Single parent homeschooling: a voice from the community

"I have been living alone with my two sons, now 8 and 11 years old, for 6 years. When there are holidays, I really enjoy the time together and wish it could last longer. But these are not holidays, not only is school closed, the whole world is upside down. I work in the mornings and so my kids have to look after themselves, which they are good at. But now I'm still supposed to teach.
I hear from others that they just have to repeat and consolidate existing material. But I have to teach properly, impart new knowledge. There's animal science, botany, German, maths, French and English. There are precise expectations as to how the exercise books should be kept, a lot of hard work such as copying pages and pages of dictation. There is also a letter-writing project and the children should actually keep a diary of what they experience during this time. That would be the material for the older one, with new exercise sheets and a new animal theme every week. And then I'm supposed to give the whole thing to the teacher for checking, i.e. to hand it in. That puts a lot of pressure on me.

«I would have liked more time from the school for this changeover, I feel under a lot of pressure. I wonder how the other parents manage?»

Then there's the work for the little one, who needs a lot of support due to his age. On top of that, there are the instrumental lessons, which continue and now have to be managed in a complicated way via WhatsApp and the like. When I hear that now you have time, now you can become a music reading pro, I get quite frustrated and feel unappreciated as a mum. I'm learning to set myself apart, I don't do the dictations, for example, because my son is really good at them, so we don't do them.

I've approached the teachers and have already been met with understanding, but it's still all incredibly pressurising. The feeling of not being able to cope and letting my children down is very present.
I think it's great that we've found a way for them to work more independently in the last few days. I write them tasks to do on a piece of paper, which they then do while I'm away at work. The usual phone calls with questions they have are so sweet and warm my heart. Then I'm proud of my boys.

I've also felt like a failure over the last few weeks and wondered whether I'm the only one who can't cope with this programme.

I would have liked more time from the school for this changeover, I feel under a lot of pressure. I wonder how the other parents manage? Do they all have such obedient children? My older son is not one of the well-behaved or highly motivated pupils. And he's very different with me than he is at school. That comes with the territory.
So I've also felt like a failure in the last few weeks and wondered whether I'm the only one who can't cope with this programme. This has also led to conflicts with the children because my nerves got the better of me. But that's exactly what I don't want. Now I'm trying to learn how to make the right decisions and organise the whole thing. The important thing is that we get through this time well.

When I look to the future, there are also worries. What will happen next? How will all this shape us? What will it do to our children? And I miss the social contacts bitterly. And under these circumstances, I'm supposed to teach my children, work, keep house and be a mum. I think it's important that we all get away from our performance-oriented thinking and bring some calm to things. Life is upside down and that needs a rethink." (Manuela K.*)

Editor: Florina Schwander, Image: Pixabay
This text was sent to us by e-mail, we have minimally adapted it.
*First and last names are known to the editors.

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