How to Help Children Keep Learning During a Pandemic - Hello Teacher assistant friends! The Covid-19 pandemic has changed many children's activities ranging from studying at home, doing more clean behavior than usual, or keeping a distance from other people. Some children feel burdened, and some of them experience stress. This makes it difficult for children to start learning and doing other activities. To overcome this problem, here are the recommendations of Robert Jenkins, UNICEF's Head of Global Education in helping children to keep learning while they are at home.
Here's how to help children stay home learning
1. Plan a routine together
Establishing a daily or weekly routine for your child can be an age-appropriate way of educating your child. One of these routines includes learning activities carried out via online media, television, or radio. In addition, playtime also needs to be considered in planning routines.
Daily or weekly routines can be done together with parents if possible. If the child looks restless and uncomfortable when participating in online learning, for example, involve him in other activities that make the child more active afterward, such as doing homework together. That way, the child's motor function can also be trained at the same time.
2. Open communication
Children need encouragement to be more open in communicating with parents, such as asking questions and expressing feelings. Start by inviting children to talk about the current pandemic problem.
Find out how much your child knows about it. You can continue the conversation with a discussion about good hygiene practices, such as how to wash your hands. If your child feels worried and scared by the events of this pandemic, make sure that feeling is a natural feeling. Give full attention and ask the child to convey what is being felt.
3. Taking time
Learning sessions outside of school can also be done briefly but regularly. If the time that will be provided in one study session is minutes, then learning can be started from the initial 10 minutes to build the child's mood to be more comfortable.
Combine online time with offline activities or workouts. Remember, it's also important to understand that children may only be able to focus on certain activities for 20 minutes or less, so they need time to rest before coming back. In order not to get bored, learning methods can use games and others.
4. Supervise children from using the internet
Discuss internet use with children about how it works, what you need to know, and the use of applications that will be used, for example, video meeting applications. Increased internet access can pose a risk to children's safety, protection, and privacy. Making rules about how, when, and where the internet can be used needs to be discussed together. Remind children that there is no need to share photos or personal information to access digital learning.
5. Keep in touch with your child's school
Getting information, asking questions, and getting further guidance on children's schools from teachers is an important thing that must be done. In addition, parental groups and the community can also assist in discussions and obtain information about children's education.
Well, based on the information above, of course, teacher assistant friends have begun to understand how to help keep children learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. Don't forget to always support the activities your child does, okay? Hope it is useful! Share this interesting information with those around you!