Home Educating already:
Wow.. what extraordinary times and circumstances we are living through. As with many homeschoolers, the demands of self-isolation and lockdown has thrown most families schedules and routines into a complete vacuum.
Fortunately, I believe we have a slight advantage in that as a community, we are particularly resourceful and well connected to be able to adapt to our changing situation. Here at AHE we’ll continue as best we can with our events all going online.
There are many online learning platforms and resources out there already. Please do share your experiences and thoughts amongst the community as many families will be turning to these over the coming weeks.
One of the most difficult challenges we believe during this period is for our children to maintain their connectedness with their peers, especially those who particularly crave social interactions. I would encourage those families to organise virtual meetings or promote adhoc virtual meetup by the children. There are many video conferencing tools out there, and most are free. Here’s a few worth considering: Zoom (great for meetings), Skype (good for group video calls), FaceTime (available to all Apple users), WhatsApp (1:1 video call).
Lastly, as home educating families, you may suddenly find that friends and families with schooling going children reaching out to you about homeschooling. Share your experiences from when you first started your homeschooling journey. Point them to resources they could look at. Suggest ideas of things to do with their children. Many parents are thrusted into this path in highly stressful times. Your empathy and support will go along way.