Parenting in Sharp Focus: Lessons from a Pandemic

“Being little” is of critical importance because we see the signature of early childhood experience literally in people’s bodies: their life expectancies are longer and their social-emotional capabilities are more robust when they have a chance to learn through play and through deep relationships, and when their developing brains are given the chance to grow in a nurturing, language-rich, and relatively unhurried environment. It’s clearer than ever before that young children are not simply mini-adults." 

Erika Christakis (Author: The Importance of Being Little)

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I have lived through three years of this pandemic (almost!) in a unique position - very closely affiliated with parents as a parent myself, as a grandmother of seven, and as an elementary school principal directly connected to children and families.  What began as a 'we are all in this together!' movement has morphed into what often feels like an 'every person for themselves' situation with competing images, unclear directions and a general sense of fatigue and uncertainty.

 While I could ruminate on many lessons - both negative and positive - I will hold in my heart from this pandemic when it finally subsides, perhaps the most profound observation I have made is how sharply this pandemic has pulled parenting into focus. I believe this may fall on the side of a positive lesson although, in some instances, it has emerged as an unexpected and perhaps puzzling aspect for many of us - grandparents included!

Before the pandemic punched holes in our world views (remember those days? They do seem to have happened so long ago...), our children were busy, active, involved little folks as they played minor sports, took music lessons, art lessons, dance lessons, swimming lessons, engaged in martial arts sessions, filled weekends with vibrant, sometimes excessive-but-entertaining birthday parties, spent their spare time in large indoor play spaces with names like The Flying Squirrel or Ninja Games, and kept their parents and grandparents very busy managing their social activities. While this scenario did not play out exactly the same way for every child, dependent as it was on socio-economic and/or family status, there is no doubt children of three years ago were overall much more committed to their external activities than it even seems possible to imagine today.  

Even as a grandmother, I remember sitting on the phone with my calendar and either of my children with families, pencilling in where my husband and I could help out with getting children to activities, watching assorted sports activities, music recitals, helping to supervise and organize birthday parties, babysitting little ones while older siblings attended school events, planning holidays to Disney World, lakes, Mexico or Hawaii, etc. Having experienced these activities similarly as a mother, this did not seem unusual to me in any way - childhood was a time to ensure active living, learning to play new sports and engage in new activities, to promote creativity and personal passions. Although I recall feeling that motherhood included a huge 'social convenor' role, this was parenting as I experienced in through the last two decades of the 20th century and well into the 21st - it was not a surprise to me that my children parented similarly, nor that the parents of the children I taught and worked with every day in schools were parented as active, involved members of society too!

What the pandemic caused in its' earliest iteration was an abrupt and unexpected end to all things encompassed in our modern definition of parenting. Suddenly there were no more lessons to go to, no playgrounds or school social events available for fostering friendships, no games to learn to play or watch or relive afterwards. There were no escape places either - no one could travel to Disney World or Hawaii or even the province next door easily. Instead of line ups for soccer or hockey registration, we worried about finding enough toilet paper and, rather unexpectedly, we worried about each other. Neighbours became very important in a distinctive way - they were our only contact with the world outside our homes for the first few months, and we suddenly paid attention to them even though we might have never even known their names before.  We got to know their children and their pets out of necessity, as well as interest - we had just never had time to be interested before. We wanted to help each other, ensure the health and safety of the world as we all felt we were part of the global fight to eliminate COVID. 

Suddenly our kids were home 100% of the time - and even when school began in person again last fall, there were still so many restrictions in place, school was about the only place they were allowed to go away from home. Gradually the world began to squeak open ever so slightly - some soccer, dance, hockey resumed in a controlled way, modifications for music classes began to emerge, theatres tentatively opened. Yet the virus swirled relentlessly on, and our worries about our children have been magnified by overwhelming media reports that often conflict and frighten, leading us to wonder if anyone in the world honestly knows anything...and should we care anymore about anyone other than our own families?

