This week, let’s hear from some of our subscribers from Flying School Bus, a community that supports families with their homeschool education. Although used to homeschooling and learning at home, doing it during the pandemic has also been challenging for them. See how they were able to use Mind S-Cool as a helpful resource and companion as they continue their homeschooling journey amid the pandemic.
Can you share what it has been like for you and your kid/s to be learning at home in the time of the pandemic?
Barbie Pastoral: Learning at home has been something we do for many years already as my son right now has really been homeschooling since nursery. But we miss going to the museums, field trips, outdoor activities where they can learn experientially and meet their other friends from the homeschool community.
Mary Grace Aquino: We are homeschooling even before the pandemic but we miss the monthly meetings with other homeschool groups as well as our family field trips. Sometimes studying at home gets boring.
Has Mind S-Cool Online helped your kid/s in their homeschooling journey? In what way was it helpful and/or not helpful?
Barbie: Yes, we are already on the 9th episode of Season 1 and we enjoy watching it together. While watching the show, we take down the important vocabulary words and try to copy the easy to do experiments and art cart ideas to help process what they learned.
Mary Grace: Yes Mind S-Cool helps us in our homeschooling journey. At first I was hesitant to subscribe, thinking that it will be more difficult for us since my sons are in different levels (Kinder, Grade 5) But thanks to the free trial video, it helps us decide to have the 1 year subscription. What I like most is the summarized discussion right before the end of the video-lesson, then we take the related quiz. If we don't get 100%, we just retake the quiz. The good thing is the questions are changing, with that I can gauge if my kids really understand the lesson or not.
Has Mind S-Cool Online helped you or your kid/s appreciate science and art in everyday life?
Barbie: Yes! There are so many scientific concepts that are hard to explain.
Mary Grace: Yes, Mind S-Cool Online helps us. The experiments are easy to follow, the tools needed, the art materials are something that we can find in our home, the activities are integrated to the lessons, learning while having fun!
Do you think Mind S-Cool Online is a helpful learning resource for homeschoolers? Why or why not?
Barbie: Yes it is! My suggestion is to also add more animation for concepts that are hard to understand. Eg. instead of just explaining what 'COMBUSTION' is >> you can show a video of gunpowder exploding, so the younger kids can digest the meaning of combustion visually. I also have another suggestion. For each video, indicate the materials they can prepare (easy to find at home), so that they can also do experiments at home, do a step by step, pause the video, so it becomes 'interactive'
Mary Grace: Yes, this is helpful for students and teachers, to homeschoolers and even for those who are enrolled in "traditional" school. Videos are presented in Taglish, quizzes, activities as well as the related reading resources are available. The lessons are divided into four quarters, this is helpful to me as a parent-teacher, less curriculum mapping/planning for me. Art activities are well curated for all ages and for all learner's types, visual, audio or kinesthetic ( can be used as a performance task or for portfolio presentation). My kids are both kinesthetic learners, so we really enjoy the experiment and Art activities. We've purchased the Sky Above and Earth Below experiment kits. We're able to replay the videos if we want to check them again. Overall, two thumbs up Mind S-Cool Online, thank you for making "learning at home" more fun!
Special thanks to Mary Grace Aquino for providing the photos.
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