Far too many times we recognise two streets when it comes to education, educators and students, yet we tend to forget that families also play a huge role in their children's learning journeys. Teachers and students have had to adapt to the accelerated shift to blended learning forced upon them by the pandemic.

Children are prone to excel when they have support from both fronts that being their teachers as well as their parents, guardians. When support is provided on both ends it is likely that the child will do better in their learning journey.

However, families can be overwhelmed by new learning methods, styles and techniques outside of their own experience. This is a natural reaction and that is why it is important that should they wish to be supportive to their children, families, in turn, need support too. The following are ways parents can stand by their children in their new blended learning adventure.

Stay active and informed
If the biggest concern that you as a parent have is that you do not understand the educational software that your child is using, that you have concerns about your child's online privacy and safety or perhaps that you feel as though you cannot support them in their research in the same way you used to be able to help them with offline resources, then this is a prime occasion to learn.

Maybe you are not feeling confident enough with a computer, you can simply ask your child’s teachers for a better understanding or discuss it with your children. Having an open conversation about blended learning with the younger members of your family kills two birds with one stone, the first being your children will see that you are actively interested in what is going on in their lives, and you will learn with them, perhaps even from them.

Now is the perfect time to bridge the generation gap with some humility and willingness to learn, you can make better students out of your children by becoming a student yourself and letting them bring you up to speed. After all, sometimes teaching a concept is the best way to master it. Ask your children relevant and thoughtful questions about blended learning and you will all come out on the other side better and more informed with a stronger bond of communication and trust.

What matters is that you should never face this new chapter in your lives with preconceived notions such as ‘all screen time is a distraction’ and ‘the Internet is inherently inferior to books’. All learning requires an open mind and educating yourself about blended learning is no exception.

Set reasonable limits
Labelling yourself as the student and your child as the teacher, however, does not stop you from having more traditional parental duties as a guide and sometimes an enforcer of rules. Remember that the keyword is blended, not all learning has to come from online sources. Encourage your children to take healthy breaks from their devices and supplement their online learning with the traditional methods you are more familiar with such as textbooks and encyclopaedias.

Another important thing you can do is to help your children establish a schedule and take responsibility for their own education. While a day of blended learning looks very different from a day of attending school in the morning, doing homework in the afternoon, and being free once you’re done, structure and routine are still essential.

Depending on your child’s level of maturity, the increased flexibility of a blended learning schedule may or may not lead to procrastination and other damaging study habits, and it is up to you as a parent to remind them of their assignments and keep up with their schoolwork without opening any other tempting app pays off in the long term.