic as parents, the learning should be a lot smoother, whether we are fully homeschooling the kids or we're working with school systems in the learning. Making sure we have patience, making sure we manage our time so we can put stress where it's necessary but be relaxed with our kids.”