Homeschooling and online learning is a valuable learning experience, both for children as well as parents. Often, traditional brick and mortar classrooms are not adequately equipped to support certain learning or social challenges many students face. But how do families get the best out of learning from home for their children?
Cody Claver, General Manager of iCademy Middle East says “The ideal setting for kids to learn is a space where they can segment themselves off from the rest of their living environment. That doesn’t always have to be a separate room. I believe that students want to still have something in place that says, “this is my classroom”. In fact, I would encourage parents to empower the kids to develop their schooling space. Students will buy into their learning when they are empowered to make decisions.”
Maheen, age 14 (9th Grade) and Areej, age 16 (10th Grade) have been studying online at home with iCademy Middle East for 3 years.
Areej says “Having a dedicated room for studying, which does not have any distractions helps us focus on our work. Having everything organized and easily accessible makes schoolwork less stressful.
“We have put maps on the walls which helps with subjects like Geography and History and have a calendar on our desks to help us keep track of important dates, like class connects. Pinning notes on a board, which is placed next to our desks helps us concentrate and work to deadlines for assignments and other things for school.”
iCademy provides a US-based online-applied curriculum to youngsters attending KG through to Grade 12, with particular attention paid to helping students who may have struggled or have outgrown a mainstream education environment achieve their full potential. A usual homeschool environment would see the parents taking responsibility for teaching the children however iCademy have their own fully qualified teachers available for online lessons and any questions students may have. Their contact information is readily available which makes one on one communication very easy.
Maheen says “knowing that you have more than one way of contacting your teacher makes us feel at ease and less stressed about any problems we come across in our schoolwork. We need to be determined and focused on our work to make home the perfect environment to work in but knowing that the teachers are always there to help us is really reassuring.”
Maheen and Areej’s mother, Azza Baig says “homeschooling has made my children more independent and incredibly well organized. Allowing them to manage their own time has helped them to accomplish more, not only in their schoolwork, but in day to day life – something that I didn’t learn in a traditional school.”
Get in touch with iCademy at https://icademymiddleeast.com
