Jurnal EMPOWERMENT; Jurnal Ilmiah Program Studi Pendidikan Luar SekolahVolume 11, Nomor 2 September 2022p-ISSN No. 2252-4738 e-ISSN : 2580-7692 82 MENTORING CHILDREN TO LEARN AT HOME IN DISTANCE LEARNING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN TASIKMALAYA CITY Lilis Karwati1, Ahmad Hamdan2 1,2,3 Pendidikan Masyarakat, FKIP Universitas Siliwangi, Tasikmalaya, Jawa Barat, Indonesia 1liliskarwati@unsil.ac.id, 2 ahmad.hamdan@unsil.ac.id Received: Maret, 2022; Accepted: September, 2022 Abstract Learning activities during the pandemic are carried out online at home, of course it is the responsibility of the family, especially parents, to accompany the child during home study. Parents should be prepared to accompany and guide their children learning from home. People play a role in accompanying and guiding children during online learning, parents must also understand the applications used during online learning. This research is qualitative phenomenology research, it aims to analyze children's learning assistance during distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic in Tasikmalaya City. The data collection techniques used in this study are interviews, observations and documentation. The subjects of this study were parents of children who did online learning. The results showed that during the pandemic almost the entire primary school (SD) in Tasikmalaya city learning was conducted online. Learning carried out online has several problems, namely the limitations of teachers in delivering materials that make the child do not understand the material in its entirety, parents should increase the cost of spending on internet costs during online learning. Learning at home accompanied by parents makes the child closer to the parents, the child feels safe and comfortable being close to the parents so that the child becomes more confident. Keywords: Learning Assistance, Distance Learning, Covid-19 Pandemic Abstrak Proses belajar mengajar selama masa pandemic dilaksanakan secara daring, artinya siswa belajar dari rumah dan orang tua mendampingi anak selama belajar dari rumah. Orang berperan mendampingi dan membimbing anak selama pembelajaran daring, orang tua juga harus memahami aplikasi yang digunakan selama pembelajaran daring. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kualitatif fenomenologi, hal ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis pendampingan belajar anak selama pembelajaran jarak jauh selama masa pandemi Covid-19 di Kota Tasikmalaya. Teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah wawancara, observasi dan dokumentasi. Subyek penelitian ini adalah orang tua anak yang melakukan pembelajaran secara daring. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa selama masa pandemic pembelajaran di sekolah dasar (SD) di kota Tasikmalaya dilakukan secara daring. Pembelajaran yang dilaksanakan secara daring terdapat beberapa permasalahan, yaitu keterbatasan guru dalam menyampaikan materi yang membuat anak tidak memahami materi secara utuh, orang tua harus menambah biaya pengeluaran untuk biaya internet selama pembelajaran daring. Pembelajaran di rumah dengan didampingi oleh orang tua menjadikan anak lebih dekat dengan orang tua, anak merasa aman dan nyaman berada dekat dengan orang tua sehingga anak menjadi lebih percaya diri. Kata kunci: Pendampingan Belajar, Pembelajaran Jarak Jauh, Pandemi Covid-19 How to Cite: Karwati, L. & Hamdan, A. (2022). Mentoring Children To Learn At Home In Distance Learning During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Tasikmalaya City. EMPOWERMENT: Jurnal Ilmiah Program Studi Pendidikan Luar Sekolah 11 (2), 82-88. INTRODUCTION The covid-19 pandemic led to the issuance of learning from home rules for school children and work from home (WFH) for teachers (Anawaty, 2020). Distance learning or commonly called Karwati & Hamdan. Mentoring Children To Learn At Home In Distance Learning During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Tasikmalaya City 83 online learning is one form of innovation developed and applied by almost all educational institutions. A circular on school policy during the covid-19 pandemic launched by the Minister of Education and Culture provides provisions, namely the learning process implemented from home to provide meaningful learning through online learning or distance learning (Kemendikbud, 2020). In accordance with Permendikbud No 24 year 2012 Article 1 mentioned that distance learning is an education whose students are separated from educators and learning using various sources of learning media through information technology, communication and other media (Kemendikbud, 2020). The family according to Effendy (Clara, 2015) is the smallest unit of society consisting of the head of the family and several people who gather and live together somewhere, and one roof in a state of interdependence with each other. Child mentoring when studying distance needs to be done by the family, especially the role of father and mother as parents, this is because the role of the family serves as the first and foremost place of education of the child in shaping character, religious values, and ethics, parents during the pandemic also have an additional role as teachers during online learning. According to Saputri (2017) in Karwati (2020) said that parents should be able to provide guidance and direction on each of their children's activities, one of which can meet the needs of children in the field of education and others. Parents should also be facilitators who can support the child's learning progress expected by the family by avoiding bad habits that occur in the child, so that the child becomes the focus and pride