Despite this rather chaotic pandemic experience, parents have pivoted amazingly well in response to the pandemic experience - at least from my perspective. They have become much more aware of children's strengths and challenges as learners, understand their social responses and behaviours much more clearly, articulate their children's passions and pursuits beyond the activities of choice requiring registrations, tell stories about their children's favourite books or authors, find time to get to the public library with their children in tow, are learning new games, activities and seeking simpler, outdoor activities for play that appeal to both children and adults. Camping, skating, skiing, hiking - these have all elevated significantly in importance in our lives as the outside world has had to retreat from our immediate line of vision.

Knowing your children intimately - what their likes, dislikes, questions, opinions, passions, curiosities and deepest wishes are - even as they change frequently - makes the role of parenting richer and primal in a way that convening the childhood experiences of three years ago did not take the time to offer. We knew our children and grandchildren from the way they engaged in activities and social exchanges - now we know them from the way they engage in living closely within our family units as they find ways to provoke their curiosities and entertain themselves in ways that are considerably constrained. These are distinctive differences and mean our parenting must be front and centre with our children on a completely different level than previously - we are their primary navigators of relationships, technology, play, interests, outdoor pursuits, independence without the potential of safety nets where kids could learn skills and strategies for living from various external social experiences. 

Parenting has never been easy - we had five children over the course of 14 years and every time we ever made the arrogant mistake of thinking 'we've got this!' we were proved almost immediately inept as we dealt with yet another personality quirk or unexpected event in one child's life or another!  

Every beautiful baby comes with their own genetic set of unexpectedness - as much as they mirror the qualities of one parent or another - this genetic code is intrinsically designed to keep parents perpetually on their toes! What the pandemic forced upon us was an opportunity to shift our focus as parents to deeply connect with our children in ways we might not have been called on to try before.

Are our children experiencing mental health challenges as a result of the pandemic? 

Perhaps - it's been my experience that children typically respond emotionally to frightening world events, require a variety of honest, concrete reassurances and then are able to find new ways to cope, building their resiliency along the way. I remember when 9/11 occurred - no one would argue that event marked a generation of young children with mental health challenges as well. Parenting through those days was difficult, and required finding out how each child was processing their understanding of events so we could reassure each in the most appropriate way - and without telling them 'everything will be okay' since it was clear nothing was okay and might never be again. 

One of the things I am most confident about as a result of the pandemic is that parents are now even more deeply connected to their children, know them better than they ever have before, and are actively seeking whatever supports that are needed to reassure their children they can be hopeful, happy and active in their lives. 

Again, this perspective does not apply to every child, every family, every circumstance. 

Overall, however - as an educator, a principal, a parent, a grandparent - I have great confidence in parents and their primal connections with their children. Parenting has changed visibly over the past three years and it is this shift in parenting that I believe will best support the children in our schools, our country and the world with navigating our current chaos and build their personal resiliency. 

We are no longer blanketed by our children's social calendars. They, however, are wrapped in our concern, love and connections as we focus on what is most valuable in life - families, health, friends, connecting with one another and with our world. 

As pandemic lessons go, I do think this is a positive one!

Lorraine Kinsman, Principal

Eric Harvie School 

Engaging Learners is What Teachers Do Best

    

 "What should educators do next? 

Everything seems like it needs fixing.

The return to school-based learning should be accompanied by a more dynamic curriculum that serves all students...

Greater stimulation and success in the classroom are a big part of what makes kids feel well, happy, positively challenged, and flourishing." 

- Andy Hargreaves

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There is no doubt the pandemic's impact on teaching and learning over the past two years has been significant in multiple ways. At Eric Harvie School, we have experienced considerable shifts in how we engage in learning through our days - when we opened the school just over five years ago, we worked very hard to establish a climate of learning that focused on student engagement - ways to get students excited about learning - in a wide variety of ways.  

