Calgary parents struggle to homeschool during COVID-19 pandemic

Alberta kids have been out of the classroom and learning from home for about a month now, and some parents say the transition hasn't been an easy one for them, or their kids. 

• Online learning top priority for Calgary school boards after classes cancelled due to COVID-19

The province cancelled in-school classes mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Online and correspondence school at home began almost immediately for Calgary Catholic School District kids, and immediately after spring break ended for Calgary Board of Education students.  

'I'm not a teacher'

Kimberley van Mierlo is a mom of three boys between nine and 12 years old with special learning needs, and they attend three different Calgary Catholic schools.

Van Mierlo said schooling has not been easy since the boys started learning from home last month.

"I'm not a teacher and I have three special needs kids who I am trying to teach all different things to, in three different grades and have three different levels of learning," she said.

"If your kid does have a learning disability of any kind, that just adds more chaos because they don't have that routine, that schedule that makes them function."

Van Mierlo said the Catholic school district and her kids' teachers have all tried to help her as much as they can during this unprecedented and always changing situation, and have done things like supplying the appropriate technology the boys need to learn. 

"But that's not the issue. The issue is as a parent things have changed since we went to school. I'll be 45 in June. I haven't been to school in forever," she said.

"I was with my son doing something about planets and apparently two of the planets are now terrestrial planets. I never learned that in school. I had to look it up. I think our teachers do a good job but we're expected to know all the stuff that they know well."

Students experiencing similar challenges

Andrea Holowka, superintendent of instructional services with the Catholic district, said this situation is nothing that anybody expected for the school year, but the board has done its best to prepare teachers.

"We took quite a bit of care to make sure that we had all of our professional development for teachers so that the learning platforms for online learning were all ready to go. And that took a few days," she said.

"It's been, certainly, a journey for our teachers and our students and parents."

She said although parents might be worried about if their child is ready to advance next year, it's important to remember that students will likely all be experiencing similar, if not the same, challenges.

"Whenever we resume with in-person learning, there will be that understanding. So, making sure there's a lot of diagnostic testing and helping to make sure that any gaps that are sustained by all the children that the next year's teacher is going to be able to address."

Holowka said it's important for parents, especially those of younger kids, to remind themselves it's OK to let optional elements of the curriculum fall away for now.

"Numeracy and literacy has been the focus for elementary students," she said. "That'll help them be able to retain those really fundamental skills and build on them into the next year"

'I'm really worried'

Tamara Rose has a six-year-old daughter in Grade 1 at the CBE. 

"My daughter has some problems with PTSD and so she needs a lot of one-on-one time explaining her assignments and then even just keeping her on task," she said.

"And then, while also managing working full-time as well — it's been a huge challenge. Being a single parent, there's just really no way to divide and conquer this." 

Rose said she's worried her daughter won't be ready for Grade 2 at the end of this year, because she'll have fallen too far behind.

"I know that she was a little bit behind before this even happened so it puts a lot of pressure on me to try and keep her to a level where I think that she could go into Grade 2 and not drown," she said.

"I'm really worried that they're just going to take everybody and throw them into the next grade and hope for the best. I don't really think that that's necessarily in a lot of kids' best interests."

Sarah McMillan, a former educational assistant and current educational consultant, said she knows her work experience gives her a leg up compared with other parents, but even she's found the transition to homeschooling her 10-year-old stepdaughter difficult.

McMillan said that while her stepdaughter is quite independent and able to adapt to online school in many ways, things like math are causing them stress.

"There was just kind of a PowerPoint program and she was expected to do it that way. I don't remember doing math like that ever and there was no video on how to do the math, there was no instruction, really. It was just kind of like 'do this,'" she said. 

"I can't imagine somebody who doesn't have any education and hasn't been hanging around in schools for 20 years trying to figure out what the teacher wanted."

'Meet students where they're at'

Joanne Pitman, superintendent of school improvement at the CBE, said they've heard these concerns from parents. 

"I've heard some some folks comment that 'my child's going to be behind,' and the immediate response that I have to that is everyone is having this experience, not just in Calgary, across the province or in Canada — but around the world," she said.

"If we remove the context of behind and we recognize the disruption that this has placed on our lives, as a system our commitment is to meet students where they're at in the fall."

Pitman said that's not about a grade but about foundational skills and ensuring that the CBE is able to really understand where each student is at.

"When we think about the level of this disruption, we are working through and discussing what this can look like so that we are meeting students where they are based on the experiences they've had and with a heightened focus on our primary students."

Parents seek instructional videos

McMillan and Rose said they've both been asking their kids' teachers for more instructional videos to go along with assignments. 

"I'm asking for videos from them to explain how to do each assignment so that the students can at least sit there and watch their teacher tell them what they would like them to do instead of me trying to explain to them what to do," said Rose. 

So far, they said, their kids have each had a few videos from their teachers, but not to the extent that's needed for instruction.

"I don't know how you can learn math without being taught. In school there would be a teaching component and there would be an educational assistant who was in the classroom who would be there to help the kids who are a little bit weaker in their math skills," said McMillan.

"So we're missing the teaching component and then we're missing that support component, and so especially for kids who are not great readers, that's the part of that lesson that I think is really missing — and is really frustrating."

Both school boards encourage parents to reach out to their child's teacher or school with any concerns, and said they've posted some resources for parents online in an effort to assist them during this period of uncertainty.