Parent’s Involvement in Early Childhood Education during the Covid-19 Pandemic Period

Parent’s Involvement in Early Childhood Education during the Covid-19 Pandemic Period. Objective: This study aims to describe how the parent’s involvement in providing children’s education at home during the Covid-19 pandemic at the Kindergarten level. Methods: This study used a quantitative descriptive study through a survey method with 40 kindergarten parents in East Java selected by stratified random sampling technique. The research instrument was a Guttman scale questionnaire to ensure the results of research regarding the unity of dimensions and attitudes or traits under study. Finding: Types of parent’s involvement in early childhood education during the Covid-19 Pandemic period were realized through: (1) nurturing, (2) two-way communication, (3) home learning strategies, and (4) decision making. Conclusion: Parents, especially mothers played an active role in providing children’s education at home during the Covid-19 pandemic.


 INTRODUCTION
The impact of the Corona Virus which spread almost completely in various parts of the world caused many changes in all areas of life. Everyone felt the direct impact of the pandemic virus that was first discovered in Wuhan City, which occurred at the end of 2019. The consequences of this can also be seen in education in Indonesia starting from March 16, 2020, where the majority of schools to colleges become quiet as if without teaching activities. This event occurred because schools to universities reduced and even eliminated the learning process face to face in class and replaced learning for students Learn from Home (LfH) and online or through e-learning. This is implemented as one of the preventive measures to spread the Covid-19 virus which is increasingly worrying.
Efforts to minimize the spread of the Covid-19 virus indirectly force parents to be able to become teachers as well as form teachers for their children. Every parent is required to master all subjects so that it can be said as if the school moved to be at home. The implementation of teaching and learning activities from school to home changes part of the schedule of activities of parents at home and also makes parents look for solutions to continue to be able to carry out optimal educational practices at home. Then the choice that can be made is to do home education independently, so that parents play a role as teachers for children. An education system that emphasizes parents as the main instructor puts the primary responsibility of children's education in the hands of parents, and is not represented by others.

Benefits of Parents Involvement
Why do parents have to play a direct role and be involved in the education of their children? Basically, the involvement of parents in the child's learning process is one way to achieve success for children in the future. In line with the "Center for Child Well Being" (2010) states that the involvement of parents in educating children can not only improve children's morals, attitudes, and achievements in all aspects of learning but also can improve behavior and good social adjustment. In line with this, the involvement of parents in providing education for children can help children to grow into productive, independent and responsible members of society.
When viewed in terms of academic achievement, parents involvement also should not be underestimated because it shows satisfactory academic success (Pinatoan, 2013). From the results of the study also explained that children with the guidance of parents who support 52% are more likely to enjoy their study time at school and get an A grade than parents who are hands off towards children's education. This happens especially in the early years of children entering school, namely the kindergarten to grade 5 elementary school with parents who are twice as active as parents in general are more likely to succeed. Once a child enters high school, the impact will be slightly reduced, but there are still significant differences of up to 22%.
The involvement of parents is important for Early Childhood Education (ECE), this has been widely expressed by various experts, such as Plowden who created the perception that schools can foster good communication with parents about the various activities carried out at school can foster good support from parents. This is also supported by a study conducted by Park et al. Showing that parent's involvement in educating their children is important because parents also have an important contribution in achieving the child's developmental tasks from all aspects of development. Referring to the aforementioned matters, there should be an appropriate method if applied in the practice of home education which is currently being carried out by some regions in Indonesia during the Corona virus pandemic.

Form of Parents Involvement
Referring to the results of empirical research, there are six types of parental involvement that represent various forms of collaborative relationships of parental involvement in educating children, namely: 1) Parenting, is a condition where parents must be able to create positive and synergic home conditions to shape and foster children's development to be more optimal, guide, and raise children with the efforts of parents; 2) Communicate well; 3) Volunteering, by contributing to various activities in their environment (such as participating in celebrating activities / community services that need it); 4) Learning at home, by carrying out various activities and providing assistance to children, monitoring learning activities and developing children's abilities in learning at home; 5) Decision making, is a form of involvement of parents in providing and implementing policies while studying at home; and 6) Collaborating with various communities (Epstein, 2002).

