Casey parents struggle to cope with homeschooling challenges
Think your kid is a homeschool whiz because you can set them up and do your daily work without a peep? Think again. This is what they might be getting up to.
South East
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Parents are feeling the brunt of homeschooling during lockdown 2.0, with some calling for further support to cope with the ongoing demands.
But an expert has warned busy parents struggling to balance full time work and homeschooling they might need to keep an even more watchful eye on their kids.
Clinical psychologist Jordan Foster said there was no doubt homeschooling presented many challenges to parents – not least of which was making sure the kids were actually doing what they were told.
“Children were pretending to go on Zoom and saving a screenshot of themselves so they looked present, but they weren’t and would go off and play on their phones,” Ms Foster said.
She said it was “incredibly stressful” for parents to divide their time between full time work and homeschooling.
“Being a teacher itself is a full time role and parents are doubling their efforts to meet the demands has been incredibly difficult.”
Chrissie Burley, of Cranbourne, who has three children being homeschooled, told Leader while the school had been supportive, there were several challenges her family faced.
“One of the biggest challenges is spreading your time evenly between three children and there’s also more conflict within the household as a result,” Ms Burley said.
“Another challenge is the tech and stationary. My kids have been quite lucky, but there are several other parents whose children don’t have iPads and other tools you need,” she said.
Another parent Helen, surname withheld, who is also homeschooling three children who attend Wilandra Rise Primary School, said she would be happy for her children to repeat the year.
“They’ve missed out on almost two terms of school and while we are there to support them, it can be challenging to help them with certain aspects of their homework,” she said.
“I would be more than happy for my children to repeat the year as one of my boys is going into Year 7 next year and with everything that’s happened, he’s not fully prepared.”
But Ms Foster said she would not recommend this approach.
“There would be a huge flow-on effect from this that would affect students going to university and graduate programs,” she said.
“My biggest advice to parents is not to set your expectations too high … there will be a disruption in child’s learning but that is okay and I also advice parents to use parental control tools to ensure parents stay on task.”
Monash University Professor Paul Komesaroff said on available evidence it was safe to assume young people were just as susceptible to contracting the disease as anyone else and suggested all students returning to school could spell danger for Victoria.
“Even if it doesn’t manifest itself in young people to the same severity as older people, the risk of transmission through open schools is high,” Prof Komesaroff said.
“It does have to be weighed up because there are issues of not being included in learning and higher rates of child abuse in some settings.
“So the balance to weigh up is the risk of the pandemic versus the health of the child.”
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