Covid Calls for More at Home Schoolin' & Kinder Care

"I'd like to teach the World to sing...and keep it company"

Raise your hand if you have pondered and/or executed an action plan to earn extra income and take advantage of our new normal since the coronavirus has wreaked havoc in our lives?  Caring for children is a special line of work that just cannot be done by just anyone.  We expect and hope that our children's caregivers at school, do care for our children and have every intention of teaching, leading, and guiding our kids with skill, passion for the work, compassion for the youth as well as appropriate rigor in the lesson plans and with loving stern leadership to teach and inspire our kids to want to learn and do well. Whew!  That's a lot!  We trust these educators with our little ones for at least 8 hours Monday through Friday during a regular school year.  Sometimes that 8 hour day stretches to 12 hours depending on what extracurricular activities are included and also, after school meetings.  

Now with Covid-19 concerns, parents who cannot work from home and have to make the decision to send their children back to school with no mandatory stay at home order in place some parents are glad for the 'release' of their little ones to be back on campus, out of the home and back on a regular school day schedule. Others, not so much.  Some would prefer to have their children stay at home and learn virtually or be homeschooled for safety reasons and have found that it actually works out well for the kid(s) to be at home learning. Having a homeschool program allows for alternative learning, more family/parental engagement on lesson plans and curriculum. Some children even do better in the home setting, while others have grades that plummet steadily and drastically in this type of set up.  

Assisting with homework and ensuring that assignments are turned in on time for a household that has more than one child in varying grade levels...wow.  Kudos to those Moms and Dads who have gotten through that or who are still growing through it to ensure that their kids are getting it done and learning well.  Kids still need to get sunshine, be active, and interact somehow with healthy social engagement with peers and humans in some form or another. It can be challenging when they are at home and not on campus.  But it can be done!  I am sure the grocery bill has been quite different and that can't be easy for a great number of families. 

Somehow, we are getting back to basics.  And I kinda like it. I went to an in-home preschool with other neighborhood children in the care of two wonderful women who dedicated their days to teaching preschool-aged children colors, numbers, the differences between sweet and sour, rhyming kid songs, and socialization with other children and most importantly how to say PLEASE and THANK YOU just as our parents would expect.  Not everyone can open an in-home daycare, providing care for other people's children and not everyone can afford it.  Child care costs are expensive. GOOD child care is priceless.  I am believing that Covid-19 has brought us many things and created many new interests and reminded us of plenty of things that we had put down or forgotten temporarily.  Seeing the good opportunities and creations come out of these times have really been inspiring to see.  Whatever happens in 2020 might not stay in 2020, I am hoping that we take the bitter with the sweet and rise up even better having learned something about ourselves, and our children for a wonderful future.