Homeschooling During COVID-19: Is This the Right Option for Our Scholars?
As we enter the winter months of 2020, the global pandemic continues to shape our day-to-day lives. Restaurants and bars have closed, reopened and then closed again, grocery stores have run completely out of essential household items, and we have spent the summer socially distanced from our friends and communities. As we return to the academic school year, many parents are battling with the decision to enroll their children back in school or attempt to homeschool for the year. While the concept of homeschooling and the materials needed are not a new concept, for many families it feels like unfamiliar territory. The risk of their children contracting COVID-19 is a major factor that leads most parents to take the homeschooling route, yet there are continuous studies that show homeschooling can adversely affect the cognitive, social, and emotional development of children.
Making the decision to move to home education to prevent children from the risk of contracting COVID-19 deprives children of the facilities that schools offer. From home, children have no opportunity to use science labs, gymnasiums, or art studios. While these things may seem trivial, many children participate in specific courses in school such as gymnastics, chemistry and pottery which home schooling cannot facilitate. In an article on homeschooling in KidsHealth, author Steven Dowshen M.D. offers his insights regarding the negative effects that homeschooling can have on a child’s socialization. From home, children can feel cut off from their age group as they spend most of their days with their parents. While studies have shown that children who are homeschooled often have more advanced vocabularies at younger ages (due to the fact that the majority of their time is spent interacting with adults), their social skills and ability to make friends is often negatively impacted when compared to the average child in their age range. While homeschooling may bring you and your child closer and give them a more focused approach to schooling, it can stunt the growth of their social skills and social capability as a child growing into adulthood.
Despite the negative effects of cognitive development of homeschooling, homeschooling also poses a burden to families financially. As the world reopens, many parents are finding that their jobs now have a need for them to return to work. For parents who have chosen homeschooling and have to return to work, they now are left with no academic options or care for their children during the daytime. If those families also purchased the required tools and materials for homeschooling, they have now spent money on resources they no longer have the ability to utilize. In an article from The Education Corner, Becton Loveless explains the hardships posed by time, capability, and financial hardship for homeschooling parents. If a parent who is serving as a teacher for their child is proficient at Science but their English skills are lacking, many of these families are impacted financially, needing to hire tutors for the subjects they are not well-versed or proficient in.
While the risk of COVID-19 is ever-present in our communities today, local schools have been working tirelessly to keep their scholars healthy and happy. At STEM Child Care, we have implemented updated health and safety guidelines, which include multiple cleanings throughout the day by teachers and also in the evenings by janitors with hospital grade cleaning supplies, the introduction of HEPA air purification devices and routine electrostatic sprayings of our facility, curbside drop-off and pick-up procedures to limit the number of individuals entering our school, as well as increased social distancing and handwashing procedures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our staff, families, and scholars. Although the idea of sending our children back into group care might seem daunting, it is most important to give them every tool they will need to be academically successful throughout this pandemic and in turn, throughout their entire academic careers.
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References:
https://www.educationcorner.com/benefits-disadvantages-of-homeschooling.html