I always try to enter e-learning with a positive attitude. After the first week of navigating a massive work deadline while facilitating Year 2 e-learning, a huge hole in the plan was evident: what would we do with our ECE kid?
We knew from last year that our youngest does not like to participate in an online classroom if he’s used to being inside it offline. It isn’t about the attention span on a computer. He just does not like to see his classroom through a screen. With all the emotion of last year, it brought him to tears to see the beloved teachers he didn’t get to say goodbye to. This year, it moved into indifference, even though he adores his teachers and ayis in ECE.
The other problem is that since I need to be in the same room as my Year 2 kid to be his cheerleader and snack provider, and we have a small apartment, I spent most of the first week shushing my youngest. It just killed me. He can finally express himself in complex ways and loves to sing his songs, and here I was yucking his yum.
Our school offers e-learning but at a cost that can be credited against tuition paid, and we tried it one week without the e-learning option and one week with it. It was very helpful to have craft supplies delivered to us and activities in our inbox every day, but it didn’t work as well as last year, mostly because he wants more now. Younger classrooms just don’t translate as well as older ones (who still have their challenges), and I soon learned that most ECE programs were just going on hiatus. Even if it was offered, most parents I knew didn’t try. So what are our choices?
Teach Your Own Homeschool
Beijing Mom Vivienne Rush told Jingkids that her school wasn’t going to do online learning, but instead implement two read-aloud classes in both English and Mandarin, plus they’d send home a crafts kit. “In lieu of that,” Rush said, ” I started my own homeschooling for a trio of kiddos around Nalo’s age (5)…We do yoga, music and art, read and do science experiments.”
This is one huge benefit we have over last year, at least. We can have friends over and take some of the burden off parents with more than one kid in e-learning.
Involve Your Children in Your Work
Kim Clifford, an ECC teacher herself, found a way to keep her son entertained while keeping her students more engaged – by not trying to separate the two. Clifford told us she “made lots of videos with my son (4) at the time and that made it easier for the kids to watch and then do the activities. My son got so used to saying “Hi ECC 2″ that he just kept doing it in home videos. Now he’s doing videos for YouTube: Adventures with Lachlan.” They’ve kept up his videos as part of his ongoing learning, and recent ones include his Covid test and their ski trip.
I know last year we loved the PE videos that included our teacher’s daughter. Kids just love following other kids’ directions. It makes them laugh and listen more. But for parents who are also teachers of older grades, there isn’t much they can do, and sometimes classes are interrupted for potty breaks or their younger child makes a cameo appearance.
So What If You Can’t?
I am very lucky in my situation with True Run Media, as they understand the needs of a family, especially in Covid related situations. If last year taught us anything, it’s that more workplaces need to have open and empathetic conversations about what really matters — seeing people at their desks 9-5 or not making people choose between their career or their job. But that still means that some times of day your attention needs to be on your younger child — either on an art project or reading to them or being the dragon to their brave knights.
When e-learning works in our house, I am next to our youngest doing his own Mathletics or Khan Academy subjects while his brother is in a class. When it doesn’t, well…..I integrate English and Math concepts into building with LEGO bricks. In between, I can handle small work tasks. I sneak down to the cafe when our ayi comes and stay up as late as needed to stay on track. No matter what, they watch a little more TV than normal, and then it’s a matter of curating the programming so it’s either a learning show (which thankfully they love) or just some good old fun cartoons.
And if parents aren’t lucky enough to have the option to work from home, it’s up to ayi. A lot depends on whether they can speak the language of instruction, though, and in my case, there are just days when I have to release the household from the expectation of afternoon e-learning in lieu of time to work. Many friends with younger kids took their experience from last year and just decided to shrug off the idea that any e-learning would happen for ECE, with the grateful understanding that we are only in this for a short time this year.
What’s your experience? Has your school cracked the code of Early Childhood Education online? Let us know in the comments.
KEEP READING: How to Talk to Your Boss About Working From Home With Kids
Images: Canva, Kim Clifford, Vivienne Rush
