I myself have been vocal about distance learning and how much I wasn’t a fan. It wasn’t the worst thing to happen, but not something we were equipped for. If I wanted to teach my kids from home I would homeschool. I understand that it was the only option with what was happening and the best we could do with the situation at hand.
Where we live distance learning is our only option for at least the first 6 weeks of school. People have been very vocal about it. How much they hate it. All the unknowns as to the kids schedules. Working on top of trying to distance teach. Like I said I have been one of them too. But last week I came to a realization – what we put out there about distance learning our kids are hearing. Kids are sponges absorbing everything around them. If we are frustrated and angry about distance learning and keep talking about how much we hate it, can we really expect our kids to be excited about it? Can we expect them to want to do the online work? Can we expect them to succeed with distance learning? We need to do better for them.
Yes the situation isn’t ideal for many, many families. Yes it does completely suck being 2 weeks away from school starting and not knowing schedules, etc. Yes it will be hard for some of us and easy for others. But it won’t last forever. It’s only temporary and then our kids will be back in school as usual and everything will be ‘normal’ again. We need to ensure that they start off the year strong with the best to our abilities. I know that will be hard for some of us because of working families, schedules, etc, but we have to try.
As parents we need to be enthusiastic about the upcoming year. We need to be excited about distance learning and the kids new schedules. We need to show our kids that this is just like any other school year and we are here to support them and help them however we can. We need to be doing better for our kids to ensure they know they will succeed at distance learning. We need to do better so they know distance learning is a good thing right now. We need our kids excited about distance learning so they do their best and they are excited because we as parents are excited.
I know it won’t be easy for many of us to change our thinking and be excited about something we hate so much, but we have to try. We need to set our kids up to like distance learning to ensure they do their best. It’s just another day at school for them. We need to get excited to excite them and be involved. We need to be setting a good example for them. Remember this isn’t easy on parents, but what about the kids? This isn’t easy on them either. They have been ripped from schools, friends, sports, etc. Their lives too have been turned upside down. We as parents can make that a littler better with enthusiasm for what’s to come.
Sassy Mamaroo 