Barriers to Parents Involvement
The fundamental question related to the Covid-19 pandemic disaster is whether parents can replace the positions of class teachers and subject teachers who have been school clerks? This depends on the ability of each parent of the child. For parents who are teachers every day is very easy because it is used to practice and convey knowledge to students who become their own children. While for parents who work outside the world of education and housewives, of course it is a burden and it is not impossible if they find it difficult to face subject matter that was not found in their school days.
According to Sumardiono, Indonesian's home education practitioners explained that education carried out independently by the family was more suitable to be carried out during the Covid-19 virus pandemic season. The material and strategy of learning activities that are applied must be adapted to the child needed. The dominant characteristic and superiority of home education is customized education, which is a form of education that is carried out by considering the potential within the child and the surrounding environment. In this home education the diversity of children must always be respected and between children not required to be similar (homogeneous).
In the practice of home education, parents are expected to be involved to support the child's potential. Parent's involvement in child education is also listed in the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 20 of 2003 concerning the National Education System (Law No. 20/2003 on National Education System) Article 7, Paragraph 1 which reads "Parents have the right to participate in choosing units education and obtain information about the development of their children ". In addition, the guidelines for the implementation of Family-Based Early Childhood Education (PAUD) in 2012 by the Directorate of PAUD Development, the Directorate General of PAUDNI of the Indonesian Ministry of National Education also stressed about improving the quality of family-based PAUD implementation because families are considered important to be involved directly in PAUD activities.
Parent's involvement in child education will generate profits from both parties, so not only for parents, but can have a positive impact on children and for the school itself (Korfmacher et al, 2008). Parent's involvement will benefit parents themselves because of their involvement in providing education for children, such advantages as self-confidence and the emergence of a sense of satisfaction and pride when successfully educating children (Hornby, 2011), but it also can add knowledge, new experiences in applying the model of educati on for children (Powel, 2000), and can improve skills for parents in caring for their children independently (Epstein et al, 2002). From some of the benefits that can be obtained by parents will facilitate parents when fulfilling their duties as parents.
Parents carry out important tasks when involved in the implementation of child education at home during the Covid-19 pandemic with all its impact becoming the initial idea in this study. This study discusses how parents' readiness and various styles of parental involvement in carrying out education and care in their children during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Types of Research
This research is presented with a descriptive approach through a survey method that aims to describe and understand parent's involvement in conducting child education during the  No.
Location School Name Total Respondents Table 1. Total respondents pandemic period at home. Descriptive research aims to recognize and describe phenomena that exist in the study population and more describe the situation that occurs in the field (McMillan & Schumacher, 2001). Therefore, by using this type of descriptive research, this study can identify and describe parental involvement in early childhood education during the Covid-19 pandemic in East Java, Indonesia.

Respondents
Determination of the sample of respondents chosen by cluster, and determination of the number of samples is done by quota sampling with 2-5 respondents from one kindergarten. As for the selection of respondents using stratified random sampling, where random samples are taken from homogeneously level. Respondents in this study were parents of children in East Java Kindergarten who icluded the "redzone" category that was affected by Covid-19 pandemic, namely Surabaya, Sidoarjo, Magetan, Malang, and Kediri, which consisted of 2 public schools, 5 ordinary private schools, 4 favorite private school, and 1 international school with the following details:

Research Instrument
The type of research instrument used was a questionnaire. Questionnaire, which is one of the data collection techniques carried out by distributing written statements to the respondents who were chosen to be answered (Sugiono, 2010). While the type of questionnaire used as an instrument of this study is a closed questionnaire in checklist form. Data is collected through a measuring instrument in the form of a Guttman scale questionnaire sheet obtained in the form of interval or ratio data with alternative answers (two ratios) which have two optional namely "Yes" and "No". The questionnaire was distributed in a period of about one month, recorded from April 1 to April 29, 2020.
This Guttman scale instrument was developed independently with validity which was carried out through construction evaluations on aspects that would require expert judgment, in this case the request of expert judgment in Childcare to lecturers of Early Childhood Education Study Programs to validate the validity or suitability of the instrument with the subject matter researched. While the reliability testing in the test instrument is with internal consistency, which is done by testing the instrument once, then after the data is obtained then analyzed using KR 20 (Kuder Richardson).

