FAMILY
Switching from parent mode
to teacher mode
OUR NEW REALITY MEANS THAT PARENTS HAVE HAD TO SWITCH THEIR ROLES FROM PARENTS TO TEACHERS – WITH VERY LITTLE WARNING. FORMER TEACHER TEIXEIRA MURRAY GIVES PARENTS SOME TIPS ON HOW PARENTS CAN BE TEACHERS TO THEIR CHILDREN AT HOME. Who would have thought we would find ourselves smack bang in the middle of a pandemic? It’s like we are living in a movie: raising and growing our families in the midst of an ever-present lurking virus, a virus that has literally brought the world to a standstill, and we are yet to see the aftermath.
The wacky world of homeschooling And if that’s not scary enough, parents around the globe were forced into the wacky world of homeschooling their
This is the scariest thing that has ever happened to me as a person, a mother, and a teacher.
own children, or at least supervising said children through some sort of inhouse education. Oy vey! I cannot stress enough that this is the scariest thing that has ever happened to me as a person, a mother, and a teacher. Yes, I am a teacher, and so everyone addresses me with an “I am sure you are cruising through this” tone in their voices, but let me tell you, homeschooling truly shows me those proverbial “flames”. Let me explain. I am a qualified teacher, but a high school teacher (in case that helps my case), and have
very limited knowledge as to the learning patterns of six-year-olds and three-year-olds, other than the fact that I am their mother. As an educator, I am all about the business of serious teaching, like literature reviews and crafting designer essays and reflecting on topics that shape the world. I am certainly not about the business of cutting shapes, colouring in numbers and repeating myself 10 000 times a day. I remember the first day of homeschooling my son (my twin in