of the parents. Learning from home accompanied by parents can help the child during the activity and can also build intense communication with the child. Learning activities held online at home become an additional responsibility for parents, in addition to regular learning at night children do school tasks at the time before the pandemic covid-19. Parents take on additional duties as teachers when children study at home because learning is done remotely, Munir (2009) distance education is a form of education that gives learners the opportunity to learn separately from teachers. The readiness of learning from home can be seen from how parents accompany and guide children during distance learning. The use of this online learning application certainly causes many problems among the community, especially teachers and parents, both in terms of learning delivery, or from the readiness of parents in accompanying children's learning. Parents who were not initially involved in learning, are now actively involved in children's learning activities. The involvement of parents is due to learning done from their homes so of course parents who have to be a companion of children in distance learning. This certainly has a big impact for family members, especially parents, where parents must create and provide a comfortable atmosphere in the learning process at home. Helmawati (2014) explained that parents have a full responsibility role in educating children, but now it is bestowed on educators (teachers). This is because parents have to work for a living to meet the needs of the family. Pandemic covid-19 raises some new problems in accompanying children when learning at home, parents feel restless and worried in accompanying children to learn, because parents do not fully understand the material delivered by the teacher and foster an interest in learning in children. Difficulty of parents in operating gadgets, parents do not have enough time, parents can not wait to accompany the child, there are other problems that result in parents not focusing on Karwati & Hamdan. Mentoring Children To Learn At Home In Distance Learning During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Tasikmalaya City 84 accompanying the child, parents do not have full readiness in the mentoring of children learning on the other hand there are still many parents who feel objections to the rules of the school, not a few parents who end up letting the child learn alone because of the many burdens that parents bear, So that the learning assistance to children is not optimal. Parents feel unable to divide their time to accompany them, plus they feel pressured by the many demands of life needs that must be met, including learning assignments, household costs, school fees and so on. Lack of parental insight in providing education and parenting, knowledge of low childcare strategies, problems in the household economy, and the habit of imposing corporal punishment in daily social interactions in an effort to have control over the child's behavior. METHOD This study uses qualitative research with phenomenological approach. This approach relates to the understanding of the daily life and intersubjective world (world of life) of participants. Phenomenology is performed in natural situations, so there are no limitations in interpreting or understanding the phenomena studied and researchers are free to analyze data (Creswell 2014). Restrictions on qualitative research are based more on the level of importance or urgency of the problems at hand. Data collection using interview guidelines, observation and document analysis. Interview guidelines are conducted to get information directly from the role of family /parents in accompanying children to study at home during distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. Observations were made from the beginning of the study until the end of data collection on the assistance of children learning at home during distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. Analysis of documents to complete the data obtained from observations and interviews, data collection using documentation from theoretical studies obtained from books and journals. The informant in this study was the parents of 6 elementary school students in Kahuripan Subdistrict Tawang Tasikmalaya. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Coronavirus is a virus that causes diseases ranging from mild to severe symptoms characterized by fever symptoms, acute respiratory disorders, coughing and shortness of breath. The rapid spread of the virus that almost some people around the earth are infected by the danger of coronavirus makes WHO designate Covid-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020 (Yurianto, 2020). Pandemic covid-19 is very influential to all elements of human life, including the educational element. Educational activities have changed drastically, because all activities must be done online. Learning at all levels of education is done online to reduce the movement of every human being so as not to contract coronavirus. Online learning during the pandemic requires the role of parents to accompany children when studying as a substitute for the role of teachers in schools. Karwati (2021) revealed that the condition of the Covid-19 pandemic makes people's lifestyles change, because every community is required to improve discipline in maintaining health in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus. People's daily activities are limited so that not many people leave the house, if anyone wants to leave the house must comply with health protocols in accordance with government rules during the pandemic