To Home School Or Nah

What we’re doing with our kids while staying in place

Photo by Feliphe Schiarolli on Unsplash
  1. My wife and I have five… yes, one, two, three, four, five… kids at home with us right now. They range from 9 to 17, but frankly that doesn’t matter*. There are five of them. Our lives weren’t set up for them being here all the time. (*After further review, it does matter. I was just sharing with a friend about the joys of being past diaper days. So yeah, I may have a slight advantage here with my older kids. Still, my professional skills are aligned with teaching college students. This is not that.)
  2. I’m starting this draft at 1:15pm Weds afternoon on my lunch break from my 9–5 (which now consists of Zoom meetings and emails from my sofa). My kids would / should be in someone’s classroom right now, not in the process of eating up all of my food.
  3. I’m writing this entry to think out loud about what I’m going to do with this new reality. I honestly don’t think my kids, nor many (maybe most) other kids nationwide, will be slamming lockers or making chalkdust smoke screens with two heavily used erasers until August or September when they start the new school year.
  4. I have a PhD in education. I co-founded an educational nonprofit and have taught undergraduate and graduate courses on education for years. You would think I have all of the answers.
  5. I have none of the answers. I do have some thoughts though. And some bigger questions that may help us change everything and produce more wins for more kids and communities in the longer run.
  1. Let your leaders lead. If you have kids who are on point with what they have going on, don’t try to put them on the schedule you downloaded from Pinterest. They got it already. Check in with them, show love, help when asked, and get them to share what they are learning and doing with you.
  2. Set fluid structure for the kids who need motivation. Consider the Pinterest schedule as a working template, not a must-do. Think in terms of what should be done in the week, and give your kids the flexibility to work it out, with periodic check-ins. If they get up at 8, cool. If they want to get up at 10 the next day, also cool. If they have an online session or something they need to do, make sure they are on schedule to get it done. But don’t worry about filling their day with structured things back to back. If you have the ability to keep their screen time managed, do that (and remind them about safety and smart choices online). Keep in mind, with all of this, they are experiencing a certain kind of trauma from being away from the regularity of friends and favorite teachers just as we are adjusting to all of the shifts and unknowns.
  3. Do not attempt to recreate school. I’m going to put a pin in the larger themes of this one, because it’s a lengthier conversation for a future entry. I do want you to consider if school’s always been the best fit for your child, and whether you’ve ever taken the time to really explore that idea. We’ll be back…
  4. Keep it simple. My oldest son and I spent an hour today talking about — you’ll never guess — COVID-19. We compared it to past epidemics / pandemics. We talked about the links to politics and the economy. We discussed the math and science behind a pandemic, in terms of spreading, testing, tracking, and creating and distributing vaccines. We talked about the limited access to clean water for far too many humans, thus their inability to do the all-important thing that seems so simple to us — washing hands. We hit science, math, economics, civics, sociology, world history, U.S. history, and literature (via some vocab) in our talk, and both of us left with things to look up so we can circle back. This was school today. Baking cookies is learning. Planning a quarantine food budget is learning. Having kids compute their NBA2K averages is learning. Inviting them to join you in your morning workout is learning. The possibilities are already in front of you so don’t look too hard.
  5. Do something together. Maybe it’s a book you all are reading and discussing, or an ongoing art project, or looking at things online together, but make some time to connect with your kids each week. In all of this chaos, maybe the biggest lessons will be the ones you discover about them.

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I am a husband, father, writer, educator, and generator of ideas. Working on my follow through. Latest book, Higher Learning, out now at learnhigher.com.

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Brian Peterson

I am a husband, father, writer, educator, and generator of ideas. Working on my follow through. Latest book, Higher Learning, out now at learnhigher.com.