Is online tuition a good fit for your child’s learning needs? After all, children have distinct learning styles. While a virtual environment offers convenience, does it provide the right learning environment for your child to excel in?
To start, let’s examine why more parents and students are starting online tuition in Singapore. For one, attending lessons at home allows parents and students to cut down on the time spent commuting to physical classes.
Additionally, your child could attend lessons using the same equipment that supported them through home-based learning.
Lastly, suppose you’ve been wanting your child to attend classes at a tuition centre, like AGrader Learning Centre, but have not been able to find an outlet close to where you live.
With online lessons, your child gets the chance to attend AGrader lessons and learn from tutors based anywhere in Singapore.
Yet, the added convenience can be a bonus only if the medium of online lessons suits your child’s learning needs and styles.
If you’re wondering whether your Primary level child could benefit, let’s consider the four questions below to assess if your child may be ready to make the most of online tuition. And if your child could thrive in an online class, we’ve also included four simple ways to help them prepare.
4 Key Questions:
1. Does Your Child Have a Strong Foundation in Their Core Subjects?
If your child has consistently earned grades of As or Bs in English, Mathematics, or Science, and possesses the intellectual maturity to apply learned concepts to real-world situations, it could be a strong indicator that they have developed a solid foundation in these subjects. However, to ensure that they continue to excel academically, you may want to consider enrolling them in primary English tuition in Singapore. Our tuition services are designed to enhance their understanding and application of concepts, enabling them to achieve even greater success.
We believe online tuition with a small group of students can be an effective way to enrich and complement your child’s education.
Academically weaker students would benefit more from in-person lessons, where they get more opportunities to build personal connections with tutors.
From research and our experience at in-person AGrader classes, the positive connection between teacher and learner is key to engaging students and encouraging them to enjoy the lessons.
This, in turn, helps students to establish stronger foundations so that they may grow and improve in their studies.
2. Is Your Child Self-Disciplined With Their Studies?
Is your child generally motivated to complete their homework independently? Have they developed habits and discipline to practise exercises?
Or do they need to be pushed, and rush through questions for the sake of getting things done?
Online tuition classes require students to have more discipline and the maturity to focus. Without a supervisor in the same room, they have a greater responsibility to push themselves to stay on task.
In addition, it can be challenging for teachers to determine if a student is struggling to understand part of the online lesson, even if they have years of experience.
For effective online lessons, students should be prepared to advocate for themselves and learn to ask questions to clarify.
It would be tough to enjoy the benefits of online learning platforms if you need to be constantly present as a co-tutor. So if your child requires more support to thrive, their learning needs may be better served at in-person lessons.
3. What Is Your Child’s Learning Style?
Students have a range of different learning styles. Some may learn well by listening to presentations and watching demonstrations via online tuition for primary school platforms.
Others may process information better through hands-on experiential learning, like conducting science experiments (something we do in our onsite AGrader Primary Science classes).
If the latter sounds more in line with your child’s learning style, they may benefit more from in-person lessons.
4. Does Your Child’s Personality Suit Home-Based Learning?
Different personalities need different learning environments to thrive. The key is finding the right one that empowers your child to build their confidence. By doing so, they’re able to stretch their abilities.
For instance, children with more extroverted personalities may prefer a more traditional classroom setting.
Being in a physical classroom offers extroverts more opportunities for active participation. They also get to be energised by the company of their peers in person.
From experience in AGrader classes, online tuition offers a safe space for relatively introverted students to open up. They get to contribute to virtual lessons while working through their anxieties with public speaking.
How To Prepare for Online Tuition for Primary School?
If your child could thrive in a virtual learning environment, here are some ways to get ready:
Set Aside a Dedicated Space
Minimise distractions to help your child focus during each lesson. If the chosen space is a spot at the dining table, choose a seat where they’re less likely to see other members of the household.
If they’re attending the online lesson from their desk, make sure unrelated exercises, such as homework from school, are packed away and out of sight.
Establish Ground Rules
Remind your child that they should not access other sites on the Internet during the lessons. If necessary, block sites such as YouTube, or other gaming websites, to remove the temptation.
Offer support for technical issues, but trust them to participate in the lesson independently. Reinforce this rule, even if you’ve already had this conversation during months of home-based learning.
Have a conversation with other family members to minimise the use of other mobile devices during the lesson if possible. This limits connectivity issues during the lesson thereby creating a more conducive virtual environment.
Support Their Learning
Build your child’s confidence as an independent learner by praising their efforts in areas they’ve improved on.
Set aside time each week to review learning gaps that need to be bridged. At AGrader, we prepare personalised feedback to support parents in tracking their child’s progress on online lessons.
Offer assistance on topics they need to work on. To support parents and students who may need additional help, parents at AGrader get a clear line of communication with the teachers through an online chat. Through this exclusive WhatsApp group, they don’t have to wait for the next lesson to get queries regarding their worksheets answered.
Enjoy More Time Together
What would you do with the time you’ve saved? One of the biggest benefits of online tuition, as mentioned, is being able to cut down on travelling time to onsite lessons.
Decide on something fun to do together before starting online lessons. Whether it’s taking an evening walk at a nearby park or cooking a meal together, enjoy the additional time you have together.
If your child’s learning style benefits from online tuition, experience high-quality lessons from the comfort of your home instead. Get MOE-syllabus curriculum oriented worksheets delivered to your doorstep each month for free. Enjoy unlimited access to recorded online lessons for your child to rewatch and recap at their own pace. Explore our virtual English, Math, and Science online lessons for P3 to P6 here.
