How Difficult is it Homeschooling a 4-year old during Quarantine?

As online school comes to a close for us, I’m certain that the majority of us certainly aren’t sad to see continuous learning go, students and teachers alike. It’s stressful, and simply just not as engaging as it would be if we all got to see each other in person; however, upon having a conversation with my aunt and uncle, I realized it could be ten times worse.

Due to the recent coronavirus pandemic, kids are obviously not able to attend school. For high schoolers and most middle schoolers, this simply means logging online, attending classes, and completing assignments themselves; however, smaller children in elementary school don’t really have that luxury. Since they aren’t as responsible or as academically developed as older kids, this means that they can’t take as much control of their learning as those that are in grades above them. This means bad news for their parents, as this means that they are now required to practically homeschool their kids themselves, as the teachers are not there to guide them.

My aunt and uncle have a 4 year-old son, Trey, that they have to homeschool, and on top of that, they have a 6-month old son, Amir,  who obviously requires a lot of attention, and needs to be actively taken care of. Both are lawyers, and despite this whole quarantine situation, they still have to work a good 5-6 hours a day from home. So, when you add it all together, this means that they have to work a full-time job, homeschool and care for a 4 year-old, and care for a 6-month old all in one day. Typically, you only hear the kids voice their struggles with virtual learning, but you never really hear from the perspective of parents who now have to deal with the responsibility of homeschooling their kids. So, in an attempt to educate not only others, but myself as well, I decided to interview them to get their perspective on how difficult things have been for them since they were forced into quarantine.

What is a day like for you during quarantine? What is your routine?

We use a block schedule, and each adult is responsible for taking the kids approximately 5 to 6 hours in a day. In the free hours that we have from Trey, we’re more than likely using that time to eat or work. There isn’t that much room for free time.

What exactly have you had to do to homeschool Trey during quarantine?

The teachers give us assignments, and they tell us to focus on pre-reading skills and problem solving skills. We’ve worked on counting and basic addition in the math department, and for science, we have also taken our own initiative when it comes to things like science projects and the like. We’ve done a baking soda and vinegar volcano to see a reaction, and at the recommendation of a friend, we went and bought caterpillars so Trey can visually see the process in which caterpillars transform into butterflies. The school has provided us with suggestions to help further our kids’ learning, but ultimately since at this age, fine motor skills are prioritized versus your standard assignments that come straight out of a textbook. This means that it’s hard for them to simply give us structured assignments for Trey to keep up with his learning. 

Has homeschooling been easy for you or has it been a challenge? 

No, it hasn’t been easy at all. It’s hard because I used to work 10-12 hour days, and now it feels like I have to cram all of my work into 6 to 7 hours so I can then have time to homeschool Trey, and take care of Amir.

Do the teachers keep the kids in the class in contact? How has Trey adjusted to not seeing his teachers? 

They have a zoom meeting every Thursday, and at first they did it with all 80 of the kids, but that obviously ended up being overwhelming, so they’ll split the kids into different groups for them to interact; however, at that age, they don’t really seem to understand the concept of interacting with each other online, it feels like they aren’t nearly as engaged with one another as they would be during physical interactions. It also feels like all of the social skills that he’s learned in terms of interacting with others have disappeared.

What specifically has been the biggest challenge for you during quarantine? 

Adjusting to this new schedule has been difficult. You have to balance your professional and school work with the kids in the same amount of time, and it’s a very big adjustment from the comfort and structure of having a much more definite schedule when it comes to separating work and other things. Back then, there used to be a set of hours when I knew I had to work and be present at work, but now, my schedule can change at any time depending on what needs to be accomplished during the day.

If any, what has been the biggest positive to come out of quarantine?

I would say that he has the ability to have more attention devoted to him in his learning, as during school, he can’t get nearly as much 1-on-1 interaction with his teachers as he can get now. It feels like we can be much more efficient when it comes to addressing his specific struggles.

Personally, hearing this made me reflect upon how justified some of my own complaints are when it comes to getting my work done during quarantine. While continuous learning isn’t nearly as engaging as regular school is, I now realize that the ‘struggles’ that I’m having are incomparable to that of others. Also, seeing how difficult this situation is for my aunt and uncle really made me realize that not everyone’s lifestyle is simply boring during quarantine, as some are downright unsustainable. My aunt and uncle are some of the strongest people I know, so they make all of this look easy, but some people, myself included, would not last a week in this situation. It really put things into perspective for me personally.