Leave them kids alone

I’M OUT.

I appreciate all the effort gone to by teachers and school staff, truly I do, but I am done.

I don’t have a degree in education. I don’t even have a wealth of technological knowledge.

Both would be incredibly helpful as we embarked on the first week of online learning.

Hell, just having the time to adequately attempt homeschooling would have been nice. But I don’t have that.

What I have is three children learning three different levels of schooling online, on top of a job I’m also trying to do from home, in a single-parent environment, in a home with no room to swing a cat (or, more likely, a mouse wielded in frustration).

Learning online has been the biggest source of frustration we’ve suffered during this pandemic so far.

Meanwhile online, I am watching families set up beautiful spaces for their dedicated sprogs to work. Families laminating timetables or planting seedlings, or tackling a 1000-piece puzzle together.

Honestly, I am reduced to tears at the comparatively little I have managed to provide for my three since we locked down.

Trust me when I say I’m not simply putting my kids’ schooling in the “too hard’’ basket.

I am concerned that my vast frustration at my inability to provide will impact poorly on my children, that venting my increasing frustration on people who depend on me will create an emotional block that affects their future learning.

The “run wild” method of unschooling is looking more and more appealing every day.

(As does dropping off social media altogether, but that’s another column.)

But here’s my compromise... I am never going to live up to the timetable suggested by schools, so instead I’m going to continue providing lessons (with the help of some generous friends) on the subject where they struggle (after all, this is the time to truly learn at your own pace). I will encourage self-improvement – to be curious about things that interest them. And I will make time for our physical and mental health by spending time together in nature.

Beyond that, schoolwork will not be the sole focus in my home. I want to come through this a family united, not at war with one another.

Tell me I’m not alone.

Peta Johansen is an author and mother of three.