Many learners who normally attend traditional schools have temporarily become homeschoolers due to the national lockdown. While some are finding it easy to adjust others are struggling. We wanted to help, so we asked the experts: Impaq’s learners and parents. They successfully study from home all year round, so we asked them to share their creative tips and tricks on how to study from home during the lockdown.
Keeping up with your studies during the national lockdown? Whether you’re a seasoned homeschooler or usually attend a traditional school, keeping up with your studies during lockdown can be challenging. You’re confined to your home with family members around. To succeed in studying at home, you need to be prepared and become actively involved in your studies.
The national lockdown due to COVID-19 has not only seen many parents temporarily become teachers but it has also changed the way many teachers teach. While some struggled to make the transition to online teaching, others did not have quite such a hard time. We asked a local teacher to share his advice on how to teach during the national lockdown.
The gift of time…something we all wish for and never seem to have enough of. Now that we have it, despite the circumstances we are experiencing, why does it seem that we can’t wait for it to end?
For generations, we have grown up in classrooms where we learnt the same information at the same pace, regardless of our interests or needs – the ‘one size fits all’ approach. But the dawn of the 4th Industrial Revolution, and more recently the Coronavirus pandemic, has shone a light on the need to take a different approach to learning and teaching. For example, E-learning, which refers to the use of information and communication technologies to enable the access to online learning/teaching resources, has the benefit of flexibility; convenience; cost effectiveness and immediacy. In addition, a dynamic e-learning platform not only meets the needs of different students, but it also enriches learning in classroom settings. The Western Cape government, for example, has committed to spending R1.2-billion to implement e-learning in 1 250 local schools, which is a significant step toward bridging the education gap in South Africa.
Being stuck at home isn’t easy for everyone, especially those who miss the great outdoors, those who feel lonely living alone and parents who have suddenly been thrust into balancing homeschooling with working from home.
The national lockdown due to COVID-19 has seen many learners who normally attend a traditional school temporarily become homeschoolers. Parents in turn now have to juggle working from home and educating their children. And, while it might seem like a daunting task at first, the flexible nature of home education means that you can work and homeschool your kids. With some planning, flexibility, teamwork, and creative scheduling, it can be done.
Parents play a critical role in providing learning opportunities at home and in linking what children learn at school with what happens elsewhere. The term ‘academic socialisation’ refers to certain kinds of parental behaviours which have a positive impact on learning and academic outcomes. When parents reinforce learning at home by incorporating learned skills into everyday routines and activities, they become a critical factor in their child’s overall learning and education. Research has found that learning becomes more meaningful when the lessons are applied to real-life situations; it has been suggested that the influence of parents on learner achievement is 60-80%, while school accounts for 20-40% per cent.
Parents play a big part in shaping children’s eating habits. In a fast paced world where most parents have to juggle their time between work, play and home and are faced with all the latest food fads, it is no surprise that some parents may need some help understanding what healthy food for their little ones is. Getting children to eat what’s best for them can be a challenge, and giving in to their pestering for less-than-nutritious food can make it awfully confusing. Remember you are the parent and you do the shopping.
The incentive for learning any additional language is distinctive to every household. However, in the South African context, given the vast social, cultural, historical and practical benefits, isiZulu is a great language to choose and learning it has many advantages and benefits.
One of the most memorable days of your child’s schooling career is most definitely the first day of Grade 1. This day comes with a combination of different emotions from excitement to uncertainty and the question most parents wonder about:
Navigating through uncharted waters during this stressful time is very overwhelming for many of us and leads to anxiety and sleeplessness. Keep in mind that this is new territory for teachers, parents and our children. Find peace in knowing that we are all in the same boat. Steer your ship into calmness when there is a storm and choose the rules of your ship together as a family.
Parents who find themselves at home with children who are not in school are having to find interesting ways to keeping their children interested and entertained while continuing to work from home.
Opera, one of the world’s leading browser developers, together with international non-profit organisation – Worldreader, are keeping young South African minds stimulated during the country’s lockdown, as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, by giving them access to an expanded range of eBooks via the Opera Mini browser. Starting this week, Worldreader will offer a new selection of eBooks to Opera Mini users as well as a brand-new web app designed to offer reading material tailored specifically for young adult readers.