Through peace education, design thinking, place-based learning, borderless classrooms, multi-age class groupings, student-centred learning, inquiry-based investigations, Wonder Time and in a physical environment intended to deconstruct traditional paradigms of what 'learning' looked and sounded like, our school established itself as a place of learning intentionally considering learning through the perspectives and experiences of children rather than through mandated curricular directions. 

We explored the curricula, rather than 'learned' the curricula. We celebrated active learning both outside and inside, and we intentionally took our learning beyond the borders of our school as frequently as possible - whether it was into the community of Tuscany, Twelve Mile Coulee or to a significant number of places external to our school, including Head Smashed In Buffalo Interpretive Centre, the Calgary Public Library Downtown, Calgary Reads 'Reading House', the Vivo Centre, the Telus Centre,  City Hall, the Calgary Tower, the National Music Centre, Glenbow Ranch Park and many other places as well - all in just three short years.

We were delighted to witness our students representing their learning in multiple ways as well - through song, oral and written story telling, through video, dance, physical movement, art, drama, investigating in person, sharing experiences, asking questions, comparing data, observing and documenting the world as they encountered it through numerous perspectives and situations. We celebrated every learning experience possible with our families and our community and we were delighted to acknowledge the growth, enthusiasm for learning and academic development of our first students.

The pandemic has, without a doubt, constrained many of our initiatives, directions and willingness to explore the world in manifold ways. 

We've been cohorted, isolated, compartmentalized, cut off from each other, from the learning spaces and openness of communication and collaboration we had valued so greatly and championed every day. We developed our student engagement opportunities over the first almost four years of operation around flexible, collaborative learner interactions with a variety of experiences. 

The abrupt changes prompted by the pandemic created an urgency for teachers to re-consider how to best engage all our learners as a strategy to foster interest in learning and motivate students to invest energy in continued academic pursuits.

Teachers worked together to develop a daily schedule that offered choice, multiple opportunities throughout the week to connect with teachers and classmates and the 'Superhero' project to engage children in learning activities that were academic in structure and design. As we worked through the first 3 months of the pandemic online, attendance was occasionally sporadic, continued engagement was sometimes a challenge as technology demands increased in families and schools but teachers were pleased with the investment of children in learning and the overall positive growth of learners despite the unexpected pivot to online learning - and with the amazing Superhero projects!

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"We're not just in a pandemic; we're living amid multiple and interrelated global crises, from climate change to rampant wealth inequality to attacks on democracy. Our schools can't educate students well if we ignore the world around them." - Andy Hargreaves

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When we returned to in-person learning in September 2020, we were constrained significantly by new rules and precautions. Again, our capacities for developing engaging learning opportunities were interrupted as we contained learners in specific seats in classrooms and removed the capacity for flexibility of movement around the school.

Instead, we moved learning outside. Coulee School - always a component of our learning environment - took on a whole new role in our school's learning focus. We developed websites, applied for an outdoor grant, created opportunities for learning that focused on the natural environment and allowed us to be outside when inside was no longer the safest place to learn. Coulee School became our outlet for engagement and student focus, easing the intensity of the constraints in the school and encouraging learners to continue exploring new ideas and perspectives, new ways to represent understandings, even within a pandemic environment.

This fall we re-opened some of our learning spaces - the Learning Commons and the Maker Space - and made the Hub a more flexible place for collaborating and engaging in hands-on investigations and explorations.  We continue to live with constraints and have increased them in response to the recent arrival of the Omnicrom variant, including modifiying the ways we access open learning spaces. 

We continue to envision learning through the lens of engagement, interactions with hands-on learning experiences and real-life, authentic encounters and investigations. We continue to advance place-based learning through Coulee School experiences, we continue to engage in design thinking creations and we continue to encourage opportunities for learning that are connected to multiple curricula outcomes. 

In the Coulee, for example, we have identified winter feed for birds, used our observation and investigative skills to describe landforms and then used multiple synonyms to create concrete poems, and we have traced ecosystem structures for the survival of flora and fauna from our searches for seeds. And our mural project offered opportunities for learners to capture their thinking in a unique, collaborative effort. Snapshots of how engaged learning brings non-classroom based explorations together with curricular objectives and outcomes.

