WESTERVILLE, Ohio — Some parents choosing to keep their kids home after the pandemic were once concerned about how their children might adjust once they returned to a traditional setting.
What You Need To Know
- Amarie Tull learned online for more than one year before returning to in-person learning as a middle schooler
- Amarie's biggest lesson over the last year-and-a-half was learning to believe in herself
- Amarie's biggest concern was reconnecting with old friends and making new ones when she returned
While there were many highs and lows, parent Lorie Tull said keeping her 11-year-old daughter Amarie home for over a year turned out to be a good thing. She wasn’t fully sure in the beginning how it all would work out since she and her husband worked.
“I got laid off, but it turned out to be a blessing because I was able to stay home with the kids,” Tull said.
In doing so, she could provide stability while working through the challenges of remote learning with them. Amarie, who is a student at Genoa Middle School in Westerville, said the best part about staying home was being able to eat what she wanted without being on a strict schedule where she’d only eat school lunch.
Yet, the toughest part about learning online was that there were some concepts some kids knew and others didn’t.
“It’s challenging for us and the teachers to figure out like what everyone needs to know and what things we need to work on,” she said.
Remote learning wasn’t the only thing that was challenging. She said not being able to connect with her friends was another obstacle. Making and keeping friends would become even more crucial because Tull would transition out of elementary school into middle school.
She understood that she’d have to work harder to reconnect with old friends while attempting to make new friends.
As time drew closer, her mom said the thought of her daughter growing up and going to middle school was overwhelming.
“It was a big adjustment trying to figure out if she was ready,” Tull said.
That’s besides that COVID-19 cases were still fluctuating and the plan was for Amarie to go back to in person learning for the 2021-22 school year.
“I was a little nervous because new kids, a bigger school, more than one teacher,” she said.
But once she started, she adjusted well, making honor roll again, reconnecting with old friends, and making new ones and even taking up violin lessons.
Happy to be back at school, Amarie said she’s glad she doesn’t have to worry about struggling to hear or view things online. One of the biggest things she got out of being home for over a year, though, is what she calls a growth mindset.
“A growth mindset is like, I can try to learn math and I can achieve it. Like that’s a growth mindset so, that means like you believe in yourself,” Amarie said.
And now she not only believes in herself but is confident that whether it’s schoolwork or anything else, she’ll excel whether or not there’s a pandemic.