Suddenly new to home education:
Firstly take a deep breath and don’t panic. These are extraordinary times and circumstances, even for those of us who are veteran home educators. We’re all in this together. While we all hope that the situation will pass by quickly, it is too early to tell how long this may last. Many parents and children are feeling quite overwhelmed by what’s happening let alone their new found situation of suddenly homeschooling their children. Most schools are working hard to ensure that they have mechanisms and systems in place to enable your children to continue to engage in their learning. We’d encourage you continue to utilise these and to work with them such that you can get the best from what they will be offering. It will also mean that when things return to normality, it would be easier for your children to reintegrate back into the school system.
However as advocates for home education, and having had the opportunity to actively choose to home educate our children, we’d like to offer some wisdom from our experience. Check out our Frequently Asked Questions as a starting point. You can also visit NCHENZ. Given the current context, there is no need for parents to apply for an exemption from the Ministry of Education. Unless of course, by the end of this you decide that home education is an excellent and viable choice for your children going forward.
Again, these are extraordinary circumstances. What is key right now is to ensure that you work this through as a family, use the opportunity to connect with your children, build positive relationships so that you can see this through together. Don’t worry about trying to keep strict ‘school hours’ or enforce daily school work if its not working. Your children’s mental health and wellbeing will be more important in the long run.