We have, as well, participated in the provincial assessments intended to identify learning gaps resulting from the pandemic interruptions, as well as possible escalations in anxieties, fears or not feeling safe in a COVID world. We have also considered the increase in digital knowledge students have developed over the past two years, and whether we should capitalize on that as we move forward in this school year, seeking to increase technology-based learning. 

Teachers believe the most effective way to identify and address any learning gaps, social-emotional wellness or access to learning is to provoke student interest and engagement - children who want to know more, try new things, investigate and represent new understandings, questions and possible solutions will continue to grow as learners. 

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"As schools look to recover from the pandemic, instead of focusing on "learning loss" and persisting with heavy standardized testing, let's bring magic and mystery into learning and teaching...let's infuse the curriculum with meaning and purpose to arouse young people's passions and address compelling issues. And instead of trying to make everything entertaining, let's ensure...students experience the mastery of hard-won accomplishment, while increasing achievement." - Andy Hargreaves

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The 2021-22 school year is still unfolding and our students are still thriving as interested, engaged, curious learners. We continue to focus our energies on captivating them with opportunities to think independently, ask questions, seek solutions, try multiple approaches to discover a best solution, investigate, plan, interrogate, create, propose options. The pandemic constraints have not disappeared but they will not impede learning. It is not the environment, the technology, the curricula, the tests, online videos nor sequential lessons that lead children to grow as learners - it is curiosity, imagination, investigation and opportunities to engage in purposeful work that defines engagement, and it is engagement that motivates learners to continue growing academically even in times of pandemic constraints.

Andy Hargreaves is a reknowned educator, researcher and author. His recent article in the Educational Leadership  magazine, titled 'The Future of Learning Lies in Engagement" reflects, in many ways, the experiences of Eric Harvie School and our learners. 

Our students may be young but they are mighty learners. And we are deeply committed to continuing with student engagement as our primary motivator for learning. 

Lorraine Kinsman, Principal

Eric Harvie School  

What Piques Your Child's Curiosity?

"We have to dream. How else will we make a future that does not yet exist?" - Simon Sinek

"Encouraging curiosity in young children and cultivating their eagerness to learn may be a potential intervention target to foster early reading and math academic achievement at kindergarten age."                                                                                      - (Shah, Weeks, Richards & Kaciroti, 2018)

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What does your child know about:

These were the topics we generated in one 30-minute time frame in a grade 1/2 class when I asked: 

What would you like to know more about that you can't do on an ipad or laptop? It can be anything!

Curiosity lives in these responses - while we generated approximately 50 things the 26 students in the room were interested in finding out more about, it took us 30 minutes to capture all the words in writing simply because every word included a child's story about why they wanted to know more - or an experience they had that made them wonder about something - or a particular experience with something they wanted to elaborate on or spend more time engaging with overall. Every time these 6 and 7 year olds identified something they wanted to know more about, they also had a story explaining why they wanted to know more!

This is where we find what motivates our children to invest more energy into learning about their world, where we discover particular interests and fascinations. They will be different than the things that fascinate their parents or siblings - and should be since we are all individuals, born to be unique beings on a planet with almost 8 billion humans living on its' surface.  

Because our children are interested in different things than we might be does not mean we stop offering invitations to learn alongside us as we engage in our particular passions - quite the contrary!  As we demonstrate and explore our passions, we are simultaneously modelling for our children that is absolutely acceptable to pursue our fascinations as well as offering ideas for how they might engage in discovery about any specific interest or idea that captivates their imagination.

Children need to know it is okay to pursue a passion or fascination and launch a quest to find out 'more' about any thing or any interesting topic, place, idea. Parents are our first and most influential models for exploring new ideas, uncovering new information, investing ourselves in new pursuits and activities.  As a parent engages in a preferred activity, regardless of whether their child is equally enamoured with the same activity, seeing the parent invested in the pursuit will motivate the child to do the same - often providing a beginning path to get started. 