Data Analysis
Data analysis uses descriptive quantitative methods. The method was chosen because it is suitable to describe the purpose of this study, which is to find a picture of symptoms in groups that can be spelled out clearly and accurately, and have continuity with various events that are ongoing and related to the conditions that occur now (Nazir, 2011).
Data obtained from a quantitative arrangement with the Guttman scale so it needs to be processed for the conclusion process. The data analysis technique used is descriptive analysis calculation technique to describe the research variables in the measurement and do not use inferential statistics because there are no hypotheses in this study. The statistical technique used in this study is the percentage.

 RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Based on the results of the questionnaire distribution, information was obtained about parent's involvement in the practice of child education at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. There are six points discussed in the questionnaire consisting of 20 questions. The discussion points are nurturing, two-way communication, volunteering, learning strategies at home, decision making, and working with the community. The results of the questionnaire distribution showed that 85% of parents were actively involved in children's education at home during the pandemic. Data obtained showed that parents, especially mothers, were involved in the education of their children while at home (92.5%). No significant divergence was seen in teaching readiness between working mothers and housewives in terms of 4 different types of schools. Parents are also confident teaching children at home (77.5%). In fact, only 2 out of 19 housewives felt insecure when teaching children independently while at home. As for teaching material, parents do not feel difficulty in giving explanations (80%).

Forms of Parent Involvement in Education at Home
Parent's Involvement in general is realized with the help of parents through the provision of funds (material) and certain matters relating to the education of their children (Hornby, 2011). There are some studies that also conclude that parent's involvement in children's education is more important in certain activities for example when attending children's activities at school in various activities, picking up children, and meeting administration and school fees (Mendez, 2010;Risti, 2013;Amini, 2015). However, basically the form of parent's involvement is actually more complex and difficult than what most parents have done so far. An educational institution that understands about the importance of parent's involvement in child education in schools, will endeavor to prepare alternative types of parent's involvement activities that are appropriate to the needs and can be applied by parents (Epstein et al., 2002).
Various types of parental involvement are also included in the "Overlapping Sphere of Influence theory which describes various forms of parental involvement in detail into six types of involvement, namely parenting education, communication, volunteering (voluntary, learning at home, making decisions and working together with the community, this research only collects information from four out of five forms of parental involvement, given the possibility that it might be impossible during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Parenting Education
Parenting education is a form of parent's involvement when conducting educational activities for parents who have the aim to build the perception of parents in realizing education at home that is able to encourage children to become diligent students, obtain all information about children's health, comfort and safety, nutrition, and everything related to child development (Eipstein et al, 2002). Parents are required to be able to be the main learning agents in a child's life during the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, there needs to be a synergy of understanding the same concepts in children when in the family environment so as not to cause confusion to the children themselves. An alternative to overcome these problems is through positive parenting from both parents in conducting education at home. The practice of home education is not just confining children in the house, providing private teachers with very expensive costs or learning models in the style of artists who are lazy to go to school with the demands of filming stipping (Desiningrum, 2016). Home education is far more complex than the minds of the community so far. Home education for PAUD children prioritizes their parents in implementing the parenting process (Frestikawati, 2014).
The role of mothers in education has been destined as the main character and plays an important role in the development of children's education. This is the rationale that the form of care from the mother is more important than other family members, but the father should still provide care. From the results of the data obtained, parents have worked together in childcare at home. Evidenced by the existence of 22 parents who work together between father and mother to be directly involved in children's activities while studying at home, while 18 parents still tend to assume that only mothers have the most dominant role in all processes of child education at home.
Similar findings which showed that mothers were significantly more involved in expressive function than fathers (Finley et al, 2008). This finding strengthens the structural distribution of parental involvement which supports that greater maternal involvement in giving, friendship, emotional development and other expressive tasks compared to being a father (Yeung, 2001).
Fathers are reportedly often involved in providing income and are significantly more involved than mothers. Similar findings have shown that fathers continue to be financial support for households and contribute to higher household incomes for families (Han, 2013).
The involvement of parents in home education has consequences that must be prepared by parents, one through a form of parental balance between father and mother (Powell, 2000). This is because during the Covid-19 pandemic, obligations for parents in the process of caring and basic education for children became dominant. If the situation is usually easier because it is assisted by formal school institutions, but this does not apply to parents when parents when the Covid-19 pandemic takes place.

