Skills Our Children Have Learnt During the Pandemic

If anyone asked you what your children have learnt during the pandemic, what would you answer? They’ve learnt to wash their hands and wear face masks? Most are probably computer geniuses by now? We may well have created a generation of future ‘Bill Gates’ or ‘Steve Jobs’ thanks to online schooling and virtual playdates! 

How about you? As a parent, I think most of us will have learnt patience, flexibility and adaptability in the past few months. Patience as we do our best to support our children in their learning, sometimes having to explain concepts to them that we have long forgotten ourselves! Patience also because of the unknown and uncertainty when it comes to the future. When will schools reopen? When will we travel again? When will we see our loved ones? Flexibility and adaptability because we have had to adapt to the current situation within a matter of days. From being a stay at home carer or a working parent, most of us have added to those responsibilities the challenging jobs of becoming teachers, teaching assistants, nurses, doctors, psychologists, chefs, cleaners and many more roles, and all with a smile of course, to help the children feel comfortable with it all!

Are we the only ones, as parents, to have learnt those skills however? Have the children only learnt to battle germs and to navigate Google Classrooms effortlessly? 

When I see the resilience and optimism in my students day after day, as they spend long hours in front of their screens, as they long to see their friends, teachers and extended family, as they learn complex mathematical or scientific concepts through a video lesson, practise their phonics skills with their teachers in a live but online lesson...I am in awe. I am in constant awe of their courage, their grit, their perseverance and their passion. A passion for learning that is evident through their work, their funny videos, the comments they send their teachers and friends, their participation in online events, be it a dress-up event like Roald Dahl Day or an online graduation ceremony. I am in awe at how easily most children have adapted to their ‘new normal’, thanks to their parents’ support, their teachers’ hard work, but most importantly, thanks to the new skills they have also learnt and developed since March 2020: adaptability and flexibility. They will forever benefit from those new skills as they become ingrained in their characters and personalities. The year 2020 can come and go, we will start 2021 stronger; our children will be able to face any situation thrown their way, and as a community, we will thrive and learn from our experiences. There is a silver lining in every situation, and the skills our children have developed this year is certainly the lesson I choose to learn from the pandemic.