Educating Your Child in a Pandemic

Right now, many of us are thinking about back to school decisions. Educating your child in a pandemic is no easy task. Homeschooling? Distancing Learning? In-person school? Even if we are privileged to have a choice, making hard decisions for our families can feel agonizing.



You may even lose sleep over it.



That's why I'm sharing the 9 things you need to know about educating your child in a pandemic.



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Know Your Role







The year was 1992 and I was nervous. It was August and I was entering the third grade. I was anxiously waiting to find out who my assigned teacher was for the year. There were four teachers in the third grade, and two of them were ‘yellers’. You know what I mean by the “yellers”—the teachers you could hear shouting at their students from all the way down the hall. 



My odds weren’t good. I waited with bated breath. Finally the news came, I got a yeller. 



And I cried. And cried.



Fast forward 28 years. I can reflect back on those childhood tears. I now have an understanding that education is far more than rote memorization and the acquisition of knowledge. All effective education is grounded in a warm and loving relationship between an adult and child. While at the surface level we equate education with cognitive development, the roots run much deeper than that. To teach a child on intellectual ideas, you must first connect with the child on an emotional level. 



Many of you will be playing the role of educator this year. Maybe as a support person for distance learning or perhaps as a homeschool parent. If that is you, then know this: 



You can’t scream an education into a child. But trust me…you are going to be tempted to try. 







Know You are Capable







When it comes to educating your child in a pandemic, you may be plagued with the imposter syndrome. There’s a good chance you feel unqualified and/or unmotivated. 



Personally, I am trained across disciplines. I’m a Clinical Social Worker with years of experience practicing child & family therapy. I also have a Ph.D. in Early Childhood Education and Development. Basically, if psychology, human development, and education had a baby—that baby would sort of be me. 



And I want to tell you, even with all the qualifications in hand—being an educator to my own children is just. plain. hard. There’s no easy way around that. I will not sugarcoat it.  [Listen to my episode on Homeschool Reflections]



Because most importantly, I’m a mom. I’m a mom who has taught my own children. I’m a mom who has gritted her teeth through the hard moments of parenting (in fact, there was some teeth gritting happening just this morning…). I am a mom who has worked intensely to avoid being a “yeller”.



I want you to know that there is a good chance you may feel the same. But if you are choosing to be an educator for your children this year, you are capable. If you are doing it because you have no other choice, you are still capable. 



Because you can do hard things. 



I will be the first one to tell you that it’s a heckuvalotta work to make sure my kids are just fed...