What I discovered after a month of remote working, with home-based learning for the kids during the Covid-19 Circuit Breaker lockdown.
Your spouse is engaged in an office conference call in another room. Your first grader is trying to figure out why he can’t see his other friends in a class video call and wails out to you, while your toddler has bumped into a tower of bricks and is screaming for your attention. You’ve also just realised you’re out of bread and milk for breakfast. All this while it’s still the first half of the day when you’re likely to have a lot of important incoming messages and email from work, one of which could be your boss asking for an update. What do you do first?
1. MORE PRECIOUS MOMENTS TO CHERISH
It is a rare occasion that both can share the same toy.
My wife and I work long hours and often (pre-Covid-19), we only return home after the kids are asleep or just in time to catch them before bedtime. This means little bonding time on weekdays, while weekends are punctuated with extracurricular classes. Now that we’re with them every part of the day, there’s far more bonding time, experiencing their learning journeys and just being there for them.
I can’t count how many new words I’m hearing from my toddler who’s trying to get out of the baby talk phase. Not to mention, capture many interesting moments of joy and achievements by both my kids – be it at play or home-based learning (HBL). Of course, it’s not all rosy since not five minutes go by without me or my wife needing to check up on them or intervene in the never-ending list of sibling wars.
2. GETTING CREATIVE
A simple act of rearranging their play area can make it a whole new experience for kids.
3. BEING MORE PATIENT?
I can’t imagine if we’ve all gone crazy or actually getting conditioned to accept the craziness. I know I get agitated when I’m bothered with tech matters around the house like why doesn’t the printer work, paper jams, what’s wrong with the internet, and more. Now, I’m pretty much a technician all the time, no thanks in part to HBL and WFH which now spring their own set of queries like how to submit work, why is there no audio, how to get into that virtual meeting, etc… Perhaps the more you face an issue, the more you come to terms with it
I’m also short-tempered when my kids don’t listen to instructions or keep repeating mistakes. Now that I’m home, there’s no shortage of these situations all through the day. What I’ve observed is that I’ve grown more tolerant of their antics and try to convey my dismay more calmly instead of snapping back. I’m not exactly sure of the measure of success, but I think I’m trying.
"NOW THAT WE'ER WITH THEM EVERY PART OF THE DAY, THERE’S FAR MORE BONDING TIME, EXPERIENCING THEIR LEARNING JOURNEYS AND JUST BEING THERE FOR THEM."
4. GETTING TO KNOW THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM AND HOW TO TEACH MY KIDS
Home-based learning in session.
Schools do their best to equip kids with a multi-faceted education, which includes necessary life and social skills, amongst others. While I truly appreciate that homework for both my kids is generally kept to a minimum and completed within school time as much as possible, it’s hard to gather what they are actually learning and how are they exposed to certain concepts so that we can better educate and guide our kids when needed.
For example, when a math question is 8 + 4, but you’re asked to do it by grouping numbers to form a 10, it seems a bit long-winded. This requires you to borrow from number four to pump up number eight, so that one can rewrite the equation to 10 + 2. The reason for this method is to build up a child’s mental resilience to how numbers work and be more nimble. However many kids, like mine, who are just going through the motion to get worksheets done would jump straight to counting and fill in the answer. That’s where I swooped in to put the brakes and point out what’s being asked of the question. Getting the sum right isn’t my objective, but to read, think and understand are more essential basics that he shouldn’t ignore.
"HOWEVER MANY KIDS, LIKE MINE, WHO ARE JUST GOING THROUGH THE MOTION TO GET WORKSHEETS DONE WOULD JUMP STRAIGHT TO COUNTING AND FILL IN THE ANSWER. THAT’S WHERE I SWOOPED IN TO PUT THE BRAKES AND POINT OUT WHAT’S BEING ASKED OF THE QUESTION."
5. SPEEDING UP THE LEARNING CURVE TO WORK WITH COMPUTERS
Kids are exposed to the world of games and entertainment through the UI simplicity of phones and tablets from as young as one-year-old. Computers (or in my daughter’s parlance, “Puter”), are however far different creatures.
You’ve to get them to learn the ways of the mouse and keyboard. And I haven’t yet talked about software. While computers are a necessary part of our lives, HBL has forced kids to adopt all the baggage related to computers at a much younger age.
Someone’s now a Microsoft Paint pro and is ready to oblige my little dictator.
Now, my toddler is happy to pretend typing on the keyboard, moves the mouse to click around and demands us to draw stuff in Microsoft Paint, and my son is now quite adept at handling both Paint and Paint 3D to entertain her and himself.
PICTURES VIJAY ANAND
