A question for all my fellow parents out there: how are you holding up? What does your version of overseeing distance learning look like? Staying sane in our current situation can be challenging. A couple of things are helping me cope. First, I have learned and accepted that my son and I do not share a learning style. I’m the geeky one who loves learning, including book/school learning, and always did my homework before anything else. That is just not my son. He has told me many times that he is a “last minute guy”. You know what? That is okay. The work still gets done. Second, even the academic in me must concede there is more to life than schoolwork. Now might be the perfect time to focus on some of those “life skills” that are age appropriate. There are many “school skills” hidden in things like menu planning, cooking, creating shopping lists (or online ordering), planning a garden, or fixing something that is broken. The bonus to focusing at least some of your time on life skills can be spending time together and not stressing about a school assignment. It may provide the added benefit of shrinking the time you and your children are in front of a screen. To thrive in life, we need a combination of skills – book learning, life skills and people skills. Now is the time to model kindness and patience for our kids and each other. Maybe these are the two biggest skills we all need to have right now. Also, because children may be particularly susceptible to high anxiety, please take a few minutes to review the links we included below. They are valuable mental health resources. Be safe, wash your hands, and see you on the other side.
Mental health resources from the Livingston County Coronavirus page:
