I never thought I’d see the day that I would be at home teaching my own children! Even as a teacher myself, I thought it would be a hard gig. It is definitely easier to teach other people’s children than your own. Right now we find ourselves in this very unusual and unprecedented period, where we are navigating and adjusting to a new way of operating. During these times, we are suddenly thrown into a totally new set of circumstances that challenge us in many different ways. I never imagined I would be running a household, home schooling, working 2 jobs from home, battling illness (not Corona, thank goodness!) and caring for a husband in self isolation in a separate location post travel all at once! But this has been where I have found myself over the past few weeks.
The home schooling part has had its ups and downs. Some days I feel like we are having great success and other days I feel like we are only just keeping our heads above water. I have one child that is up, showered, breakfast done and waiting for his teacher to arrive at the dining table! (Some mornings I forget that I’m the teacher and I start working from my bedroom upstairs and then I remember and scurry down!). For the other child, I am the personal alarm clock and I sometimes forget this and we have an interesting start to the day to say the least! Anyway, after a bit of morning chaos, we start to find our groove all working alongside each other on our different projects. Then I start to reflect and relish this very rare opportunity and feel grateful that we all have the opportunity to work from home together. Some days are calm, others are chaos. Some days are productive and other days are full of interruptions and surprises. In our house we have tried to focus on tasks over the week, rather than each day. This has helped to allow us a bit of breathing space when needed on those days when family chores or activities need to come first.
I have noticed my younger child grow in independence and confidence as he has experienced being an adult in a workplace, having to make phone calls and initiate emails with adults to sort out any problems that have arisen. I have thoroughly enjoyed our Friday morning family excursions. We have had sports excursions to the beach for a swim, food technology excursions to our local café, business studies excursions to the shops to deliver supplies to dad who is unable to leave his unit. One of my favourites has been the I.T excursions to the grandparents driveways to assist them with video conferencing lessons in preparation for our family online house parties! I am sure when all this is behind us, although it has been very challenging, we will look back on some of these precious extraordinary moments with fond memories.
In challenging times like this,I have tried to stay positive and focus on the many things I am grateful for. I am grateful that my family of four are all healthy and Corona Virus free (at least for now). I am also grateful that my children have the opportunity to learn online from the best school on offer. I love that CCSC is progressive, contemporary, tech savvy and early adapters! I wouldn’t want my children anywhere else and times like these highlight how lucky my kids are to be CCSC students and I am to be a CCSC staff member! I am grateful to have friends and family that I love that I can lean on for support and give support in return. Let’s all support each other, show patience and kindness and give ourselves permission to succeed and fail. I am going to ask myself each day “What am I grateful for and what fond memories have I made today?” This will not last forever and I’m trying to embrace the new short lived ‘normal’. I’m sure this current COVID-19 situation will make us all realise that we are stronger, more robust, more capable and more adaptable than we thought!
Stay healthy and safe everyone!
From Peta (The far from perfect teacher, home-schooling, working mum!)
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