Helping your child navigate zoom tech support can be daunting. So you can balance work and household duties by making sure your children are engaged and learning.
Lisa Cantrell, marketing director at Douglasville, Georgia, says her nine-year-old and 12-year-old – and math is the biggest challenge for her.
“I just set an expectation with them that I will teach them the way I know them and translate them the way they are taught in school,” he says. “They still get angry when I don’t understand what they’re doing to convince me.”
Blessedly uncontrollable, common core math methods are the numbers used for most adults. Instead of the “carry one” method, children need group numbers to solve arithmetic problems. Mathe nanda The approach to emphasizing mathematical concepts goes beyond simple calculations.
“In second grade our son was learning math using the ‘grouping method’, and my husband had to learn it. He said he’s resistant,” says Monique Owens of Mableton, Georgia. “I refused to do the math part of anything.”
Some parents, such as Brian Federico, director of product management in Atlanta, have taken the issue into their own hands.
“I learned to solve some of my fourth grade algebra problems, because learning the other way was a pain,” he says.
Others rely on outside help to get out of it.
“I don’t know the answer to 99% of what my six-year-old asks me,” says Suzanne Cala, director of operations operations for Atlanta. “Thank God for YouTube, Alexa and Google.”
“YouTube was my best friend,” agrees Tracy Glenton of Mableton, Georgia, whose son entered fifth grade last year after learning learning online from home.
Casey Blackwood, Benny’s mother who also lives in Mablaton, points out that a math class isn’t just about when parents have to dust off knowledge from their school days.
“I also know that parents with children in the distance learning program are sweating their high school Spanish skills.”
When mom-dad becomes tech support
The real issue is not just that parents should now pay more attention to the fact that part of their home has been turned into a full class room.
For one, learning is navigating the technical difficulties of online learning: complex course software, Internet problems, and the failure of audio-visual equipment to play tech support before the first class of parent day begins.
Amy Persinger, a nurse practitioner in Bethesda, Maryland, says, “You become everything for your child and it involves keeping track of eight thousand zoom passwords.” While talking to CNN, she had to take a break to help her fourth grader get into one of her classes.
Schools For schools using online meeting software, children may need to join a separate video call for each class. If they can’t log in or kick because of connection issues, it can cause disruption – and sometimes, tears.
Persinger says she learned from past mistakes and now keeps the most common entry information on the laminated sheet – homeroom, main classes – in case she or her husband is busy or one of her three children has a problem.
And – surprise! – Keeping children engaged on the computer screen for many hours a day is not easy.
“Keeping my nine-year-old at work is the biggest challenge,” says Sarah Baka, Atlanta’s portfolio manager. “” I set her up and then jump into a meeting, and about 75% of the time when I go back to check if she sees YouTube playing video games. I had to ask her older sister for help but it didn’t happen. She doesn’t always finish well, and she has to do her own thing. “
In 2020, parents must fight harder than usual
Indeed, if distance education is difficult to have a child, the job becomes more complicated when you add more children and do the same scattered tasks for adults.
Pursinger, a nurse practitioner, has recently returned to part-time work. That means she and her husband will have to tweak both their work schedules, as well as the schedules of their three children, all of whom go to different schools and each have a different combination of distance learning and individual class.
How does he put it all together? Aside from laminated passwords and a lot of organization pieces, she says it’s important to have as much level of leadership as possible.
“Of course, try a little exercise, go to sleep and keep a good diet,” he says. “And you have to take it day in and day out. Because if you look too far into the future you will easily sink.”
For Persinger’s family, that means removing any positivity from a purposefully challenging – and sometimes impossible – situation.
“I think some parents are given an understanding of how their children learn and where their losses and strengths lie,” he says. “And the kids had to learn a lot about resilience and flexibility.”
But even the most willing parents have bad days. Your child has just started a new math unit in a dilemma, the internet is out again and the bills are going up – while you’ve been stuck in your home’s slash-school-slash-quarantine chamber for months.
When it all happens too much, plenty of parent support groups will suggest a more off-label remedy: a glass of wine and a good cry.
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