Distance learning case studies: a parent's perspective II

Farhana, our International Area Manager for Asia, spoke to Sarah about her experience home-schooling in Hong Kong for the first time.

Sarah's children’s school have been using Google hangouts for their lessons. She says they recently discovered that they can send personal messages to their friends on it, so now she’s having to monitor that they’re actively taking part in their lessons more closely. 

She says, in a similar way to when children are off school over summer, parents should try and get them to do a little bit of work each day to make sure they don’t decline during this time away from the classroom. This could be 15 minutes of maths questions, reading or writing a short story, or doing some work on a research project. 

Sarah’s top tips for parents

• Try and keep to a routine. Get up and have breakfast together at 8am each day for example.
   
• Try and include lots of yoga and exercise breaks. Staircases are very useful!
   
• It can help to prepare the next day’s work the day before so everyone knows what the plan is.
   
• Star charts and treats are useful, essentially bribing them to be well behaved and do their work!
   
• Sitting down and getting on with work can be as difficult for parents as it is for children. If you set a good example, it will be easier for your children to follow your lead. If you’re putting up a timetable or chart for your children, add a line for yourself so your children can see you’re all in this together.
   
• You can try to get your children to wear their school shirt so they feel like they’re in the mood to learn.