Balancing home and distance learning made families worry about how to manage their child's online classes, how to help their children cope with stresses and concerns that focuses on families' positive and active involvement. Here are few suggestions for having a balanced home and distance learning life together with your new natural generation learners.
UNDERSTANDING STRESS
Stress is a learning laboratory that constantly teaches us about how to handle this difficulties we encounter. In the same way that exercising keeps our bodies physically fit, dealing effectively with the demands that affect our emotions keeps us emotionally fit. Expressing emotions is often difficult. The ability to recognise stress and then learn to manage it through an appropriate expression of emotions is extremely important in coping with stress. (Raber, Dyck and Preheim 2005) As the World Health Organization or WHO addresses the psychosocial support our learners need amidst the pandemic, the only way to help our children cope with their anxieties is to speak to them with kindness and calmness.
SET ROUTINES AND LEARNING SPACE
Your support matters! Getting involved in your child’s online academic endeavours reflect the attention you pay to their developmental needs. Setting specific time to follow their online class schedules and getting hands-on to their activities can be a helpful way for them to have a great understanding what distance learning is. Imagine challenging your parenting skills when you first held your child in your arms. It is the same phase both you and your online learner will be facing now in this learning virtual space. Learning side-by-side with your learner gives supportive cues to his online learning journey. Proactively create time and learning space for an open communication with your child's online experiences. Make sure that your learning space is dedicated to focus on his daily online routines and this will guide you more in discovering his holistic needs.
ENCOURAGE CONVERSATIONS
Have a daily conversations with your online learners before and after their online classes. Checking in your children whether they have understood the instructions given to them by their teachers will help you as parent or guardian to assist your online learner. Remember, children have different learning styles and abilities. Some may find distance learning easy and fun but for some it can be struggling. Families must find time to encourage healthy conversations in order to avoid future disappointments and other challenges. This will also teach our online learners how to manage themselves during online classes.
BE AN ACTIVE PARENT
A lot of benefits resulted from becoming an active parent and to maintain balance at home and distance learning, families must remember these benefits: CHILDREN are happier and do well to achieve more. CONNECTED parents have more access about their child's offline and online activities. COLLABORATION of home and school provides stronger support and confidence to the child's knowledge that he has a handful of choices for guidance. CREATES a safer and smarter distance learning environment.