Home Education provider, Brainline, says it is very optimistic that a pragmatic solution will be found to the implementation of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill, which is set to include some changes to the home education landscape in South Africa.
Being unable to be a part of the outside world has created a new trend #learnsomethingnew among adults and children, with most of these new skills being learned through technology. Technology has recently become many things in a household: an educator, a baby-sitter, a news source and quite simply, a view to the outside world.
COVID-19 has profoundly disrupted every aspect of daily life across the globe. We are united in a struggle to make sense of the drastic changes, adapt as best we can and cope with a future that has never felt so completely uncertain. Of course, no one has it easy, but the young people in their final year of school will be feeling the challenges of the global pandemic in a unique way. On the cusp of putting their school days behind them and entering into a new world where they carve out their futures as adults, they now find themselves in a potentially long-lasting limbo, hanging between two vastly different worlds.
It is no secret that practice is a crucial element in the learning journey and is effective in many different educational contexts. Proverbs such as “practice is the best master” and “practice makes perfect” all contain a grain of truth, and in this article, we discuss why this is the case.
As we start our online learning journey, there are so many things to consider. Schools are social environments and as such function on the interaction between all the role-players, the pupils, parents and the staff. This has been disrupted, so we are working hard at ensuring that everyone remains positive and embraces whatever may come our way.
Some elephants are better at social distancing than others, prides of lions are useless, especially at mealtimes, and giraffes are fickle, moving from one group to another.
The world is reeling! Panic buying due to the lockdown on Thursday has left most people feeling overwhelmed, helpless and a little frightened. It is unprecedented and we are all trying to cope with the uncertainties of our current reality as best as we can. Cindy Glass, Owner and Founder of Step Up Education Centres explains, “We are all in the same boat and it is essential to understand that, at this time, there are things that are out of our control – the virus itself, other people’s reactions and government’s decision to lock down institutions, borders and other activities. The GOOD news is that there are many things that we CAN control – our own attitudes and reactions, personal hygiene, social distancing and of course, homeschooling!”
Well I used to look at those parents who chose the home school option and thought wow that is impressive. I would never be able to do that. This is a lesson indeed, excuse the pun, but homeschooling has come knocking at my door very quickly. Well it was pretty much the only thing knocking at my door for weeks, so I had no choice but to reluctantly let it in.
Setting goals and knowing what you are working towards, is always a good idea. Younger students need to understand the difference between a wish and a goal – I wish to eat ice cream everyday – but My goal is to drink enough water every day.
It is unarguable that education in this country has, for the most part, largely been stuck in a rut. Until now. There are signs suggesting that Covid-19’s disruption of the education sector could have a lasting impact on the way we teach and learn. Our current education model is very much top-down in its approach, where a teacher instructs and provides information, usually only utilising one teaching modality. Yet Educational Psychologists have always contended that children learned best when they constructed their own knowledge, and learnt tasks that are culturally relevant.
We often hear messages in the media that children aren’t getting enough physical activity. But what exactly does “being physically active” mean when you are an infant, toddler or pre-schooler? And is it important for their health now and in the future?
In the previous article, some arguments regarding socialisation were investigated. Home education, as an alternative approach to education at a school, has become a progressive development in South Africa and across the world. Homeschooling, however, is also often criticised regarding the social skills and socialisation opportunities of the home educated learner.
After the announcement of school closures by President Cyril Ramaphosa, many parents are worried that their children might fall behind with their schoolwork. This as public schools closed two days earlier and are likely to only reopen after the Easter weekend.
“Looking at the year from the vantage point of January, Matric finals seem a long way down the road, and eight months feels like ample time to get to grips with your work before you have to sit for your finals,” says Natasha Madhav, Senior Head of Programme: Faculty of ICT at The Independent Institute of Education, SA’s largest private higher education provider.
With all eyes directed at 2020’s first-year students as they start their journeys at various tertiary and higher education institutions across South Africa, it is also important to remember those tens of thousands of students who are starting out on a learning journey of another kind — studying from home via distance learning, an education expert says.
For a learner to get information from the textbook into their long-term memories requires many cognitive functions. In this blog article, we’ll explore the role of a dedicated study space for a homeschool learner and try to answer why this is important. To answer this question, we look to cognitive load theory.
