And just like that, everyone is a homeschooler – except you’re not. Really, you’re not homeschooling. You’ve been forced to stay home and provide your children with an education based on state curriculum and another teacher’s schedule. This is on so many levels NOT HOMESCHOOLING!
However, the topsy-turvy chaos that everyone’s home has turned into now that kids are home does look remarkably like our normal. Of course, most of us are normally out and about A LOT, so that has changed, but it isn’t traumatizing. We have our curriculum already in place. We have rules and structure for what “school” is going to look like. They’re killing their free time in different ways, but the weather has been beautiful, so walks and bike rides have been abundant.
Let’s discuss my day!
We usually do our primary instruction with a few other kids, so now, we’re going to start doing it virturally. Zoom is perfectly simple to use, and given my known aversion to technology, that is helpful. There will be four of them – my two girls and two others. We’ll be continuing our anatomy (Sassafras Science Adventures: Anatomy by Elemental Science), writing (Write Shop), and spelling (Logic of English). The kids can chat, I can give my monologues, and maybe when I get good, they’ll still be able to play games that way – we play a lot of games!
I expect that we’ll be doing roughly an hour of virtual school each day, along with homework that would have normally been done as a group. It’s too bad they can’t play together, but we’ll be continuing to allow bike rides with friends, so long as the kids don’t go near eachother and get off their bikes. They’ve been begging to go to our neighborhood playground, and I hate that we can’t!
So, how does the quarantine imapct homeschoolers versus traditional schoolers, now that we’re all in the same boat?
I think the social trauma of this whole thing hits all of us the same (except high schoolers, I feel terrible for the graduating seniors, but I digress…). Where we are less impacted, is how school itself plays out. We aren’t off our schedule, and that is HUGE! Kids are so incredibly sensitive when it comes to routines and that is the thing that just hasn’t changed that much in our home. They do miss the social interactions, of course, but mornings are the same, teacher is the same, lessons are the same.
We are super fortunate to be in this position right now, and depending on how long this goes on, I really hope everyone is able to settle into a routine. I also expect a great deal of people will have a lot stronger feelings about what we homeschoolers are like – crazy, lucky, fun, crazy!
Just remember – this isn’t homeschooling! We didn’t get pushed into this by force and we aren’t locked in our homes alone most of the time. We also don’t have to use a curriculum that was forced on us by the school district. There are SO many options available for us to pick and choose from, tailor to our styles and our children’s needs, and modify based on interest and level (different ages working together is a thing of beauty). It just so happens, that this non-homeschooling thing we’re calling quarantine schooling is a lot less of an adjustment for homeschoolers, but IT’S STILL NOT HOMESCHOOLING!
