Online classes for my kids started a week ago. It is already making me wonder how I would get through this academic year. My elder one, Han is in primary school. He can manage things on his own with a little support from me. While my younger one, Kay attended lower KG last year sporadically (due to my work schedule). I decided this year, I will make him attend the online class for KG (Upper). I taught him all the alphabets, basic counting, and followed his course books completely so that he would not miss out on anything. In fact, last year I wasn’t worried much. The schools were going to re-open anyway. The kids will cope. I don’t have to worry about anything.
(Han and Kay are nicknames I have chosen for my kids. I don’t want their real names to be too popular you see.. Ha ha.. No seriously you guys!)
Fast forward to this year
The schools are still closed. The online classes have begun. AGAIN!
Various sources have agreed that online classes are tough for children. But this is the only option available for our children right now.
At the start of the academic year, the school principal called me and said she wanted to assess my younger one to see if he could be promoted to Upper KG. I was confident about Kay’s performance. He was at that glorious age where he can say whatever comes to his mind and people will think he is cute – even when he is being outright rude!
So after some basic discussions, the school was ready to promote Kay. And I was thrilled!!
Online Class for KG, here we come!
First Day – Online class for KG
So Kay brushed his teeth, took a bath, had breakfast and was ready for his first class. We connected to the class through Google Meet and there were some other children already online. I signalled Kay to wish ‘Good morning’ to his teacher and he did. The teacher started with some simple introductions and talked to every one in the class. And Kay kept looking at me for guidance. I asked him to look at the screen repeatedly. Kay kept yawning and going out of focus, kept fiddling throughout the class. He did not even sit properly.
After his introduction session was over, I told Kay that this was how he was going to learn new things and the other little kids in the phone were his friends. He seemed to understand partially. Though I’m sure he did not take his teacher seriously. See, that is why this lock down and online classes are the toughest for KG kids.
They have no idea what school is or how teachers are. How are we, as parents, supposed to explain that perfectly?
Other KG parents, are you with me on this? So this is what followed in the other online classes in the subsequent days:
Maths
The teacher refreshed numbers from 1 to 50 and my little Kay was a pro! He knew all the numbers and loved Maths till he met ‘Backward Counting from 20 to 1. Took me a few tries to get that one right from him.
Otherwise he was doing okay.
Rhymes
What happened to all the easy, traditional, golden rhymes like ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ , ‘Johnny Johnny’ or even ‘Humpty Dumpty’? His rhymes book was alien to me. I did not know any rhymes there!
Not a single one! I looked up from the book into Kay’s eager face and mentally prepared myself for a long session.
The first rhyme had 12 lines. Hello! Seriously book author, I think you got confused between a rhyme and a short story. Twinkle Twinkle has 4 lines!
So the rhyme went like this
Two shiny eyes
To look around
Two tiny ears
To hear a sound
One little mouth
To eat a toast
One little nose
To smell a rose
Ten little toes
To kick a ball
Ten little fingers
To wave and call
Now Kay had to learn it and recite it in class. His version went something like this:
Two shiny eyes loo around
Two shiny ears to look a sound
One little mouth eat and toast
One little nose vasanai rose (vasanai means ‘smell’ in Tamil… Kay might not know the word but of course he knows the meaning)
Ten little toes kick a ball
Ten little (mumbles something) call and (mumbles something)
It took me a few tries to correct him till he could recite it perfectly.
But yayyy, it was his first rhyme taught in school.
(Good job mama…and errr..the teacher)
Tamil
Now before starting on this topic I was wondering whether I should write it here or publish Kay’s experiences in Tamil class as a separate blog post. So many things have been happening in his Tamil class. Now for those who do not know about Tamil, Tamil is one of the world’s oldest languages (It is more than 2000 years old!). So the literature is vast and…err.. a little complicated. To add to it, our mother tongue is not Tamil either. So it was a completely new language to Kay.
But that was not the first challenge for the Tamil teacher. The actual challenge was to make Kay sit in one place and look at the phone and at her specifically. Since Tamil was challenging, Kay easily lost interest in the KG online class. He kept looking at me for help or just zoned out playing with his hair or scribbling something on his classwork note. It was an effort to make him listen to the class actively.
The teacher started with the the basic alphabets (ah, aah, e, eeh….) and Kay introduced her to Tamil alphabets she never knew in her life. He was pronouncing it like some watered down English (not stressing on any syllable). His diction was hilarious. But his teacher was such a nice lady. She kept trying everyday. Tamil classes were tiring for me because the kids whose first language was Tamil were better than Kay (There.. I hate to admit it, but it was true!)
