What Can Parents Do to Help Students During the Pandemic?

Until now, school work has always been seen as a shared responsibility between teachers and students. However, in light of the recent pandemic raging across the globe, that has changed, as the teachers have assumed a virtual role, and students are left to carry the bulk of learning responsibility alone. 

This is where a parent’s contributions come in. It will obviously go a long way to help their kids shoulder the learning responsibility with less difficulty. Parents can help by actively engaging with the students’ work, facilitating and systemizing effective work habits, and acknowledging and rewarding the students’ efforts.

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Active Interest and Engagement

Taking an active role and interest in students’ work does not mean that parents will have to help them with particular topics or teach them in any way. Instead, you can ask them about their classwork and assignments. How do they feel about school work? How are they coping? Are they struggling with any topics in particular?

And if they`re having issues, parents can advise the students to email their teachers or notify their tutors. Also, ensure you follow up on them and see how they fare each day and if they have further concerns. As a general rule of thumb, when students sense that their parents are engaged and concerned about their progress in school, they are often more likely to assign intrinsic importance to their academics and – as a result – pay more attention to their schoolwork.

Facilitating and Systemizing

This means providing students with what they need to do their work and systemize a conducive working environment and habit that makes studying a routine in the house. This could mean giving them a quiet corner of the house to work in, allocating a defined “homework time” during the day, minimizing or eliminating distractions during “homework time”, and making these features an everyday habit. 

This particular tip is relatively simple, but it is also vital since some students will likely struggle with establishing a sense of discipline independently. When parents provide the necessary “prerequisite” for school and integrate them into the students’ daily routine, it can be an invaluable resource to the students. Additionally, it will instill a sense of serious commitment to schoolwork.

Acknowledging and Rewarding

Self-motivation should always be promoted as the primary and healthy reason for doing any schoolwork. So, encouraging students to celebrate the small wins in their daily school activities can make them feel appreciated and validated during this unusual and confusing time. And this is particularly important now that they’ve been cut off from their direct source of academic validation, which is typically their teachers and peers.

Rewards can vary from saying a few words of encouragement to giving the student a treat after completing a challenging task. Acts like these will not only acknowledge and celebrate the students’ effort but will also reinforce their sense of academic responsibility. 

Until schools resume fully and students are once again surrounded by a routine system of education, a lot depends on the parents when it comes to providing support and enforcing that system at home. Doing can help a student maintain academic interest and develop a stronger work ethic, which will prove to be a valuable asset long after the pandemic has passed.

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