How to maximise home learning
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As the country starts to open up and things start to go back to normal, home-based learning would not be occurring as much as before
However, this does not mean home-based learning will never happen again.
It is still being used during school holidays or short-term school breaks, where your child would be revising.
So how do you keep your child engaged in learning and maximize their knowledge during home-based learning?
We asked our head tutors at Keynote Learning and here is what they have to say.
Teach them how to do research online themselves
When your child has a question about something, you can do research online with them and at the same time, you can teach them about fake sources online as children would tend to believe the first thing they see.
You can guide them in knowing how to find reliable sources and answers.
As the saying goes, give a man a fish and he has food for a day. Teach him how to fish and you can feed him for a lifetime.
In this context, showing your child how to do research will leave your child to be independent.
In the future, they can find answers themselves instead of waiting to ask their teacher or worse, ignoring and never knowing the answer at all.
Having a growth mindset
As quoted from Mr Linus, our HOD of science :
“Our hope is to guide our children to become more powerful than an educator and research is the best way to do it.”
Some ways to get your child to learn something while having fun is to introduce them to educational youtube channels. Such as ”Smarter every day” for science, ”Learn English with EnglishClass101.com” for English, ”mathantics” for Math.
Another channel that teaches children and teens various things is ”Khan Academy” which has other channels under its name.
Other than watching videos, there are also educational games online like https://www.education.com/games/ and offline games like board games such as Mad Libs, Nerd Words: Science or Pandemic.
Your child can have fun and increase their knowledge at the same time!
Having a schedule and stick to it
Section out time that is purely meant for studying and attending classes. Just like how they would in a normal school setting.
Setting a timer helps with transitions between activities, ending screen time, or creating an easy end goal for completing work.
You can also colour-code the activity or school subject to quickly see what you are working on any given day or time.
Do remember to encourage some exercise or movements so that they can stay fit. You can let them help you with chores (This allows your kids to pick up some real-life skills and learn to help out around the house) or you could go for a walk with them.
If you have a Nintendo switch or Wii console, you and your child can engage in some physical games.
You can always adapt, but a schedule will give you focus and direction each day.
Of course, do remember to give your child some relaxation time as you would not want to overload them with work which can lead to stress.
Pick a system that works for you. Your schedule can be as detailed or as relaxed as you want.
The key is having a set structure for your child to follow so both of you can stay on track.
BONUS: Improve English vocab with this 1 tip!
Is your child is struggling to have new words for their compositions or essays?
Do they memorize paragraphs or sentences for their essays?
Do you wish your child can use better vocabulary when speaking instead of the same few words?
Although this is not a home-based learning tip, our English HOD Ms Ho recommends your child have either a physical or digital vocabulary book.
This book will contain the new words they learnt and their meanings. When your child learns a new word, they can write it down and you can test them on the word application (how they would put it in a sentence)
Even if your child’s school exam or national exam is in a couple more months, it is never too late to start.
This vocabulary book can be used even when they are in poly, JC and university where they might be required to write essays.
After your child notes down the new word they learnt, you can ask your child to create a sentence with that new word.
When your child learns to apply the new word in sentences, it is easier for them to remember. During this home-based learning (or when schools open up again), you can set an alarm on your phone to test the new vocabulary they have learnt. Where you can ask them to construct a sentence.
You do not need to do this every day or for long hours as this might kill your child’s interest. Instead, you can test them for a couple of days for a few minutes.
For example, 3 days per week, 5-10 mins per session.
Do remember to have the alarm recurring so that your child constantly updates the book and practices.