Like most people on the planet, my daily world has been thrown upside down by a microscopic virus that is wreaking havoc on unsuspecting people around the world. Because of this virus, my school is now shut down for two weeks and my children and I are practicing social distancing from our friends and extended family. This is something we are happy to do… and in fact, we encourage everyone else to do the same.
With no school, no hockey, and no figure skating for at least two weeks, I find myself with a considerable amount of free time on my hands and trust me, I am thankful for every second of it. I have been using this time to do a lot of cooking and stockpiling my freezer for when our pace of life returns to super busy. I have been reading a lot too, and not just social media posts about homeschooling, remote schooling, or COVID-19 measures, but actual BOOKS! I have been cleaning my home and getting caught up on the never ending piles of laundry that seem to accumulate like magic! I have also been spending time hanging out with my two youngest and my floofy dog – while at the same time, wishing my eldest, who is a flight attendant, was here with us and not obligated to work on the frontline of catching this nasty virus on the daily.
Social media has been on fire this past week. With all the news reports and day-by-day developments, teachers from all over have been sharing websites offering free resources and subscriptions to online learning platforms. People are sharing daily homeschooling timetables and offering advice on how to keep students occupied during this weird time in our history.
Which brings me to the one thing I am NOT doing during this two week isolation period. I am NOT homeschooling my children. I am NOT making a daily schedule for them to follow for the next two weeks. Shocking, right? After all, I am a teacher and I should be worried about their academic progress during this time, right? WRONG!
In my home, apart from regular homework that I ensure gets completed, I do not teach academics to my children. I am their mother, not their school teacher. I focus on social emotional learning at home, about manners, about life skills such as how to operate the laundry machines, how to work the vacuum cleaner, and how to prepare meals. My children are folding laundry, making their beds, and disinfecting door knobs, tables, and countertops. They are reading books and magazines. And they are doing all of these things, and more, while laughing, dancing, singing, and talking with me. I am preparing them for life away from my husband and I. As I often say, my children are adults in training and I firmly believe that they get this type of training at home.
My entire school year was mapped out way back in September so I know exactly where my students and I are headed and where they need to be by the end of the year. Once we are allowed to go back to school, my students and I will just pick up where we left off. Just like myself, I am confident that my children’s teachers will adapt their lessons and will get the most important content covered in order to prepare my loves for the next academic year. I leave that to them because when it comes to my children’s academic plan, their teachers are the ones who know them best – and they are the ones who ultimately hold the map to their learning journey this year.
So, instead of focusing on academics during this COVID-19 isolation period, I challenge you to spend these two weeks enjoying the “perks” of self-isolation. I am enjoying living in my pyjamas, drinking hot coffee, and watching movies with my children while cuddling on the couch. I enjoy preparing homemade meals and being able to sit around the dinner table as a family each night and, it makes me smile when I see my children do something creative or sporty because they want to — not because they are forced to do it. And all the puppy love… it’s truly a wonderful sight to behold. It’s the little things like those examples that bring a silver lining to this worrisome time.
Please stay home if you have been ordered to do so. Please take all necessary precautions to protect yourself, your loved ones, and most importantly, those who are elderly or who have compromised immune systems. As a citizen of the world, we all have a part to play in order to bring this virus under control.
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