You Are Not Alone! Parents Get Teachers As Coaches To Homeschool Better In This Setup

With a work-from-home setup and distance learning happening under the new normal, a homeschooling setup suddenly becomes a viable option for many parents who have considered it before but, for some reason or another, never pushed through with it.

“Many parents have thought of homeschooling because they would like to teach their children family values that are important to them. They also want to play a dominant role in their children’s education,” says Dr. Trixie Sison, Dean of the College of Education of Miriam College.

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A homeschooling setup to build parents’ confidence

Compared to traditional schools, a homeschool setup certainly has its advantages: Teaching hours are more flexible, learning is self-paced, and the overall cost is significantly more affordable. However, it is a different story when teaching actually happens in the home. “Kakayanin ko ba?” is probably one of the first questions parents will be asking themselves. It reminds one of a popular meme with Bea Alonzo in it, asking, “Bakit parang ako ang naka-enroll?”

Homeschool won’t be easy, especially for parents doing it for the first time. “How do I get my child to follow instructions?” “How can I make my teaching more engaging?” “How do I balance my work with homeschooling?” These are just some of the questions parents will face, and Miriam College says it has created a program to address these challenges.

“Co TEACH” or Collaborative Teacher-Assisted Classes for Homeschoolers by Miriam College’s College of Education has teacher-coaches who are in turn assisted by pre-service teachers who are Early Childhood Education students in their final year in Miriam College. Under the program, parents will have these teacher-coaches as their support system. They will help parents implement the curriculum properly and teach them the concepts and skills comprehensively.

“When parents have questions on how to do certain activities, the co-teachers of the program will come in to assist and give a piece of ready advice,” says Marose Yuzon, principal of the Co TEACH program and chairperson of the Early Childhood Education department of the College of Education.

Yuzon adds the program aims to build the parents’ confidence in teaching as they go along.

Maximizing hands-on learning at home

A typical schedule for the week will have the parents follow a curriculum and implement activities using the guide provided along with the modules. The teachers come in three times a week to facilitate virtual lessons, ensuring concepts and skills are emphasized in different activities.

Once a week, the teacher-coach meets with the parents of her class and goes over the curriculum and suggests practical, fun, and daily activities such as cooking, grocery shopping, gardening, and mini-projects. This part ensures that the child learns through hands-on experience and is not just dependent on answering worksheets. 

“Not only does the program provide consistent professional guidance for parents, but it gives the child the best of both worlds. They have parents who can teach while emphasizing the values important to them as a family. And they have teachers who guide parents to maximize learning in the home,” says Yuzon.

Co TEACH has programs for pre-K (children as young as 2 years old) until Grade 3, designed in line with the Department of Education’s (DepEd) required competencies. Lessons focus on foundational skills that will make them ready for complex tasks later on for the younger group.

“Learning sessions will have mindfulness activities, music, and movement, art, storytelling, fine motor development activities, among others,” says Yuzon.

All DepEd-related accreditation at the end of the school year will be facilitated by the college.

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Extra-curricular activities and counseling

For a more holistic education, parents can enroll their child in a selection of extra-curricular activities that include ballet, culinary arts, music lessons, and foreign language, which may be continued on campus once COVID-19 restrictions have eased.

Interacting with other children of the same age group using fun activities is a regular part of the program. So is counseling where professionals from the Child and Family Studies program provide seminars and training for parents to guide them in providing their children’s holistic education. The Guidance and Counseling Department, on the other hand, will carry out activities that will promote the well-being of students.

“These are what make this program truly collaborative,” says Dr. Sison.

Email coteach@mc.edu.ph to know more about the Co TEACH program.

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