I can’t believe I just wrote that as the title of a blog post.
Maybe you can’t either.
Surprisingly, it’s true. In the midst of this incredibly hard time of pandemic, politics, renewed calls for social justice, and wildfires — the job of helping three kids attend full-time school online falls squarely on my lap. While trying to maintain my own job. However, I have found a few unexpected benefits. And honestly, I wasn’t even looking for them. They just emerged during the day-to-day struggle of trying to keep us all afloat.
I’ve been party to many conversations bemoaning the difficulties of online learning. And they are all 100% valid. This stuff is hard. However, today I’m sharing a different type of conversation; I’m reveling in the small victories where I have found them.
5 PERKS OF DISTANCE LEARNING RIGHT NOW
1 // No commute = more time for sleeping and working out.
I may be stating the obvious here, and even though I sort of miss the rush of getting out the door by 7:30 each morning, the extra time has led to some good habits! Namely, more time to sleep and work out, two things I love. Even though the days feel harder, sometimes I feel like I have more hours in the day, which is a major bonus.
2 // Closer relationship with my kids.
When I’ve talked to homeschool moms in the past, this is is often the number one reason why they say they do it. And now I totally get it. Regular, brick and mortar school is wonderful and I love the feeling of picking up my kids and getting all the hugs after being separate from them for 6-7 hours. However, there is something precious about sharing the day with them. Getting cuddles from my 6-year-old while we read, making jokes while we do flashcards, the whole family eating lunch together. (On Thursdays we do ‘hot lunch’, freezer pizza from Costco!) In some ways, I feel like I am getting to know them even better.
And lest you think we have it all together, there are plenty of tears, moments of frustration and anger during our days too.
3 // More investment in my kids’ education.
My parent-educator style has always been a ‘leave it to the teachers’ approach, in other words, I am pretty hands-off unless one of them needs help. I have volunteered in their classrooms over the years, but that has tapered off quite a bit because my younger two kids are in a dual language program and my Spanish is not up to snuff.
Now that they are home and working (literally) all around me, I have a more up-close view of what they are doing. Particularly with my first-grader. I get to hear his Spanish all day and walk him through his asynchronous assignments. For me, more exposure = more interest = more investment.
4 // Getting to know new teachers is a lot easier.
My oldest started middle school this year. That means an entirely new school with new teachers, staff and administration. In the first few weeks of our online learning she didn’t have headphones and I was privy to allll of her classes, and I loved it. Hearing how her block teacher connects to all the kids (and talks to them like the big kids they are, something we parents can be slow to realize), how her science teacher makes dad jokes, and how her young health teacher relates to them about the importance of their online footprint gave me insights I would have never gotten if she were off at school. It’s essentially allowed me to be a fly on the wall in middle school (in some aspects), and it has been really enlightening. I’m so thankful for this.
5 // Overall slowed down pace of life, no rat race.
This is probably my favorite benefit of distance learning and quarantine life in general. We have slowed way down. And I didn’t even think we lived that ‘fast’ before. But this slower version of life means less hurry at breakfast. No long lines of traffic. Lingering lunches. Dinner (potentially) at an earlier hour, more evening time. In general, there is less rushing from task to task throughout the day.
Whenever life – and school – open back up again, I will happily embrace it all. BUT I’ll be mindful of what I’m learning this time, and be extra thoughtful about how I want to rebuild our days.
I’m feeling some of these things, too, as a grad student learning on Zoom. At first, it was really difficult for me to relinquish all of the socialization I had access to on a physical campus, but now I’m settling into long breakfasts, making my own lunch, exercising at home between classes, and socially distanced picnics on the weekends. I have also found that people seem to be cherishing social opportunities more, and we’ve become less shy in our affection.
As a teacher, it is so delightful to hear a positive parent perspective!
Thank you for this! It’s important to recognize how hard it can be, but also the ok and even positive parts