Covid-19: Schooling at home can be tough - on parents

As SA shuts down, many working parents are tearing their hair out keeping their children up to date with their school work while making multiple trips to the fridge.

South African children are among the 776-million around the world that the UN reports are affected by school closures.

Verona Dante, 38, of Fish Hoek, Cape Town, says she feels exhausted and unfocused. As her domestic worker is on paid leave, she and her partner are working at their full-time jobs and teaching their eight-year-old daughter themselves.

“I still don’t know how I will find the time to clean, teach and be a full-time working mom. We received workbooks for the period when they are supposed to go back to school after the Easter weekend. The pressure is on parents — big time,” she said.

Dante suffers from asthma and her father, who lives with her, suffers from respiratory problems.

”It seems pointless commuting to an office daily and interacting with colleagues and then going home to a quarantined child. It’s really difficult at the moment. At some point something will have to give,” said Dante.

Bongekile Qwabe, a single working parent of a six-year-old in Durban, said though her son was excited at the prospect of visiting his grandparents in rural KwaZulu-Natal during Easter, she was reluctant to allow it.

“As it is just me and my son at home. He wanted to visit my family. I am scared that if he goes to their home someone there could have the virus and he could be exposed.

“I don’t know who’s been inside the taxi or touched anything in it. Hopefully, my manager will allow me to work from home so I can look after my son. Now a family member is looking after him at their home.”

Sirisha Govender, a Johannesburg restaurant owner and mother of three, said the outbreak has at least given her a chance to spend more time with her family.

“I have to have more time management in place and structure the day. The three-year-old has an activity pack that contains items to make, draw and paint.

"The five-year-old has worksheets to complete and then a website for online stories that she can listen to and then corresponding activities to complete.

The nine-year-old receives assignments for her various subjects via Google Classroom.”

Govender said the outbreak gives her an opportunity to see how her children are progressing at school.

Home-schooling expert Louise Schoonwinkel said parents should have a conversation with their children to ensure they understand why they are at home.

“Our kids know something’s up and not knowing what [it is] creates anxiety. Learning cannot take place when a child is anxious or fearful. Some homes will be stricter than others, but it’s important to include some free time.”

Schoonwinkel suggests children study two or three subjects a day and decide what time of the day is best for studying.

“Playtime is an important part of childhood development — and this does not include watching TV.”

She said playtime could be used as a reward for school work. But she stressed it was important for children to choose how they wanted to spend their free time.

“It’s also important for teenagers to have some social contact; they can chat to their friends on the phone or WhatsApp or via e-mail etcetera. And parents need to find a dedicated space for learning, to prevent distractions,” Schoonwinkel said.

“This is a unique opportunity for parents to connect with their kids, and parents can enrich their children’s education by finding fun activities to do together, like watching movies that give context to what they may be studying, in history, for example.”

Another fun and educational activity could be watching online museum tours which some of the big American museums are giving for free during the outbreak.

“There will be days when everything is chaos and it’s important to remain flexible. It’s OK to take the day off and pick up studying the following day,” Schoonwinkel said.