While the unending thank-yous being given to frontline workers have no doubt been earned, there’s another group of humans who deserve some recognition as the global pandemic continues to play out.
The last day my own kids attended a regular classroom was on March 13. Had they known it would be their last day of class for quite possibly the rest of the school year, I think they would have approached that day differently.
But, a month later, I feel as though we’ve settled into our own personal routine fairly well. Over the last two weeks I’ve heard many frustrations expressed by parents who are struggling with “homeschooling.” Honestly, I don’t believe “homeschooling” is the proper term to use.
I’ve known parents who homeschool their children, by choice. They don’t have Google Classrooms filled with assignments, or teachers who continue to sit in their physical classrooms, working hard to ensure there’s a new week worth of material available for students to complete every Monday.
I think what we are doing is schooling from home, and that’s a very different thing. We’ve also all been thrown into the situation with little warning, which again, is much different than a family who takes their time to decide and research if homeschooling is right for them.
Sure, we have a unique set of challenges in front of us, but we also have a lot of support. Maybe my kids just happen to have a set of amazing teachers. But despite the expected stresses involved in realizing they weren’t going back to school, and a few days that involved a bit more convincing to get work done, I’m giving my kids more than just a passing grade for how they’ve handled this situation.
We all have different parenting styles, there’s no doubt about that. As a parent who now finds herself also working from home, I can’t sit with my kids as they do their work. Thankfully, I have an amazing husband who is normally a substitute Educational Assistant, and therefore is home to lead our kids. It truly is the best-case scenario.
So, while my husband often sits with our elementary aged son to get his school work done, our junior high aged son gets to take the lead on his own education – a skill that will no doubt help him as he gets older. I don’t feel as though I have to homeschool him. He gets to take advantage of a unique situation, learn to juggle his time efficiently, so he can be sure to have enough time to log into Fortnite after he’s done his school work.
I enjoy checking up on my oldest son through Google Classroom, where I can see that he has in fact turned in his assignments, and I can email his teachers if I think he needs a little more guidance.
My youngest son is loving the fact that he can work at his own pace, get ahead in the subjects he loves, and spend even more time with his dad. While we may not be asking our kids how their day went at school during dinnertime, we’ve found other things to talk about, and I feel like we are making the best of this crazy situation.
