Early Childhood Education at home is a good thing — Why are we saying it’s not?

Parents of young children are in crisis. We are expected to work, be our children’s teachers, keep them safe, handle day-to-day tasks… and just deal with it. There aren’t enough hours in a day for us to do everything, and we’re having to prioritize and choose what we can do well each day. Something has to give. Every week or so there is an article about how this situation is unsustainable, how we’re failing our children, and how the economy won’t restart unless children go back to school.

It’s all very ominous. But should it be? If there’s any argument for home/remote schooling, that argument is strongest in early childhood education (ECE). Science has shown that for young children to have the best shot at a healthy development they need, 1) a safe, play-filled environment and 2) meaningful interactions with the adults in their lives. Odds are that both of these needs are better met at home. So why are we telling parents their children are better off in preschool?

Truth is, there are many challenges to quality at-home care, be it “home-schooling” or “neighborhood pods.” First, parents may need to work all day, depriving children of meaningful play and interactions with adults, as well as socialization. Second, there is no guarantee the educator has the skills or support needed to be able to provide a high-quality early childhood education (most children find themselves in informal schooling which is often unregulated, especially in Latin American countries where pre-school is mandatory starting at age 3). And finally, for many children, school is the place where they get a healthy meal every day.

We’re looking at these challenges as impediments when we should look at them as problems to be solved. Parents want to work but they also want to support their child’s development and education. How can we help them overcome these challenges? What if we thought of “remote-first” vs “school-first” education models? I have a few ideas, but they require opening our minds to what’s possible and rejecting the physical space as the first component for education.

Transforming parents into educators

With millions of families quarantined due to the pandemic, children are forced to continue their learning and development at home. Schools will reopen eventually, but many are considering hybrid models that still require a high level of parental involvement. Now is the time to rethink the place of early childhood education at home and find practical solutions for families with young children.

How can we ensure that parents have the time and resources to spend quality time with their children?

In most of the world, both parents have jobs, and in many cases, multiple. Parents need to continue being productive members of society — one solution could be to provide caregiver-subsidy to those who choose to stay home (whether that’s mom, dad, or a grandparent) to care for their children as a way to supplement their income, as well as temporary leave from their jobs without punishment from their employers. A stipend could also help parents ensure their home environment has adequate nutrition, space, and stimuli to support learning and play. Another solution could be to support parents who work full time with resources, like Kinedu, that help them spend quality time with their children after working hours and build skills together through play. Kinedu also allows parents to invite caregivers to their account, so that they can go back to work and ensure their children have the right to learn-through-play experiences during the day and continued support after work and on weekends, too.

How can we make sure that they have the knowledge and ideas to kindle playtime as a vessel for child learning?

Most parents don’t know what to do with their children; they aren’t trained in pedagogy and learning techniques and may become overwhelmed by the frustrations that emerge from multiple hours of lesson planning and delivery. At kinedu, we support parents and educators with tools that provide them with actionable knowledge and practical playtime ideas. Science shows that even just 15 minutes of purposeful playtime can help spark millions of neural connections.

Equipping early childhood educators for remote care

Preschool and daycare educators are, for the most part, out of work (for now). According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children and Early Care & Education Consortium, childcare programs around the country lost nearly 70% of their daily attendance in one week during the pandemic. If we want daycare centers to survive, we have to think outside the box. We have to blur the line between school and home.

How can we train, empower, and equip educators so that they become ECE guides to parents?

Many educational institutions are transforming the way they teach to include remote lessons. But any parent of children under five will tell you stories about the limitations of synchronous, remote learning. We may be over-indexing on real-time learning, and underestimating how teachers guiding parents (through a-synchronous content) could work wonders. Kinedu supports educators in becoming remote guides for families — helping them plan activities and hosting a library of content, created by experts in early childhood, that educators can complement with their own ideas. This way, educators pre-select activities for families without having to facilitate activities through a screen. Our new platform, Kinedu | Educators, supports learning continuity by supporting teachers in learning planning, if on-site, as well as sharing information to parents so that learning continues at home.

How can we connect educators to serve as at-home educators to parents (or neighborhood groups) that can afford one?

Many parents are scrambling together with friends or neighbors to form learning pods. In the immediate future, this has the potential to employ many educators and support families in going back to work — seems like an ideal proposition: Children at home or nearby (in a safe environment), quality care, learning through play, and experienced educators. In the long-term, governments and employers could subsidize this care-setting and support families to organize themselves or even foster programs such as MyVillage (myvillage.com), which supports educators in launching care and early learning facilities at home. Subsidizing home-based childcare would be a long-overdue effort to support low-income communities, too. Many children of low-income families receive care from neighbors, family members, or in unlicensed group care settings that offer nighttime care, bilingual instruction, etc. Offering a subsidy would allow families to continue working while easing the burden of paying for childcare.

Re-thinking Early Childhood Education

As the private sector evaluates the future of offices and 9–5 schedules, the childcare industry should also rethink what early education looks like. Could we create a new hybrid model that includes both parent and educator involvement? Can we leverage our network of trained educators to support parents in becoming their child’s first teacher?

We have the opportunity to re-shape the ECE landscape. Even before the pandemic, 85% of children were at home or in some sort of informal care setting, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Today, thankfully, we have the attention of policymakers, innovators, educators, and parents. This crisis shows just how valuable and necessary early childhood education is. Instead of plowing billions of dollars in building infrastructure and centers that end up as white elephants, let’s invest in generating communities of parents and educators that support each other in delivering high-quality care and early learning to society’s most important — our young children.

Thank you Riley and Marcela for your thoughts, ideas, and input!