Homeschooling (Day 7) with Deb Bump

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Images of Deb’s kids adapting to their new learning situation.

Many of us entered into a new reality last week as New York State closed all of the schools and the entire state hit the pause button due to the outbreak of COVID-19. While keeping the public healthy and stopping the spread of this virus is obviously the top priority, it also pushed some of us into a new career - homeschool teacher.

We have two (very active) children, ages 8 and 5. Some of the guidelines I have read encourage parents not to immediately dive right into all aspects of homeschooling; after all, this is new territory for us so I appreciated that advice. I am also trying to work from home so attempting to keep up on work and educate two elementary students has been somewhat of a challenge.

While managing this new normal, I have thought to myself several times, “what if this had happened 40 years ago when I was a kid?” Now my parents were both educators, and I’m sure they would have gotten us through, but we are so fortunate now that we have the resources that we do. I am grateful for the online tools, such as Lunchtime Doodles with author Mo Willems, children’s authors reading their stories, the Cincinnati Zoo broadcasting live feeds of their animals, and several other educational websites that can help to keep kids on track.

I could not forget our children’s teachers as well - they have been amazing at keeping in touch with the kids, sending ideas for online learning and projects, and writing letters in the mail to the kids. Think back to when you were young; getting mail was such a big deal and our children love it! I owe these teachers a huge thank you, I know they miss the kids as much as they miss their teachers.

So while some moments are challenging as I play the roles of mom, teacher, GVCA Director, (sometimes) referee and short order cook, I also hope that our kids will look back on this time and remember the fun we had during our PE dance party classes and freestyle art classes. I consider myself lucky to get to spend this additional time with these two little ones because as everyone knows, time flies with kids.

I hope you are all doing well; I miss the gallery, my co-workers, our events and our members. Please feel free to share your stories as well! Hope to see you all again soon.

Here’s a recent episode of LifeKit for those who are still adjusting to the new situation!

LifeKit podcast