Taking it day by day: Parents say they’re doing their best to teach their children

Charmaine Pyakutch wasn’t surprised at all when the provincial government announced Thursday, May 7 that school would not resume for Saskatchewan students until at least September.

The Saskatoon mother of five is still working full time from home and has two school-aged children. One of those children has special needs and she’s trying her best to home school them.

“It is starting to become overwhelming, especially with my younger one. She was born four months premature so she has a lot of catching up to do. She’s in Grade 6 but is kind of at that Grade 3/4 level, so she needs that one-on-one support that I can’t always give her.”

She’s finding that work, home and teaching demands are incredibly difficult at times. During the day, she focuses on her work, and at night she does her best to give her kids instruction and more one-on-one time.

Because her daughter is also immune compromised, she’s not sure what might happen come September.

“If the pandemic is still happening, I do not want to be putting my child back into a situation where you know, she could possibly get COVID-19 because she has other health issues that I’m concerned about.”

Rochelle Sinclair is a single mom with a teenage son. She may be going back to work May 19 and has decided that following the curriculum was not challenging enough for her son to keep him motivated. So, she’s decided to put school work by the wayside for now.

“He’s already been losing so much interest with the online forum anyways. It just sort of ended that for us. The assignments were significantly limited. My son thrives on the math and history and sciences and so far…so that was really boring for him.”

The fact that there was not going to be any Grade 8 farewell ceremony also disengaged her son.

“I think I’m going to let it go. There’s a lot of things we learn and teach I think as parents anyways in day to day life.”

Kristen Howlett’s situation is also different. Married, with three sons, she’s also a Grade 1 teacher working two days a week right now. She and her husband have a family routine that includes school work, plenty of exercise and some downtime as well.

“If I don’t have to work that day, we try to do a family jog in the morning just to get everyone up and out of bed. And then we come home…we have a breakfast and we try to keep a routine.We have academic stuff in the morning that they have to do for at least an hour and then they get a break.”

There’s lunch, complete projects, some social time after that with friends online and maybe an outdoor activity. After dinner there might be a bike ride and then perhaps some video games.

“We try to keep it pretty routine so that they know what to expect at what time in the day and we find that that helps them to adjust.”

Regardless of the daily routine in each household, the common theme from parents: we’re doing what we can to get through this period of time.

Dominika Kosowska, a mother to a 6 1/2-year-old son, believes above all, taking care of the mental health of both parents and children is paramount.

“The connection with our children especially right now is more important than ever. I feel and I think that there is nothing more important than prioritizing that. They (children) have so much stress and their own anxieties, and we need to be that safe space for them and sometimes put away our agenda.”