Coronavirus : Parental Engagement in Children’s Learning at Home

Coronavirus: Parental Engagement in Children’s Learning at Home. Parental engagement is one of the seven main drivers of excellence and equality in Scottish education. It refers to the involvement of parents (and families) in the children home learning. The involvement can take place in early learning and school setting at home. The involvement of parents and families can help increase achievement for children and help them to get an equal chance of success.

Coronavirus Quarantine & How Can Parents Help With Home Learning?

Due to the pandemic, the schools in the Scottish Islands are closed to tackle the spread of Covid-19. Consequently, most of the schools have provided online learning and activities which may need parents’ engagement or involvement.

So what should parents do?

The parents have to maintain normality in children’s learning at home, rather than worrying about a specific school subject. It is because children might be sad or feel lonely if they do not have friends around as usual. Thus, it is vital to keep children to be happy.

Moreover, if parents have a specific skill, they better concentrate on teaching that skill and not on something that makes them less confident. It is because the children can sense when adults are enjoying or not enjoying something.

How Can Parents get a Routine Together?

The question is how do parents can keep the normality of children’s learning at home?  For example, the routine can be a certain time for learning activities, lunchtime, and break time outside. The parents can repeat this routine each day in a week. However, it is not necessary to run full school day activities as usual.

If There is No Internet Connection, What Can Parents do?

Since the schools are closed, the teachers have provided the material for learning activities online. However, how if there is no internet connection at home, what learning activities that parents can do at home for the children? First, the parents can make an arrangement with the teachers. If it did not help, then parents can contact the school to ask for paper-based activities – if the schools provide it.

Moreover, there are lots of home learning activities that parents and children can do without using an internet connection. For example, parents and children can read a book together, watching stimulating TV programs together, painting, drawing, crafting, and playing games that contain knowledge, literacy, and numeracy.

Briefly, parental engagement and children’s home learning in Scotland are related to each other. Therefore, home learning requires the efforts of both parties to get maximum results.