A Day in The Life of An Overly Optimistic Homeschool Parent

The last 45783975 days have been full of ups and downs. First, the disbelief that this is actually happening. Then, the manic search for information, stats, and a timeline for when I will be able to go back to my regular life. Next, onto the acceptance that I will not have an exact date of when I will be allowed to do my normal things again. Finally, the deep pondering and assessment of what I’m doing with my life.

Yesterday was our first day of NTI which stands for something like “parents teaching their kids how to learn online while there is a pandemic going on.” I was eager to help this kids log on to my computer so that they could begin clicking links and be taught via the internet. I was excited to have a bit of schedule and routine back in our lives and I assumed that I would be able to do my normal work while they were being highly engaged by the wizardry of the web.

Instead, we were faced with a choice board. Actually, two sets of choice boards, one for each student. The children were to pick from the choices. While there were a few (very quick) links most of the things required help from me. For example, my daughter who is in kindergarten can’t read so I needed to, at the very least, read her the choices and then explain the instructions.

Pretty quickly I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to put the kids on a computer for three hours a day and then walk away to take work calls or reorganize the pantry. This learning was actually going to require me to help them along. The problem was, I didn’t really understand some of the things on the choice board. For example, my son was to gather rocks, then put them into categories of similarities. Then, he was to make a “graph.”

Hmmm, what kind of graph exactly? One with the differences? Aren’t there many different types of graphs? I found myself googling “is a graph as same as pie chart” hoping that I would see an example graph perhaps or a video showing me kids making graphs.

Next, my daughter is screaming at me “What now mom?” “What do I do next?” Somehow the choice that she chose lasted less than 4 seconds to complete and now she needed to move forward. Her next choice was to listen to a story and write out some facts. That’s great except she can’t really read or write so I found myself sitting next to her spelling out words

“T” I stated.

“What? T or B?” she asked

“T” I said flatly.

“I thought tree started with a Ch.” she said.

“T” I repeated

“Two T’s?” she asked.

“No, just T.” I said frustrated as she wrote down “B.”

This went on for a while.

Next, my son decided that he doesn’t really like any of the other choices on the board. I told him that was fine and that he could just go and read instead. This highly offended him and he started crying. Like bawling hard, as though I had just asked him to write a 10,000-word essay on coronavirus. We settled on five minutes of reading.

So about 20 minutes into our scheduled 3 hours of learning my daughter had listened to a story and written three words down on her paper (one of which wasn’t actually a word since she spelled tree “bree.”) My son had read for 5 minutes, gathered rocks for a graph that we will someday make, and had a meltdown that lasted the majority of our allocated school time (while his sister did cartwheels).

We decided that had been a good enough effort for us and moved onto to our regular scheduling which involved some internet-based learning on ABC mouse and a math program that everyone likes. We sang karaoke, colored pictures, and played checkers. I also happened to do a little scrolling on Facebook and found that other families were actually nailing this thing. There was lots of learning going on and kids were even smiling. I decided not to feel worthless.

I’m satisfied, the kids are satisfied, and I will figure out a way to make it so that their school requirements will also be satisfied. I’m not sure how I will do this exactly but I am up for the challenge and I will do my best. We are all learning right now and although it looks and feels different I do know a thing or two about how change can transform if you just lean in.

I’m eager for tomorrow’s lesson and I think I will try to channel my inner child who loved playing school with her dolls. I will make it fun and when I sense the rise in frustration in any of us we will pivot (a word that both annoys the shit out of me but is also necessary for life right now).

I’m sending out so much love to teachers, educators, administration, and all other school staff that teach our children. You are an amazing group of people!