covid-19, as well as activities in educational institutions. Siahaan (2020) explained that the Indonesian Ministry of Education has issued a policy that is to disburse all schools and change the process of teaching and learning activities in schools into online learning or distance learning. Karwati & Hamdan. Mentoring Children To Learn At Home In Distance Learning During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Tasikmalaya City 85 The implementation of the online learning process encountered various problems faced by students and teachers, such as learning materials that were not completed delivered by the teacher, then the teacher replaced them by providing additional tasks. This is a complaint for students because the assignment given by the teacher is too much, not to mention there are students who do not understand the material or assignments given by the teacher. Another problem is that with the implementation of online learning, sometimes there are students who are left behind information due to inadequate internet signals and there are also some students who do not have a capable gadget to use in online learning. As a result they were late in collecting the assignments that had been given by the teacher. On the other hand, because of the application of online learning, this makes a new challenge in the world of education where, educators or teachers must also think again about the models and methods of learning to be used. Kemendikbud (2020) said that online learning aims to encourage collaboration of parents, teachers and students to be empowered to learn in the face of emergency situations due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Distance learning is a learning activity that provides opportunities for students to conduct learning activities separately from their educators (Munir, 2009). Distance learning is a method to teach science, skills, and attitudes by applying and utilizing technology that supports mass quality learning materials so that, it can be used simultaneously by learners whose residences are scattered everywhere. Wijayanti and Fauziah (2021) explained that the learning conducted online aims to assuage parents' concerns about the achievement of children's education, but has risks to the child's mental and physical health, because the child does not have outdoor activities and interactions with friends. Therefore, it takes the role of parents as teachers at home in accompanying children during the distance learning process. Munir (2009) explained that there are several principles of distance learning programs, including: 1. Aiming to improve the quality of the ability of the learners in accordance with the field of ability and interests and talents in order to better improve themselves; 2. Expanding learning opportunities and improving the level of education of learners; 3. Improve efficiency in delivery system through modular media and with the help of electronic media such as computers, educational radio, film, video and so on; 4. Based on appropriate field conditions and environmental conditions; 5. Based on the learner's awareness and desire and emphasis on self-learning based on self- actualization, confidence by relying on one's own ability to succeed in learning. There are several forms of online distance learning (Munir, 2009): 1. Independent education programs; 2. Face-to-face programs are held in several places with a predetermined time. Educational information is still conveyed, with or without interaction from educators and students; 3. The program implemented is not tied to the schedule of meetings, in one place. Distance learning is based on the premision that educators are central to the learning process, responsible for the learning they have done; 4. Distance learning with e-learning, which is online learning based on information technology via the internet. This learning system can be supported and equipped with complementary modules or books. Karwati & Hamdan. Mentoring Children To Learn At Home In Distance Learning During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Tasikmalaya City 86 During online learning, parents are required to be more intense in paying attention to children learning at home. Fathers and mothers understand each other's role in accompanying children to learn. Puspitawati (2020) gender partnership between husband and wife is a collaboration in the division of roles as a whole team in accordance with the agreement when married to educate children to be better children. The implementation of learning activities from home is expected to be the same result when children learn in school, namely a change in behavior, according to Slameto (Haling, 2007) learning is a process that is done by individuals in order to occur new behavior changes as a whole, as a result of their own experience in interacting with their environment. Distance learning conducted during the covid-19 pandemic shocked many parents and teachers, because parents, teachers and students are not used to using technology for learning activities. Teachers and elementary school students should be accustomed to using technology for teaching and learning activities, while parents should be accustomed to accompanying children when doing online learning activities. Munir (2012) said distance learning emphasizes the learning process at the event of students studying independently. The following is illustrated the chart of the implementation of online learning in elementary schools where research activities are conducted: Figure. 