For eg : Alamarai (for Alamaram), Ela (for elai), elami (for elumichai)…. you get the drift. Now Kay was super sensitive to people laughing at his mispronunciation. So it was an effort to keep a straight face when he was attempting to master Tamil. Later on, he calmed down enough to know that even his beloved brother Han made mistakes. So it was settled then – Both of us could enjoy Tamil classes in our own way.
EVS
This is a class Kay thought he was a master at. He loved his books and actually listened to the class. He could name the parts of the body, identify sense organs and so on. It was ok.
English
After some serious attempts to bring down the size of his handwriting (it initially spanned like five lines or something), Kay felt OK with the subject. He proudly showed off how much he learnt during classes, wrote spellings of cat, mat, bat etc (brought back fond memories of teaching Han.. Children grow up verrrrrry fast!)
Now while all this was going on in the academic side, the school celebrated the International Yoga day couple of days ago.
International yoga day
All children had to perform their favorite yoga asanas online through Google Meet where the rest of their friends, the Principal and class teachers were connected. I thought long and hard and about what yoga I could teach him. There were a lot of easy yoga poses. I taught Kay the butterfly pose , the tiger pose and padmasana (meditation pose). Han knew a lot more asanas so after checking briefly for my opinion he managed it on his own. I sat with Kay as he patiently awaited his turn to perform.
Organising such an online class for KG kids is tricky but the school had put in an excellent effort connecting hundreds of students in different sessions.
When Kay’s name was called out, he got up with a big smile and started performing those yoga asanas which he learnt with confidence. I would not technically call it yoga because Kay rushed through his yoga not taking a single minute in between to relax.
It was more like a yoga dance, but a good yoga dance. He sat down after finishing his routine, all proud. His teachers congratulated him on participating in the session and gave positive feedback. Kay attempted to get up and I signaled him to sit down.
He got up nevertheless and then………..BRRRR……FAAAAARTED.
Not a normal fart. A LOUD PROLONGED FART!
I was mortified. Here he was in his online class connected with more than hundred people in a live session and he does this???!!!!
Just when I though I would never outlive this shame as long as he was in kindergarten, Kay announced with pride:
“Mama, Did you hear how loudly I farted?”
I cut the video right there. I was laughing so hard, that I had to take a moment to compose myself. That was Kay just being Kay.
Online class for KG kids
So many interesting, frustrating, funny things happened at the online classes. But here is what is learnt from them all.
Teachers are really trying
It is so hard for teachers to connect with KG children online. They are also equally frustrated when the child does not listen, pay attention to class, does not do homework, or does not sit properly in class. (Believe me, the last one happens the most.) Partner with teachers to train your ward. Make them your ally. The child will learn faster.
Connectivity is frustrating
Sometimes the connectivity issues arise making the whole process very hard. But make sure you have proper back up and even if there is disturbance due to technology, sit beside your children and engage them till the issue is sorted out. Most importantly do not take out your frustrations on them.
Work Vs Online Classes
The never ending battle between work-from-home and the online class for kids is real! We just have to deal with it. There is no use cribbing over things we cannot change. Instead focus your energies in creating excellent planners to create your work life balance. We are in the middle of a pandemic. And all of us have devised our own coping mechanisms.
Don’t compare your coping mechanisms. Just know that you are trying your best everyday!
KG kids are intuitive
Generally kids are intuitive but smaller children even more so. They pick their emotional cues from parents. If you create a calm working atmosphere, they will learn faster and better. They will also listen to you more if you are assertive instead of being authoritative. Don’t be afraid to take a stand and back that stand with a sound logic. You will be surprised to see how kids actually understand your point.
Give children time to explore
Yes, they would want to doodle a cat right after K, while writing down alphabets. Don’t get mad. They are after all using a pencil and you can erase that doodle cat anytime.
Don’t expect their handwriting to be better than their classmates. As long as it is legible, it is fine really!
Allow time for even accommodating their boredom. This might be time consuming but it is definitely the shortest route to work being done.
(The alternative scenario would be, you yelling, they refusing to write, you pleading, still refusing to write, you threatening, still refusing to cooperate, you bargaining and finally reaching an agreement – it is not a healthy cycle)
Make learning fun
When your child draws that doodle cat, maybe tell him how cute it looks and then turn another page , allowing him to doodle for a while. Then come back to the homework page and gently nudge them to complete their homework. (Eg: By the time you finish this, your favorite show will be shown on TV. We can watch it together.) Make learning fun.
Online classes are harder for our children than us. If it were the normal scenario, they would be at school, running, jumping, playing, making new friends, connecting with their teacher in a classroom. But things worked out in a different way for them. So the next time, when your child, calls out a friend’s name in online class or farts in front of a hundred people, just let them be. They are just being kindergarten kids.