Two-way Communication
This involvement in the form of communication is manifested through parent's involvement, which is conducting two-way communication, namely between school and home and vice versa. The main purpose of this two-way communication is that parents and teachers are expected to be able to work together in educating children in various situations. The success of various parent's involvement and the creation of a positive bond between teachers at school and parents at home, one of which is largely determined by the communication capacity that exists between the two.
There are seven effective communication methods in producing quality relationships between parents and teachers namely communication by telephone, written communication, communication through technology, visual communication tools, while home visits, parent meetings and parent and teacher conferences are not possible to do during the Covid-19 pandemic period (Henniger, 2013). From the results of the distribution of questionnaires obtained information that parents actively ask the teacher if there are tasks that are not clear, which is about 72.5%. While the rest tends to have no initiative to ask questions. Furthermore, two way communication also occurs in parents and children. Even though they act as parents, they do not always know what is expected by the child. Efforts that can be made to minimize these problems are through two-way communication between both parents and children. Two-way communication is one of the most important things because it is related to the ability to care for children (Steede, 2007). Communicators and communicators can play the same role, namely giving action and reacting. This communication can occur alternately. Parents and children can give and take one another in turn. This can happen if parents and children make a joint agreement about the various things that should be done. Through joint commitment can be used in forming the child's perception of what parents want or vice versa. If two-way communication is not established, the agreement made will not be realized so that the communication is not effective because it is only agreed upon and implemented by one of the parties.
The results from the field data found information that parents do two-way communication with children in education at home.

Figure 2. Parental care involvement
There are 53.8% of children who experience behavior changes at home to become more obedient children. And the remaining 46.2% did not experience changes in behavior. There is also a change in the child's communication style when studying at home with the guidance of his parents. Nearly some children (48.7%) experienced changes in communication style to be more polite and gentle, but there were 51.3% of children who did not experience changes.
Changes in children are influenced by various factors one of them through two-way communication by making rules together with the child. There are 85% of parents make rules while studying at home, only 15% of parents do not make rules together. So that their children are disorderly. Unlike parents who make rules together with children, there are 75% of children who are able to follow the rules in an orderly manner. However, almost 97.5% of parents reprimanded children for behaving improperly when doing activities at home. This means that parents have done two-way communication, but some of them do not know the strategy to educate children to be more orderly when at home.
Previous studies have determined that Parent-Child Communication (PCC) is a major factor in children's competence in communicating with others (Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2002). Early PCC greatly influenced the formation of children's social skills, future communication skills, egoconception (Gordon, 2000), quality of peer interactivity, and adaptation to school life (Paek & Kwon, 2004). Similar findings, Ritchie (1991) found that the level of openness and support of parents had a very positive influence on their children in communication skills.
Social Self Efficacy (SSE) is one's belief in one's ability to perform certain types of interpersonal behavior (for example, giving orders or following orders). Children who exhibit higher levels of SSE tend to have many friends, interact more frequently with their peers, get along with others, and have close relationships (Hermann & Betz 2006). Previous studies have shown that peaceful relations between parents and children produce higher levels of SSE among children and contribute to the development of many friendships (Rose-Krasnor, Rubin, Booth, & Coplan, 1996), whereas relationships hostile or opposing parents have harmful effects on the emotional development, SSE, and sociality of children (Elicker, & Sroufe, 1994). Previous studies also showed that SSE can function as a mediator between PCC and communication competence.

