Homeschooling & Quarantine with Children - An Insight into the Current Life of an Eight-Year-Old Boy

The coronavirus crisis has brought public life to a near standstill – even schools have had to close. Now kids are spending their days at home, which means homeschooling for almost all parents.

What does a new everyday life at home look like? We asked our intern Mona. Because both parents can't be home due to work commitments, she's been taking over homeschooling for weeks and is trying to motivate them to learn with patience and creativity. She tells us how and if it's working. Her experience:

1. On the topic of learning plan:

My brother is 17 years younger than me, and at eight years old he's a typical little daredevil, and he likes to get in the way when it comes to learning.  Even though he's usually the sweetest and funniest child (to me), learning time is always a test of patience. He sometimes listens to me much better than to our parents because I'm naturally a bit "cooler" (his words), but learning at home is still often a struggle.

Our parents received a weekly curriculum that includes all the topics and tasks for the kids. My family and I created a schedule that allowed everyone to still manage their regular routines reasonably well. Since he's the only one in the nest and the whole family helps out, we were able to manage things very well. Of course, things are sometimes quite different for families with several children of different ages (and with correspondingly different curricula). It's working out quite well for us now.

2.  Learning at home:

My little brother is very active in his free time and enjoys going outside, doing sports, meeting friends, and riding his bike. Due to social distancing and school closures, all of these experiences with friends are now virtually nonexistent, and of course, that affects him as well. Then there are the boring tasks that have to be completed every day. The weekly schedules are sometimes quite demanding for him. But all in all, they're still doable. It all depends on concentration. Some days he actually manages to work consistently and properly for 20 minutes; on others, he can barely sit still for a minute.

In my opinion, it's always important to respond to him. Sometimes he just needs a little pressure or motivation, and sometimes he needs longer breaks and a lot of help (or the prospect of a reward). Unlike my parents, I'm obviously not as experienced in raising children, but maybe that's a good thing. Occasionally, I entice him with sweets or a Lego Ninjago magazine (certainly not a highlight in terms of parenting, but as a sister, you're certainly allowed to).

The home environment, of course, offers many distractions and isn't like a classroom. Therefore, you have to constantly motivate him and keep an eye on him, otherwise he'll get distracted by every little thing and not work on his homework. One of his favorite activities involves hiding as soon as I leave the room. I do this EVERY time. Basically, all I have to do is turn around in my chair and he's gone, miles away from his schoolwork. You can always hear giggling somewhere behind a curtain or under a clothes rack.

Since children also have good and bad (or less productive) days, I always try to take this into account and incorporate short breaks accordingly, and simply support them in their learning as best as possible.

Despite all the circumstances, he's currently enjoying his time, as he can sleep a little longer and there are no strict teachers. He also often complains about the noise at school and prefers the quiet atmosphere at home.

I once asked him how he felt about learning at home, to which he replied, "I think I've learned less than usual, but that's okay!" This casual statement from such a little kid made me chuckle a little.

3. The design of the learning breaks:

At least once a day, we go outside for some fresh air and exercise. I think this outdoor play is the most important thing for him. That way, he doesn't miss his friends too much, he can let off steam, and have a lot of laughs with me. Recently, we built a small mobile out of his scooter and have been zipping around the neighborhood together. He enjoys activities like these the most. Fortunately, the weather has almost always been good so far. When it rains, we naturally find something to do inside the house, too.

When you have to conjure up something exciting every day, you become increasingly creative. Simple little things become more appealing, so we paint different things, make special paper airplanes, or play basketball with paper balls. We use the Fairytale Romance storage basket as our basketball hoop.

Apart from that, we found a variety of board games - some of which had been gathering dust in the closet for years - and decided to play each of them once.

4.  Activities for the rest of the day:

Of course, he'd prefer to go to the sports club and meet his friends in the afternoons, too, but unfortunately, that's something he has to limit at the moment. At first, it was an unusual situation to only be able to play at home.

Nowadays, he often calls his friends via FaceTime or plays games with them online.

After a while, he was noticeably better able to entertain himself. This, of course, makes the rest of the day easier. He enjoys going into the garden, doing crafts, playing video games, or building various Lego landscapes.

In keeping with the times, he also tried to teach me the “floss dance,” which every child seems to be able to do… but we’re still working on that.