Homeschooling during Coronavirus

When I first heard the news that schools would be closed for the whole year, I thought of fun activities we could finally do as a family; board games, hikes, picnics, art projects, and gardening. Then, reality hit: I have three teenagers. They don’t want to spend all their time with me. They would rather play video games and hang out watching movies than go on picnics. 

Within the first couple days, several realities and necessities became apparent. First, we needed a loose schedule.  Next, I knew that my kids would not be doing schoolwork all day. My goal was to do reading and math consistently with social studies and science as the “project time.”  We also needed to keep the chores going, as there was plenty of time and lots of dirty dishes and clothes that needed cleaning and tidying. Finally, I decided to recognize it was not going to be perfect and that each day would have it’s own challenges and accomplishments. 

In general, we start our day for school around 9 a.m. We work for two hours on math (I was a math teacher so I could go the whole day.)  We break for basketball, football, or catching the baseball for a good hour. We do some reading until 1 p.m. We break for lunch and take the dog for a walk. The boys play soccer or basketball or video games, then we reconvene for some social studies or science project until about 4 p.m.  Next is chore time and we make supper around 5 p.m. My husband will play basketball or HORSE for about an hour while I walk the dog. We cap the night off with the nightly news and an episode of Jack Ryan or some other series.

I was stressing out about how we needed to accomplish all the school work, do exercise, and cook nutritious meals. Eventually, my husband Aaron said, “Our goal is to be okay parents during this crisis.”

Even as I write this, I know that tomorrow may be something different. But I know for sure we all need to give ourselves a break. Just try to be an okay parent right now; no one needs to excel, but if you can you should!

Here are some resources that I have found helpful for the kids. Kahn Academy is full of tutorials, games and online quizzes covering a wide array of topics from math to social studies. IXL is another online site with quizzes and games to review subjects. We also started playing online games on Kahoot! Albemarle County schools have also provided some online resources. The virtual tours of museums have been fun and reading from Scholastic has also provided some great articles to read. We do the occasional board game and card game. 

The resources for my kids are important, but I noticed that I need support too. I have been enjoying free yoga and zumba classes on YouTube. While walking our dog (sometimes 3 times a day), I am listening to many musicals and Ted X Talks that I always meant to listen to. I dug out some old photos and put them in photo albums. Found some recipes that I have been meaning to try and now I have plenty of time to watch bread dough rise. 

I know what a privilege it is to be home with my kids. This can also be a very isolating time for folks. I have been calling folks from my church and our synagogue just to say hello and see if they need anything. Make sure that you stay connected with people as much as possible. There are also groups in our area helping our neighbors. If you can, support these organizations; every little bit helps. If you need help, there are resources. 

Let’s get through this tough time as healthy and unstressed as we can! We can do it!