Learning at Home
Parents involvement in educating children at home is one of the activities of parents who guide their children to be able to learn from home independently based on the activities / assignments given by the school during the Learn from Home (LfH) time. Activities can be realized such as guiding children to complete homework, reading story books that are useful for children, and so on (Eipstein et al, 2002;Henniger, 2013).
Although many things have been prepared by parents to provide their best version of home education, there are still difficulties in teaching children at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. There are 47.5% of parents who find it difficult to do it. This means that almost half of parents encounter obstacles when doing education at home. Constraints that arise include the child's mood that is easy to change so that parents must adapt and follow the mood changes of children, it is difficult to divide time between work and accompany children, high desire to play children (playing with friends, toys, mobile phones), disorderly children, children feel bored quickly, have difficulty controlling children, and have too many tasks.
In this study it turns out that 70% of parents like to do education at home together with formal education at school, while the rest prefers children to learn with teachers at school. From the data in the field it is also obtained information that about 85% of children need the help of parents in completing their school work. Only around 17.5% of children are able to complete their work independently. There is not even a parent who does his child's work fully. This shows that parents do not emphasize that children must get the best grades, but rather in the form of responsibility of children for schoolwork. In addition there are 80% of parents who can work together in guiding children to complete their duties, only 20% of parents who only play a role in this task (mothers only). But in the provision of children's education at home obtained balanced data that is as much as 50% of fathers and mothers have the same role, while the rest is more dominated by the role of mothers only.
During education at home, parents also provide a variety of media needed by children in learning activities. From the survey results, many parents who facilitate children to study at home. Some of them are children's books, audio and video learning through YouTube, children's magazines, providing stationery and materials for making skills / crafts (folding paper, drawing books, board), letters and numbers poster, coloring books, educational toys, TV education (TVRI), and educational applications on mobile phones.
From the data obtained, the majority of parents who prepare learning media well while their children study at home. Children's participation in learning activities, the quality of parent-child interaction, and the availability of learning materials are the three main features of the learning environment at home that help support the development of children's education (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002). With the development of house literacy models (Senechal & LeFevre, 2002) and home numeracy models (Skwarchuck, Sowinski, & LeFevre, 2014), home learning environment measures have become more detailed and developed in relation to specific outcome measures (Manolitsis, Georgiou, & Tziraki, 2013). This new approach has increased our understanding of what is happening in the context of the home related to

Decision Making
Parent's involvement when making provisions while at home is like a manifestation of parents' sense of responsibility and concern for the child's learning process. Activities that can be carried out such as the adoption of a child's routine routine such as when he was still actively attending school. From the data obtained only a portion of parents (57.5%) did well. Other parents (42.5%) chose not to get children used to doing scheduled activities. Yet through habituation learning is very important in the beginning of the beginning of basic education for children, when at school or at home. Through good habituation, an important process occurs for the creation of a child's character, and it continues to influence the child until the adult child (Abdurrahman, 2004). There are only 8 out of 32 children who are accustomed to doing their usual routine. The majority of children need to be reminded by parents first when they have to do something. From the survey results, information is obtained that parents have a variety of strategies when educating children to make it easier to manage and obey parents. Some parents are familiar with the strategy of reward and punishment, but there are also some who only apply gifts. Other strategies used are through threats, understanding, and inviting discussion and bidding.
In this study, reward becomes one of the most dominant alternative handling of children used by parents in educating children. Reward in general can be assumed as a form of awarding to others for the success that has been done. In the field of education, reward is considered to be so meaningful (Purwanto, 2004). Reward as an educational tool is given to children when doing something good (Djamarah, 2008). Giving rewards to children can usually trigger them to want to follow instructions given by parents and become one of the motivational techniques that can be done in learning (Uno, 2007). Rewards are not only given in the form of goods. For early childhood rewards can be realized in the form of praise (words, cues / signs, applause, etc.), and signs of appreciation (pins, medals, certificates, etc.), prayers, and rewards. In its application, parents can choose the appropriate types of rewards.
Although rewards in this study are used as the preferred strategy for educating dominant children (40%), rewards also have weaknesses if done excessively. Generally rewards require media, certain devices and costs and others. An alternative choice that can be done is to apply reward together with punishment. Through the method of reward and punishment it is expected to form and strengthen positive behavior and make it a habit, as well as to minimize bad behavior over time can make it disappear from within the child. Reward and punishment are usually referred to as reinforcement. Reinforcement will occur if something (can be an object or speech) is given after a behavior is done, will increase the effectiveness of the frequency of occurrence of the behavior. Conversely, if reinforcement is not given, then the behavior will rarely be done. But in this study, only 15% of parents have applied.
Another way that parents do in the practice of education at home is by giving threats. There are 13% of parents choosing this method. Threats are considered as one of the easiest ways to get the fastest instant results. This precisely does not educate children to be more obedient and do their job, and will affect the child's confidence. This method should be avoided by parents. The next way is to give understanding to children. The choice of this method was chosen by 13% of parents, the same as the way to threat. Instilling understanding in children is considered to be able to correct children's mistakes and change them towards a better direction, besides that through giving understanding to children can form the mindset of children becoming more mature and also instill a sense of responsibility in themselves. But not many parents who apply this method.
The next way to educate children is through discussions and offers. Only 5% of parents choose this method. Discussion is one form of teaching methods that are closely related to the problem solving process (Muhibbin, 2000). How to deliver learning through discussions and offers between children and parents is when parents are able to provide opportunities for children to have an opinion on their wishes. This process must involve parents and children so they can interact and exchange opinions so as to produce mutual commitment. Although not many people apply it, but this method needs to be tried by parents. Through discussion and offer methods, parents can train children to foster understanding of concepts and learn skills to solve problems with their own thoughts. This can be done to make the child's development for the better.
Parents should implement strategies to carry out education at home to children not just in one way. Parents can apply other methods together, with the consideration that according to the child's character and is considered to be able to help the child's process of learning more optimally.