In these days of limited social access due to the pandemic, and especially in winter when anyone who is not captivated by cold weather outdoor pursuits might feel rather limited in possibilities for active engagement, pursuing curiosities offers a whole avenue of investigation and exploration!

A couple of things have motivated me to write about what piques children's curiosity - children themselves to begin with! Every time I engage in any sort of conversation with children about what they would like to know more about or what they are curious to try doing, they always have an answer and it rarely has anything to do with digital programs (and, if it does, then I will say 'what about something you can't do on the ipad or the laptop?' and provoke different thinking). 

40+ years of parenting and 35+ years of teaching have never let me down when I ask this question - I rarely ask 'what do you want to do?' when a child says they are bored, or tired or 'want to do something'.  Often I send them off with a piece of paper and a writing instrument and say 'come back in 10 minutes with a list of what you would like to do more of, know more about, try again or for the first time...' I have never been disappointed with the results because children are, at heart, outside-the-box thinkers. We just need to give them space, permission and encouragement to step outside of the moment and refresh their thoughts.

Last week I watched - through the powers of social media -  Julie van Rosendaal, a Calgary chef/cookbook author/parent, spontaneously offer online cooking classes to children who were unexpectedly home for a third week of winter break.  The response was significant and she certainly bravely encountered many obstacles and upsets from being torpedoed in Zoom to an oversubscribed group. As I followed her on Twitter and admired how swiftly she adapted to the challenges, I also marvelled at the investment of the children in this new experience - from afar of course - and their eagerness to try something different as they interacted with Julie, cooked in their own kitchens, asked questions, exchanged stories. Technically, they did do this on a laptop or ipad but only as a starting point - the whole story played out in over a thousand kitchens across Calgary and, I am confident, will yield many potential chefs, kitchen gourmet cooks and cookbook readers as a result!

My second reason for addressing curiosity in my blog - as Julie cooked with kids experiencing a COVID-provoked extended winter break, I came across extensive statistics on the impact of the pandemic on children. Several of these stats revealed increased screen time for kids accompanied by decreased socialization and corollary increases in anxiety and depression. Which got me thinking about how we might inspire children to try new things, investigate novel ideas or discover more information about things they are curious about.

We live in a digital age - even as old as I am, I have never lived in a time where there was not access to television, radio, digitally-delivered information. And our sources of digital information are so enormous in today's world that they actually surpass the real world in magnitude (hence the onset of the metaverse - which, from my perspective, is a huge investment in adult imagination).  Hands on experiences, often guided by an adult but not necessarily an expert adult, offer children an opportunity to invest their imaginations, energy and senses in ways digital experiences are simply not capable of offering (at least, not yet!).  In piquing curiosities with children we also often discover new ways to invest physically and emotionally in human experiences and it is often these unexpected experiences that launch the most creative, innovative thinking as children grow and discover their roles, places and participations in the real world. 

What piques your child's curiosity?  Chances are they have things they would like to know about far beyond what a parent imagines they are interested in learning more about - or in doing, creating, trying, exploring. Whatever they are curious about, they need to experience ways to explore, discover, experiment, investigate, create outside the classroom and in their world.  The avenues for exploration are truly vast and diverse - from reading, watching information on tv or digitally, visiting new sites, trying new experiences at home, acquiring new materials to try to manipulate (whether clay, wood, nails, fabric, yarn, rocks, etc), sharing ideas with others who are interested as well, documenting these new understandings and experiences in photos, sketches, words (even digitally!) are all inviting, invigorating aspects of being a child with the capacity to be curious, fascinated, inspired.  

Encouraging children to pursue their curiosities, their fascinations, their passions will motivate and inspire critical thinking and innovation, communication and collaboration. They may not echo our passions but they will most certainly acquire skills in sharing and advancing their own passionate pursuits and curiosities!

Lorraine Kinsman, Principal

Eric Harvie School