Yasheena RAGHOONUNDUN-NAOJEE is a Training and Development consultant. She is a former Mrs Mauritius Universe and a humanitarian advocate. She believes that homeschooling can make children smarter. During the COVID19 pandemic, parents are left with no option, despite of the educational TV program and online classes, they are bound to do home schooling.
Let’s see what is ‘home schooling’. In the broadest sense, home schooling can be understood as any form of education that occurs outside of a physical school. Home schooling is one of the of the world’s fastest growing educational movements. It is practised in many countries around the world and as in Mauritius, we have to prepare ourselves for it. Following my years of experience in the education and training sector, I have counseled and provided strategies to many parents who were facing difficulties in sending their children to school on how to do home education and it had work. Essentially, homeschooling involves a commitment by the parent to oversee their child’s educational development.
And concerning the teenagers, it required a commitment from the teenager herself or himself. Parent will be required to be around their children all day long. This can be difficult when children become restless and misbehave. However, homeschooling can be very stressful, but it’s also very rewarding. I am going to give you ten ways of how to proceed with home schooling:
1. Parents will have to determine the curriculum and their children’s schooling schedule. For those whose children are in the primary and secondary, the curriculum and syllabuses are already available online by the MIE and MES. For the secondary level, it is provided on the Cambridge website, for tertiary level by their university itself, etc…
2. Parents will have to demonstrate to their children that education is fun and create strong bonds with their children.
3. Parents will have to adapt teaching methods that best suit their child, because each child is unique.
4. Parents will have to spend extra time with their children on difficult concepts and move ahead after children master a subject or concept. With the use of technology, they can reach out to other people homeschooling their children to get ideas about solving difficult problems if they’re unsure about the best course of action.
5. Parents must create a flexible schedule with plenty of relaxing and playing time; and encouraging their children to interact and socialise with their friends online.
6. Parents must also provide spiritual skills to their children. For example, they can read or narrate them a moral story from their holy book and pray together before the child sleep.
7. Parents must also provide their children with the personal and individual interaction that teachers in large classrooms are not able to provide.
8. Moreover parent must spend extra time helping their children develop any special talents they possess, including singing, planting, cooking, etc as an extra activity.
9. Furthermore Parents must be open minded and be ready to discuss controversial topics at their discretion with their children; 10. Eventually, Parent must create family closeness while homeschooling their children together.
10. Eventually, Parent must create family closeness while homeschooling their children together.
