Just Another Hat...

By Guest: Brittney N. Martin

In-Home Mom/Teacher/Paralegal Leave a comment

There is an idiom that says, “moms wear many hats…” and of course, in 2020, the meaning behind that expression is more real to life than before. Many Moms and Dads alike are now having to wear the hat of “in-home teacher” and boy is this hat tough to wear! Here are some ways to lighten the load of that hat.

Making it Fit

Thanks to COVID-19, school districts across the country have opted for virtual online instruction for many students in the interest of the safety of students, teachers, and staff. With this comes many challenges that parents/guardians are facing while at home. Moms now wear the hat of mom, some wives, cooks, nurses, and teachers and teachers’ assistants. We were quickly faced with the first challenge of creating a school-like environment in our homes in the Summer. This meant rearranging rooms, cleaning out small areas, going out and purchasing additional furniture, and even some building make-shift furniture pieces to give children a quiet, well-lit space to be their best selves in a positive and familiar learning environment. For myself and my husband, we were able to grab a desk and chair combo from IKEA, snagged wall hangings, posters, and educational tools from Target, Dollar Tree, and Office Depot to create the perfect at-home environment for our Littles. The second challenge that many parents like us faced was how to separate the various learning styles and age groups amongst our children. For some, they have elementary age children that require assistance and attention and high school children who could be more self-sufficient while in virtual school. For my husband and I, we have two preschoolers and one first grader. This meant we would need to be consistently hands-on with all three of our Littles. Woah! What a challenge! To top it off, the third challenge that most parents like ourselves faced was the fact that one or both parents were coined to work from home or work remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic affecting business operations. I immediately went into supermom mode and figured out a way to make it all work.

Help is Near

We turned our loft area into a school/office oasis. It is spacious enough, well lit, and made for the most sufficient area in our home to accomplish multiple tasks. Our first-graders desk sits diagonal to mine in the loft so I can easily monitor him while balancing my work schedule. The best thing for us during this critical time was to enlist help from our church family. On Tuesdays and Thursdays for about 5 hours, our twin preschoolers head over to the home of one of our church-family member (whom they affectionately call, Nana Susie). She has a preschool-aged granddaughter that she keeps on those days. Nana Susie is a retired educator and administrator, so she hosts a mini school for the 3 preschoolers in her home. What a gem! This works out great as our first-grader has independent learning on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so he can work and focus without the added distraction of his younger brother and sister. My husband assists our first grader with his independent work most of the morning so that he is finished by the early afternoon, and I can fully focus on my workload the entire morning after drop-off at Nana Susie’s. However, because our first-grader has live learning with his teacher on Mondays and Wednesdays, we were faced with the fourth challenge – coming up with a game plan for all of us.

Our Game Plan

A typical Monday/Wednesday for us looks something like this: I wake up around 7 am and get myself together while grabbing a few quiet minutes to start my day. I clock into work at 7:30 am and get any emergency emails out of the way. I wake the Littles up about 7:45 am and get everyone dressed and fed breakfast. Our first grader has a start time of 8:10 am for live instruction with his teacher. By that time, my husband is up and ready to tag himself in. While he starts the morning with our first-grader, I switch over to the twin preschoolers and get them set up before tapping back into my workload. Luckily, I was able to find virtual resources to help me keep the attention of the twin preschoolers. Ms. Monica (an early childhood educator who created virtual educational content for preschoolers via YouTube – a link to her channel can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/c/MonicaJSutton/featured ) is a fan favorite, as her videos are fun, engaging, colorful, and short. Ms. Monica uploads new 15 to 20-minute videos to her YouTube channel Monday-Friday coined “Circle Time with Ms. Monica.” She has songs and lessons that teach preschoolers days of the week, weather, numbers, letters, word recognition, etc. Our twin preschoolers start their day watching a couple of episodes of Ms. Monica. From there, I set up a laptop for them to watch as the North Carolina Zoo hosts live Zoo EdVentures for about 45 mins via Facebook Live on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (a link to their page can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/nczoo/ ). This allows me to focus on my workload. It allows for our first-grader to focus on live instruction from his teacher, and my husband can monitor his live instruction nearby while managing his small business from his laptop. Just before our first-grader goes to lunch and the Zoo EdVentures are finished, the twin preschoolers are finishing up homework from Nana Susie School or completing worksheets that we print from Ms. Monica’s website (link to her website and access to the printable worksheets can be found here: https://monicajsuttonschool.thinkific.com/ ). These worksheets have a small cost associated with accessing them but there are always free printable worksheets that can be accessed via the net. Education.com (https://www.education.com/) is a wonderful resource for printable worksheets for most grade levels. As our first-grader approaches lunchtime with his schoolteacher, my husband goes out and gets lunch or gets lunch together downstairs. I round up the Littles and we all take our lunch break at the same time. Once lunch is over at 11:30 am, our first-grader hops back online with his teacher, I get the twin preschoolers down for a nap, my husband takes a brain break (lol these are crucial for him and the Littles), and I hop back online and into my workload while monitoring my first grader's school interaction. He ends his school day at about 2:30 pm. The twin preschoolers are typically up from their nap by the time our first grader's school day is over, and we allow free playtime for the remainder of the afternoon for all three Littles. It is practically needed at this time. I end my workday at about 3:30 pm and give myself nearly an hour of what I call a “cool down” before I jump into mom/wife mode (hat) for planning and preparing dinner and finishing any around-the-house chores or last-minute errands. Dinner is served around 6:00 pm, the Littles are in bed by 8:00 pm, and the wind-down begins for my husband and me before we rest and start our routine all over again the next day. On Fridays, our first-grader has independent learning in the morning and ‘Fun Fridays’ with his teacher in the afternoon. This allows me to focus on wrapping up my work week while my husband monitors our first-grader with independent work and the twin preschoolers have a free day.

Styling Success

The biggest success in all the above is we can be more hands-on with our Littles’ education. Our first-grader had a tough kindergarten year, so being able to be home with him and hands-on allows us to identify his weaknesses and encourage his strengths. It also allows us to gauge where the twin preschoolers are and how we can better prepare them for formal learning instruction. While it takes a lot of energy, a solid game plan, some welcomed help, and tons of patience, I believe we have finally mastered the age of work-from-home/virtual learning in this household! Our first-grader is doing exceptionally well with retaining the information he is being taught and he likes school now—this may be partly because mommy and daddy are “in school with him.” Our twin preschoolers are getting the attention and learning concepts they need as well as the social interaction with another child their age. It is a win for my husband and me!

I Tip My Hats to You

The best advice I could give a mom, or parent, or guardian faced with the same circumstances as we are, is to find a routine, stick with it, welcome help from others, and give yourself and your Littles some GRACE! Change is uncomfortable but this COVID-19 pandemic has been a crucial teaching moment for many of us parents to show our Littles how to handle and conquer adversity. There will be many times when you are too tired, too annoyed, too drained, too confused, and too fed up. However, when you extend yourself and your Littles grace, just as Jesus Christ extends grace to us, you will find yourself on the other side of motivation – ready to conquer any task. I say, wear your hat, Mom, and wear it well!