1 children to study at home in distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic in Tasikmalaya City Parents accompany the child during the learning process as an effort by parents to provide assistance to the child when experiencing problems during distance learning. The distance learning process positions parents as teachers, mentors, guides, and good examples for children so that the child can receive the learning materials well. Schohib (2010) explained that parents and children need effective communication in order to establish a good and harmonious relationship: 1. The ability of parents to deliver statements to their children will make them understand and realize what parents feel and want so that it is easy to follow; Karwati & Hamdan. Mentoring Children To Learn At Home In Distance Learning During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Tasikmalaya City 87 2. The ability of parents to listen to the child reflectively will help them read, understand, and realize what is being done so that they are aware to change wrong deeds and consciously to optimize good and correct behavior; 3. The ability of parents to accept the child's feelings means that they have been able to understand the child's world; 4. The ability of parents to communicate with humor, especially when the child is restless and the parents are able to return the child to normal condition and ready to receive messages of value for parents. The form of child assistance is required for good communication, harmony so that parents are able to accompany their children so that harmony is established in the family while according to Saputri (2017) explains that parental assistance is an effort made by the family or family members themselves, especially parents who accompany the child to meet the needs and problem solving of the child in order to support the optimization of child development. In fact, the mentoring done by parents to children aims to help optimize the development of the child, accompany, guide, provide a motivation and good understanding and guidance when the child is experiencing difficulties. provide facilities for all the needs of the child. CONCLUSION The assistance provided by parents makes the child feel safe and comfortable so that it can generate confidence in the child. When children take distance learning, children feel cared for, protected and given love by their parents. The spirit given can be in the form of positive words and motivation in the child. Parents as a medium for encouragement, and more self-confidence. Parents can facilitate children's needs for learning activities at home according to what has been obtained from school, so that there is continuity between what children get at school and at home. Children will be more open if their parents give them free time to discuss. Knowing yourself as a means to make it easier for us to understand others. Children build their identity with those closest to them in shaping their personality. Parents must and are able to be responsible for discovering the talents and interests of children, so that children are cared for and educated, either directly by parents or through the help of others. For example, teachers are in accordance with the talents and interests of the children themselves, so that children can learn more optimally. REFERENCES Creswell, John W. (2014). Research Design Pendekatan Kualitatif, Kuantitatif, Dan Mixed. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar. Clara Evy. (2020). Sosiologi Keluarga. Jakarta: UNJ PRESS. Kemendikbud. (2020). Dampak Covid19 Bagi Pendidikan. Jakarta: Kemendikbud Gunarsa, Singgih. (2008). Dasar dan Teori Perkembangan Anak. Jakarta: Libri. Haling Abdul. (2007). Belajar dan Pembelajaran. Makassar: Badan Penerbit UNM. Helmawati. (2014). Pendidikan Keluarga. Bandung: Remaja Rosdakarya Herien Puspitawati. (2019). Pembelajaran pendidikan keluarga responsif gender. Bogor: IPB PRESS. Anawaty, I. (2020) Peran Orang Tua Dalam Mendampingi Anak Di Rumah Selama Pandemi Covid-19. JCE (Journal Of Childhood Education). 4 (2), 71–81. https://doi.org/10.30736/jce.v4i2.256 Karwati & Hamdan. Mentoring Children To Learn At Home In Distance Learning During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Tasikmalaya City 88 Karwati, Kurniawan dan Anggraeni. (2020). Pendampingan Orang Tua pada Anak Pengguna Gawai di Satuan Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini. Jurnal Ilmiah PTK PNF. Vol 15, 1 P- ISSN: 1907-9176 E-ISSN: 2620-5254. karwati,L dkk (2021) Meningkatkan Kedisiplinan Dan Pembiasaan Masyarakat Dalam Menghadapi New Normal Untuk Mencegah Penyebaran Covid19, Abdimas Siliwangi p-ISSN 2614-7629 Vol 04 (01) Januari, 2021, 138-146 e-ISSN 2614-6339 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22460/as.v4i1p%25p.6530 Munir. (2009). Pembelajaran Jarak Jauh Berbasis Teknologi Informasi dan Komunikasi. Bandung: Alfabet. Shochib, M. (2010). Pola Asuh Orang Tua (Dalam Membantu Anak Mengembangkan Disiplin Diri Sebagai Pribadi yang Berkarakter). Jakarta: Rineka Cipta. Siahaan.M. (2020). Dampak Pandemi Covid-19 Terhadap Dunia Pendidikan. Jurnal Kajian Ilmiah. 5(3), 73-74. https://doi.org/10.31599/jki.v1i1.265. Saputri, Apriliana Ega, (2017). Pendampingan Anak Dalam Keluarga di Tk Pertiwi Kebasen Kabupaten Banyumas. (Skripsi). Fakultas Ilmu Pendidikan Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta. Permendikbud No 24 Tahun 2012 Tentang Penyelenggaraan Pendidikan Jarak Jauh Pada Pendidikan Tinggi. Wijayanti, R.M., Fauziah, P.Y. (2020). Perspektif dan Peran Orang Tua dalam Program PJJ masa Pandemi Covid-19 di PAUD. Jurnal Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini. 5(2), 1304- 1312. DOI: 10.31004/obsesi.v5i2.768. Yurianto, (2020). Pedoman Pencegahan dan Pengendalian Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19). Kemenkes RI.