We are now all experiencing the worst pandemic in our lifetime. COVID19 has wreaked havoc around the world. It completely redefined the way we meet up, do business, seek entertainment, worship, attend school/classes, and even how we manage the home.
It may be inconvenient at first but soon, we’ll come to realize that one positive thing that would develop out of this crisis is that families could now become closer than ever. During the past 100 days or so, families have been locked down together. Parents have started working from home, mostly engaging in virtual meetings, with their kids stuck at home with them, mostly with the use of gadgets occupying their daily activities. In most countries affected by the pandemic, children are now being introduced to online learning. This important aspect of life follows suit to the "new normal" the world needs to adapt to.
Many parents are skeptical, some even considering skipping this school year and waiting for the pandemic to be over and for a vaccine to be found so that their children can go back to the brick and mortar schools. For them, nothing beats face-to-face interaction between teachers and students. They’d rather wait it out, with their kids’ learning put on hold in the face of an educational system they may not yet understand. Truly old school!
Sadly enough, nobody can really say with certainty just when things will go back to the "old normal". We truly can never know when everything would go back to how things used to be, to what we’re used to. We can’t even say for sure yet if it’s even possible.
But in the meantime, kids will continue to grow. They’ll keep growing up, and so every learning opportunity should be taken advantage of, no matter what. When the time comes for parents to go back to work in the outside world, their children will still have to remain at home. With no one supervising what they end up digesting online, it could be very dangerous to leave kids to their own devices. They need something productive to do even while at home.
The Sacred Heart School Sun Valley is a branch of the original Sacred Heart School in Malabon which was founded in 1968. The Sun Valley branch is a 21-year-old preschool, continuously serving its community and becoming the preschool of choice in the Sun Valley Paranaque area since the year 1999. The school is an established institution in the area with a renowned high standard of teaching and a high passing rate of admission to the prestigious big schools in Metro Manila.
It has always been a trend in the preschool industry to serve only the neighborhood kids. This is because parents usually do not want their toddlers venturing off too far to go to school. At the early ages of 2 to 6 years old, parents still want their little ones going to school nearby, where they could enjoy the pleasure of dropping them off and picking them up later with relative ease.
Sacred Heart School has always believed that when it comes to education, we need to start the kids early. The earlier that they are exposed to the routine of basic education, the earlier that they’ll be able to develop the discipline to study and learn. This is because studies have shown that 90% of brain development happens during the first 6 years of a child’s life. They will be able to socialize better with kids and adults if they are exposed to the school environment early, too.
Now with Sacred Heart School's preschool online learning program, kids from anywhere can still learn and have fun while still at home. Our content is well-curated and backed by a tried and tested syllabus with a proven positive track record. The only difference is this kind of learning is digital, thus the kids need not go outside to learn, which adheres to the standard we follow in regards to the “new normal”. There’s a flow to it. The parent does not have to worry about the chronology of lessons as it is based on a learning pattern developed by early childhood educators. On the other hand, if a kid tries online learning on his own, for example by just exploring the YouTube content he has chosen to view, you would not know if this would be appropriate and relevant for your child’s education at all.
Sacred Heart uses Google Classroom as our learning management system, and each child will be given his/her own GSuite account. The pupils will use Zoom or Google Meet for video conferencing, and class hours only range from 2 to 2.5 hours a day, depending on your child’s age. There will also be brain breaks during the online sessions that may act as recess time. Students will also be given activities that will enable them to go beyond their learning area so that they are not facing a screen the entire time. The only tools you’ll need is a laptop, desktop or tablet capable of video conferencing. Having a stable and reliable internet connection is helpful, too.
The COVID19 pandemic is indeed a worldwide challenge, but it has pushed us to accept technology more and find ways to integrate it into our daily lives. We at Sacred Heart School believe that children should not be idle, even during these times. Somehow, we must be able to harness their energy into something productive. They must continue to learn and not waste their days away on an unstructured learning approach. They need a stable way to keep learning and to keep their minds growing as much as they are. At Sacred Heart School, this is what we do. Like our motto says, kids get smart at Sacred Heart.