The Ogburn Online School

While online homeschooling might be a dream for many students who are still studying in a brick-and-mortar school, it might be dreaded by full-time working parents. In such cases, the dream becomes a far-fetched one for the kid since he knows clearly he shall never get the approval of his parents. However, there are many parents who like the concept of online homeschooling as much as their kids, even though they are working professionals. But they are not quite sure as to how to move forward with a suitable plan. First of all, you need to consider the grade of your child. If your child is in the elementary school, he or she shall require full-time guidance without a shadow of doubt. With the advancement in the level of courses, the child gains more expertise and comfort in the virtual platform of learning. He or she knows how to research on his own without the need of support of any teacher or parents, in certain cases. With proper planning, even working parents can efficiently handle the monitoring of their child. In case each parent has office work at different time schedules, they can manage looking after their child’s academic needs turn by turn.

Here are some valuable tips for parents considering online homeschooling:

• Embrace flexibilityIt is important for the parents to incorporate flexibility into their personal schedules as well. There are times when your child might not be able to solve a particular kind of assignment without your help. In some instances, you might have an extremely good hold over a certain topic and would prefer that your child follows your easy version of explanation rather than that prescribed in the textbook. At such times, when he or she gets stuck up due to your absence, you can instruct them to move forward with the other topics for the time being. Once you are off from your work, you can handle those specific topics of your interest and impart knowledge or teach the smart tactics to your child. So you need to sacrifice a bit of your leisure or rather solo time and give company to your little one. You need to pay more heed in case your child is an elementary school student. This is a crucial time for him where he learns the art of grasping and the teaching method is the most impactful at this stage. You might need to delay some of the supplementary works such as household works or grocery shopping to cater to your child’s needs. You need to set your priorities straight!

• Voice your child’s needs to online facultyCatering to your child’s needs might not suffice sometimes. You might need to act as a mediator between your child and the online counselor or instructor. Many a times, the child might be too introvert to open up in front of his online teachers. He or she might only confide in to you. Of course, you shall try your best to resolve his academic issues but sometimes your best might not be good enough. Since the online teachers are professionals, they might analyze the root of the cause much easily. They might even come up with brilliant solutions. So, in such cases you need to be the voice of your child and address his needs or concerns to the school faculty. Such concerns if not attended to, might break the spirit of your child little by little. This might lead to a poor performance with a null result. So, take things into your hands when the child is not vocal enough.

• Avail the virtual tools to the fullestThe online homeschool courses bring about an elaborate suite of smart virtual tools and resources at your child’s disposal. Sometimes the child may lack the drive in the beginning. So, you need to be in charge of making your child self-driven. You can instruct your child to experiment with these tools and then can monitor his growth in hands-on skills. You might even play with these tools yourself to know their various utilities and have a clear concept of how to access them. You can then educate the child and make it easier for him to get accustomed to the virtual platform. The tools are pretty interesting such as online library, communicators to promote one-on-one interactions with teachers, discussion boards, virtual classes, audio and video books, PowerPoint presentations etc. So, prepare to self-educate before educating your child.

• Build a robust learning scheduleBuilding a bulletproof schedule is very crucial to how fast your child shall run the race towards reach the finishing line. The schedule has to be made on the basis of your child’s unique learning pattern and goals. Both short-term and long-term goals should be kept in mind. Short-term goal might be to finish three lessons every two days. A long-term goal relates to the ultimate goal that is to something like acing the final assessment. So, accordingly you can create the schedule. It is always good to take professional help such as help from the Education Counselor himself. The schedule is the fuel that shall keep your child driven throughout the entire coursework.

• Monitor your childIt is not a good habit to poke your child every second he is studying. But, at the same time you cannot remain completely passive and oblivious. You need to maintain the moderation. You can take little measures such as recording his or her daily attendance and the number of lessons covered or assignments completed per day or per week.

• Maintain a positive aura at homeIt is very important to maintain a peaceful learning environment at home as it is now a study place for your child too. Do not argue with your spouse at the top of your voice! Always maintain positivity even when your child is one step away from giving up. A child does not need to gain inspiration from larger-than-life role models when he has his cheerful and inspirational parents by his side.

Following these guidelines, you can be a warrior-like parent and preserve your child’s dreams of excelling in academics!