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School is officially out for summer

One Athabasca family talks about their learning experience during pandemic school closures
Homeschool 1 web
The Crosland kids (L-R) Logan (Gr.1), Abby (Gr. 3) and Zachary (Gr. 5) recreate what a day of school at home looked like for the last few months with mom Melanie as their teacher. Needless to say, the novelty wore off rather quickly and all three can’t wait to attend a physical school and see their friends and teachers in person next fall, hopefully. Chris Zwick/T&C

ATHABASCA - When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of schools in mid-March, a lot of students thought they were in for an extended summer vacation, but that was not the case, as they would soon find out, as the prospect of being taught by their parents set in and the amount of work that would be involved in finishing their school year in good standing became apparent.

Every at-home learning environment is different depending on a number of circumstances ranging from the number of school-aged children in a home, to parents’ work schedules, to access to technology, or even health and financial issues.

The Crosland kids, in Athabasca, reacted to the news they wouldn’t be going back to school this year, with a mixture of excitement and sadness.

Mom Melanie, the appointed teacher in the Crosland household, was tasked with making sure her three school-aged children — Zachary (Gr. 5), Abby (Gr. 3) and Logan (Gr. 1) — were keeping up with their school work, while at the same time caring for her youngest daughter Elly, who is not yet in school.

“They were excited about the thought of no more school until fall, until I told them it would all be done online for the rest of the school year,” recalled Melanie.

“They enjoyed it for about the first two weeks and then it wasn't as fun to them anymore … They really missed the interaction with their friends and teachers and they missed the school routine in the class.”

The schools and teachers were great at providing support for kids and parents, said Melanie, and Chromebooks were distributed to students to make it easier for everyone to be on the same page.

“The transition to online learning took a bit to get used to as Google Classroom was new to us as well as to the teachers. Once we got used to the system, it was exciting to be able to see fellow classmates and their teachers through the Google Meets videos,” said Melanie.

“My kids teacher, while on the video meets, would go through the assignments for the week and help explain to the kids, and myself, how to do the assignment, which made it easier for us.”

Some things just don’t work out the way they’re planned though and how much time to spend on homework and when to start lessons in the morning, depended on each student and their will to learn that particular day, and some days were better than others.

“I had a couple kids struggle with whether they had to do the homework or not, so consequently it was a long 12 weeks,” said Crosland, adding all they wanted to do was go outside and play or were wishing they could play with their friends.

It was a great success though as the kids will all be moving on to the next grade and Melanie just might be able to rest, just a little bit.

“I know teachers have a very special talent to teach a classroom of kids, and now I believe every parent will learn not to take them for granted as online schooling is a challenge and being "the new teacher" isn't easy,” she said.

 

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