Navigating the New School Year
Under normal circumstances, the end of summer would bring a mixture of sadness and excitement as families start to plan school-shopping shopping trips and trading in their shorts and bathing suits for boots and coats, with children looking forward to seeing their friends every day while parents change their work schedule to work around pickup schedules and extracurricular activities.
This year, the chilly weather is certainly on its way, as well as the upcoming academic year, but with slight changes: reusable masks are being added to the clothing lists and work schedules are getting built not to accommodate soccer practice, but online schooling. As Thanksgiving itineraries get replaced by school-safety plans, the dominant emotion for this time of year isn’t anticipation, but rather, confusion: is it safe to send children to school? How will their ability to learn be impacted if they stay home? Is all that screen-time even healthy?
Parents and facing an unprecedented and extremely difficult set of decisions as they debate homeschooling, “learning pods,” or in-person lessons. Of course, there are a variety of resources to help students and parents navigate their classes, including an online guide from the University of Michigan on how to adapt traditional study skills and habits to fit an online format. But even then, there is a lot of uncertainty – so much so that some school districts are prematurely reopened in August only to shut down again due to an increase in cases.
MD COVIDSitters (MDCS), an organization catered to families of essential workers, is here to lessen the strain. Volunteer childcare workers and tutors—all college or medical students, well-versed in curricula for all grade-levels—are available at any time of day to help with class- and homework, and the program is completely free to participating families. Parents can relax knowing that they have easy-access to an enthusiastic team to help their child while they focus on helping our community during the pandemic.
MDCS is a member of the COVIDsitters Network and offers a variety of free services to help essential workers as they face more unpredictable and stressful schedules, including Family Care, Pet Care, Errands, and Online Classes in academics, art, exercise, and more. Most of their volunteers are aspiring healthcare professionals and CPR-certified, and all are required to pass a background check and childcare program developed by the Minnesota Department of Health before starting.
Learn more about MD COVIDsitters and sign up for their services here.
Sources:
https://onlineteaching.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/student-disruption.pdf
