Overcoming challenges
“In recent years, my experience of home education has been isolated and more independent. After we left Tanzania my interactions with other children my age died out, so it has just been my sister and friends I met online between then and now. During Year 9 my mom decided the two of us were responsible enough to no longer need her supervision while learning. My greatest two challenges are focus and motivation. I used to have issues with zeroing in on a single topic I found absolutely riveting – e.g. algebra – and neglecting everything else because I didn’t have the interest or motivation to do it until I was forced to do so out of necessity. Lately I haven’t had that much of a problem with this. My timetable has helped me to balance the amount of time spent on each subject so I advance in all of them at the same pace.
“If you are a very social person you may want to arrange free time for you to go online and chat or play with friends. A significant portion of the friends I have made are people I met online, and usually on gaming platforms as I really enjoy gaming. Finding a way to connect to others online has become even more pertinent due to the pandemic. I would also advise you to allow for changes in your timetable to make your homeschooling experience easier. You might make your initial timetable and think it is fine, but you can only know for sure after you have followed it, monitored how well it suits you, and noted any adjustments that need to be made.”