Our Life in Lockdown

For me as a homemaker mom, I was presented with a wonderful opportunity to experience some sort of homeschooling. I was always drawn to homeschooling, or even unschooling, and was seriously considering it for my second daughter Emily’s education. However, I knew it would be difficult to fulfil the social aspect of her needs and, once she met her best friend in Primary, I had no chance to persuade her to stay home with me. But now I can experience homeschooling without having to do any of the hard work, because all the preparation is done by her wonderful teachers. Isn’t it great?

So, we started our “homeschooling” adventure last March during the first lockdown and I was very excited. Of course, there was a period of adjustment, but once we established a new routine, which is very important to Emily, I can say we all enjoyed being at home together.

Getting up later, actually following our biological clocks, not having to rush breakfast, saving time spent on travelling, enjoying more flexibility and generally slowing down have been big pluses.

When Emily was tired after looking at a screen for longer periods of time during the online lessons, we quickly learned that she needed to go outside, run around in the garden, and connect with nature.  We even purchased a trampoline and I could see on her face that, after only a few minutes outside, she would completely change her mood. She herself had the opportunity to learn what she needs to do when she feels down, and will remember this for the rest of her life. Would she have this flexibility if she was at school, or the awareness of herself and her needs?

Emily has also said that she enjoys the flexibility in the amount of time she has to finish her work. There’s no stress and she can always ask for my help, although I am finding that she needs this less and less. She is getting more independent and facing less distractions and therefore getting through more work.

Another positive thing that distance learning has given our kids is computer literacy. They have always been much faster at grasping new technologies than we are and online learning has accelerated their progress. They had to quickly learn about emails, creating documents in Google applications, Zoom and the wonder tool Seesaw, which has been tremendously helpful to Emily and myself in organizing her work. Emily is now completely comfortable with all of this.

And what about food waste? I don’t know how much food is thrown out from the school lunchroom, but we have been able to completely eliminate food waste at home as I only cook what we like and we always use up any leftovers.

by Iveta Wells, an Upper Elementary parent