Home and Online Schooling

Homeschooling and online learning goes hand in hand nowadays. 

A lot of students be it an elementary school kid, a high school and college student, and even those who enrolled on graduate schools and taking their Masters or doctorate degrees - all these students from various ages are doing all the school activities at home.

But there are various challenges to learning at home which is a hindrance to conducive learning.

One time I went to my friend's house, four of her siblings are homeschooling. Three of them were answering their activity sheets and one is listening to his professor's discussion through the  Google meet platform.

One thing I noticed is that, most of them are not focused in studying, the college student is listening to a talk about business management but at the same time, he is talking to his family members. And the rest can't really focus on what they are doing because the other family members are very noisy, there are three more children at their home who are not enrolled yet, and they are bothering the older siblings while noisily playing at the same time.

So I realized that studying at home is very challenging. That's why there are news about several students committing suicide because they find it very hard to answer the activities. And for others, it is hard to connect to the internet just to listen to the discussion of their teachers.

Here are few ways to be successful with studies even at home.

• Planning is essential. At home, there are times that when a student is answering their modules, their parents or other family members are also sending them on errands, thus they lose their focus on the school activity. So for a student, it is important to plan ahead of time about his or her schedule for the following day. How much time are you going to commit to house chores delegated to you? What time are you going to start doing your school activities? 

• Talk to your housemates. Like what I observed from my friend's house, her siblings can't totally focus on their studies because of the noisy housemates. So before starting with the school papers and activities or before joining the online class, tell your housemates how important it is for you and ask them if they could just talk somewhere in the other parts of the house. Tell the kids not to play around and ask the older housemates if they could just send you on errands later, if not they could do it themselves instead.

• Make a schedule. Do things like what you do in school. Just because you are studying at home doesn't mean you no longer have to stick to your schedule. Try to write a schedule of your activities for the week and make sure to finish the activities assigned to you at the given time. This will also help you to meet the deadlines.

• Discipline yourself. In school, it is easier to do things because students know that they will be scolded by the teacher if they don't do the activities, or probably be laughed at if they get a low score during exams. But this is not the case at home, students are relaxed that no one monitors them, so they tend that to do things as soon as possible and procrastinates instead. So it is important to discipline yourself and do the school-related activities even if no one is watching over you.

• Allocate a time for relaxation. A lot of students say that online school is stressful. So it is also important to allocate a time for yourself to relax. Walk around, do your hobby or simply exercise.

Yes, online and homeschooling is a challenge but whether you are a student or a parent who's monitoring your student (child), hang in there because better days are coming! Homeschooling and online learning goes hand in hand nowadays.