The Role of Parents as Educators while at Home
Based on the results of research conducted on the involvement of parents in education in early childhood homes during the Covid-19 pandemic, a general picture is obtained about the role of parents in the implementation of education at home. First, parents must be able to become role models for children in their daily lives so parents must have good competence when guiding and directing aspects of child development. For example, parents must give examples of good, right, patient, honest, and not afraid in facing problems and so on. In addition, parents should continue to direct the child to do things that become a child's habit at school such as eating and drinking preceded by prayer, saying help and thanks, asking permission when borrowing goods that are not hers, waiting in line, tidying their own belongings etc. Based on the results of a survey conducted, giving an example by parents of children is done quite well, namely by implementing daily routine habits like before the existence of a pandemic. But not all parents do it.
Second, parents are the main facilitators for children. Regarding the role as a facilitator is not limited to only providing material needs including clothing, food, and shelter to children, but children's educational needs are also facilities that must be met by parents. From the results of this study obtained information that parents are very concerned about the educational needs of children. Many parents take the initiative to find activity material from video and audio learning on YouTube, there are even parents who provide a variety of materials to create creativity. With the support of parents through the provision of adequate facilities can provide motivation for children to study harder.
Third, parents are important motivators for children. Motivation in the progress of the education sector is one form of strength for every child in developing a will when carrying out an activity. As much as possible parents are expected to be able to provide positive encouragement to children to do good routinely, including in learning activities, daily life, and studying knowledge. The form of motivation that is given positively by parents to children during the Covid-19 pandemic is to provide reward and punishment, praise, instill understanding to children, and discussions and offers. While the negative things done by parents in motivating children is to provide threats. As much as possible the negative behavior of parents in educating children should be avoided.

 CONCLUSION
The results showed that parents were actively involved in the implementation of child education at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. The form of parental involvement between children attending private kindergarten, public kindergarten, or international kindergarten did not show different forms of involvement. Even between working mothers and housewife also have the same readiness in educating children in learning education at home. The practice of home education education certainly faces various obstacles and challenges. These obstacles can arise as a form of concern if the education provided by parents has not covered and facilitated all children's learning needs, as well as forms of care for children with special needs (special education need disability) that are difficult to control when learning. To be more effective, fathers should also play a balanced role in conducting education at home. Through the involvement of fathers in education and childcare will avoid fatigue and burnout from mothering. In addition, it would be better if the parents had a specific strategy in increasing the child's motivation to carry out education at home during the Covid-19 pandemic and adapted to the child's character.