Distance Learning: Children and Parents

During forced quarantine, calls are increasingly being made to switch to distance learning. How prepared are we and our children for this form of education? Let’s find out what psychologists say about this.

Distance

Due to restrictions, schools switched to distance learning. Most of the children and their parents faced this experience for the first time. Although this form of education is not new and quite a lot of parents voluntarily switched to it on their own. Experts, having gathered experience, give advice to parents on how to make this period productive:

• Keep your daily routine. Quarantine is not the time for long walks and games, so try to providing the same hours for study as in normal life.
• Leave the selected channel of communication with teachers to study. If teachers teach using social media, let this channel be used as intended. Do not allow the child to receive excessive informational garbage through it.
• Do not limit the freedom of the child. You are constantly at home, but this does not mean that the child needs to be controlled every minute. Give him time to work independently.

Live communication

Local surveys of students give interesting results. It turns out that the children themselves prefer to go to school and are reluctant to accept the idea of ​​distance learning. After all, the educational process is not only lessons, but also live communication. And here the task of teachers is to organize everything in such a way as to include an element of live communication in their lessons. Webinars can be a great way to learn “live” when all participants feel involved. Teachers may need the help of parents to conduct high-level webinars.

Discipline

In addition to communication, there is another important factor that makes distance learning not as simple as it seems. It’s about discipline. At school, it is forced and familiar, while at home it is more difficult to show the wonders of self-discipline. And the most important thing in this matter is the attitude of all household members to what is happening. Parents are the first bastion of self-discipline, and the functions of the head teacher, the school principal and the class teacher rest on their shoulders. Therefore, do not rush to reproach the child for laziness if he does not want to do homework. Start with yourself and show your will. Psychologists advise in our situation to show not only rigidity, but also… humor. As already mentioned, the situation is not typical, therefore it is best to overcome it with a smile.