Corona Virus

Corona Virus, Covid 19…..By now, we’ve all seen the pictures of this virus.  (And if you haven’t, check out David S. Goodsell’s watercolor painting based on his research that simulates details of the cell!  How can such a nasty virus be so beautiful? And isn’t the fusion of art and science just magnificent!). Coronaviruses are named for the crown-like spikes on their surface. The Latin corona means “crown”.  David Goodsell loves the structure of the cell.   

I love words. I love knowing where they come from, how structures of language are formed.  I love sharing words with children.

With the sudden shift away from the classroom to online learning, we worry.  We worry that our kinders won’t get off to a good start and that our other littles won’t progress or thrive.  My mission before corona virus, during, and after is to support parents trying to teach, reinforce and practice new learning in reading.

They call it “the new normal”…..they call it distant learning, homeschool, and pandemic classroom.   Zoom meetings with a teacher have sprung up over night.  Pandemic pods, learning bubbles, on-line learning…..oh my!

The importance of parent involvement in academic outcomes has never been in question.  It has always been important, and it is important now, just perhaps in a slightly different form.  

As schools and teachers went into full gear to figure out just how to do remote learning and do it effectively, we parents often got lost trying to figure out how to be supportive.  

For you, dear parent, working with your child at home requires that you know the 3 R’s.

            R – relationship (nothing about this new learning will be more important than the relationship you have with your child when this is over.)

             R – recreation – play, enjoy, imagine!  Get out of your head and let the children be children.  Enjoy nature!

             R – reset –   rest and take time to be alone.  You and your child need to set your course, plan, and commit your intention for the next day.

If you’ve got the 3R’s mastered, Littles for Literacy can help with the rest.  

***I apologize to all the parents who accept total responsibility for their children’s education and are a loving and leading influence absent of all institutional norms and expectations in a true homeschool environment.  I bow down to your dedication.  I use “homeschool” only because the term seems to have entered a “pandemic” vocabulary for families helping with distance learning.

Acknowledgement: Illustration by David S. Goodsell, RCSB Protein Data Bank; doi: 10.2210/rcsb_pdb/goodsell-gallery-019