Home Schooling

When this crisis is over and we are allowed to have human contact again... hug every teacher you know.  They are patient, wonderful, wise humans with a gift for communicating to and educating others.  I love my kids, but I do not love my new role of "teacher" during this pandemic.  The schools have equipped us with so many tools (perhaps a bit too many if I'm being honest, it's very overwhelming to be sent multiple e-mails per kid each day with links to videos, websites, assignments, class meeting times, online interactive class games, e-books, virtual field trips...) and it has been a lot to juggle working full time from home while keeping them on task as well.  I'm very thankful that they're only elementary age, I can't imagine the amount of work older students are dealing with from home.

Kate sees her classmates

Motivating my students is my biggest challenge, they do not seem to associate our home with a strict school setting.  They also don't seem to view me as Mrs. Wheeler, Teacher Extraordinaire- instead they're often showing up to my class in pajamas and rudely shouting out in frustration when they don't understand or want to do an assignment.  One particularly ornery young pupil has been known to run away from me and hide in other rooms of our "schoolhouse" to avoid work.

We received their third quarter report cards via e-mail this week, and both kids are performing well above grade level so I'm cutting myself some slack as their primary educator for this season instead of getting overwhelmed by all the activities constantly coming at us from well meaning teachers who are trying to keep their classes from falling too far behind.  We're learning a lot of life lessons during this quarantine and some of them are that there's more to childhood than worksheets full of math problems and another one is that I was not meant to be a teacher to my own kids.  If you can read this, thank a teacher, they are true heroes in my book!