Covid: The Impact of Working from Home

For many people, homeschooling during the pandemic was complex. But on the other hand, working from home also had positive sides. During the pandemic, it meant that some parents had more time for their children because everyone was at home. But, of course, every person has their own opinion on this topic. Was that all bad?

Some parents, for example, already worked from home, even before the pandemic. My parents, for instance, have their firm in the same house that we live in. Therefore this new situation for society was, in my case, nothing I wasn’t familiar with.

But the parents of most of my friends were confronted with a new situation: working from home. Working from home was a challenging period, but by working from home, all parents could get closer to their children, and their daily life was shared in a closer situation than before the pandemic. Relationships probably got deeper. On the other hand, conflicts might have risen. But is that really bad? Conflicts can bring you closer and can teach you to overcome obstacles. Because of their presence at home, kids could directly ask for help during homeschooling and did not have to wait until the evening when parents came home from work.

My sister was in 1st grade and playing seemed more interesting than sitting down and learning.

Kids’ Experiences with Home Schooling

Homeschooling was implemented in different ways. Not every child has the same system for online schooling. For example, my little sister, that attends a swiss public school, never had zoom-class of any kind. During the lockdown, she never saw one of her classmates. Her teacher sent envelopes with working papers that had to be solved. My sister was in 1st grade, and playing seemed more interesting than sitting down and learning. As I remember, my mother had to fight hard to get her to a working desk. At some point, my mother gave up because her work did not get done.

On the other hand, my friends and I from my old school had daily zoom meetings. But not for regular classes, just to stay socialized. 30 minutes a day, we exchanged our experiences of being at home. Our homework and tasks were either sent by email, or we had to go on a platform to extract them from different folders.

As I heard from my new classmates at ZIS, online homeschooling started fast after the lockdown, so classes and the study plan did not suffer. In my case, we missed much education because it was pretty unorganized. At ZIS, they immediately grasped the new challenge and made school and education possible, although the pandemic came very unexpectedly, and it seems this obstacle was managed very well.

My experience of planning my whole day by myself was new, and I must admit, I liked it. My former teacher often could not get across the topics in class, so I learned to work independently by studying at home and needing to be more proactive to get the information by myself. I must admit I did not miss school; I missed my friends and interacted with them. The daily program for me was full of choices I could rearrange whenever I liked; this freedom was incredible.
Looking back at the Covid-19 lockdown, I think a mixture of home office and homeschooling might be interesting to keep to a certain extent. It is nice to work and study in a familiar home environment; on the other hand, interacting out from home in the office or school is something people like and need to have for balance. But if I had to choose one or the other, I still would choose to go to school.

My mom said it well, “Even though we were at home the whole time, I enjoyed spending time with my family.”