Sparks of difficulty have become more apparent as at home learning continues. Some of these complications include the excessive amount of work assigned each week. This has made helping little siblings a tremendous effort from both parents and older siblings. Before the e-learning phase began, the workload was much less than it is six weeks into e-learning. Pre-quarantine, students were in a helpful and work-oriented environment, the classroom. Online learning has dropped the amount of dedication and motivation for the students, since they are able to do other things that aren’t necessarily school oriented. It is very easy for kids to just turn on the TV and ignore the assignments or open a different tab on devices and watch Youtube or play games. The change in environment and support is affecting the amount of work they get done. 

Gabes perspective

The whole online learning isn’t easy to get used to, especially for a child in kindergarten.Kindergartener’s have a very short attention span, which makes it hard for them hold onto one subject for a long time. Constantly, I found myself trying to redirect their attention to the work. We also struggled with finding a rhythm of learning. We don’t both learn in the same way.  I learn through redoing my work until I get it right. They preferred more hands-on literal examples. The amount of work that they pile on is a lot for a small child to worry about when they didn’t do as much before. The hardest thing for any adult is having to worry about it. Luckily for my mom, we work with each other to prevent extra stress from having  to deal with everyone’s homework, emails, and zoom meetings. The biggest plus of having my surpluses of siblings is that we help each other out and have had each other’s backs.

Itxel’s Perspective

Being the oldest in the family definitely has its perks and struggles. I am the oldest of the three kids in the family. This puts me in the responsibility of my two younger siblings. A third grader and a preschooler. E-learning is no walk in the park. It’s a crying and yelling session every day. Whether it’s from lack of motivation or simply not understanding the concept, e-learning has become a problem that keeps growing in my household. One of the challenges that we face is that we all learned differently from the way they are learning now. My brother lacks the support that he would usually get in school, declining the amount that he learns. Between handling an unmotivated third grader, trying to teach a preschooler the basics, most of my time is spent on them. I don’t want this to affect them in a negative way, but every week, the workload is bigger and bigger. The kids would absorb the work better if they had a teacher since they know how to explain the concepts a little better than I can.