THCreate

During the 2020 Pandemic, the entire world was forced to learn using a virtual platform from home. For many of us, Google Meets or Microsoft Teams were the predominant applications used to continue education in the virtual setting. Many parents complained there children weren’t receiving education as they would have in-person, however, the important lesson observed is we shouldn’t rely on teachers for something parents can do. Here’s what I mean.

It starts With The Parents

From the time of inception, babies naturally reach their milestones. As parents, we teach our children to crawl before walking, to sit before standing and more. By the time children reach 12 months, they usually can blabber a few intelligible words or walk even (yes, every child is different).

When children reach age three, some parents expose their children to early childhood programs such as pre-kindergarten to introduce the child to the environment of a real school setting. These are excellent choices as it allows working parents to enroll their child in a program where they are being fed, educated and active.

children are sponges

I’ve been exposed to the childcare setting since grade school. My mother was the assistant director of a Child Development Center, which I eventually worked at until the Center hit a snag in finances and shut down in 2010. My mother always told me children are sponges, a reference that what you pour into the child, the more knowledge they retain.

Children are like sponges. They absorb the material being taught and with repetition will remember what information they perceived. I love utilizing this phrase because I have tested it numerous times in my children’s lives, that what I teach them repeatedly, it sticks. What makes a student excellent is one who can repeat what they have been taught. It takes a very skilled teacher to teach a lesson a child may or may not understand. Catering to the needs of the child independently (because not all children learn the same) is what is most important. Teaching a lesson that a child can adapt to makes teachers and parents who teach amazing.

virtual learning: nti

My son started Kindergarten in 2019. No thanks to the 2020 Pandemic, his Kindergarten year (and his entire first grade transitioned to online learning. We used both Google Meets and Microsoft Teams as specified by my son’s school and surprisingly he did very well.

As a working father, I was forced to work the nightshift and come home after a 12-hour shift and facilitate my son’s educational needs. Think about that. Am I going to sit around, try to sleep and allow myself to blame the educational system for not trying to teach my son? No. I am going to do something about it. And I did.

Just as I am prompt for work, we were prompt to start the day with breakfast and virtual school or NTI (Non-traditional Instruction) at 9 AM. Trust that we didn’t sit at the computer all day; however, we did make time for outdoor play and took multiple walks to keep us active and healthy at home with the then-quarantine instructions. My son was already at a loss as he has been in Speech Therapy since 2017. There was no way in heck that I was going to succumb to the demise of not having a school watch my child with the way the Pandemic locked everything down.

My point is let’s own up to our role as parent’s and be responsible to assist our own children’s needs when it comes to learning. Making claims that “I wasn’t educated enough” or “It’s not my job” were comments from other parents that didn’t set right with me. My child had a speech deficit, so instead of crying why he wouldn’t speak, I sought an alternative and taught him sign language at age 2. People think YouTube University is a joke, but I am here to tell you that you can learn anything you want alongside your child should your attention warrant it.

Take time and be a parent today. Love your children and thank God for them every single night.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.