MARCH 30, 2020

Despite a cancelled trip to Disney World and a cancelled outing to Hamilton, the Vaux family was doing well at the end of March. With all three kids at home, each adjusting to online learning and the cancellation of their after-school activities, life had entered a strange new normal. “At this point, it was all a novelty, but I think in my house, we realized very quickly that the kids weren’t going back to school that year. We watched the numbers and we knew it would be lasting into the fall. It was a little bit discouraging, but we felt that everyone had a part to play in making it better,” said Meredith, who accepted that she and her husband Bob would be the ones who would have to keep their kids busy. “I think it helped a little bit to know that we had April, May and part of June, and then, much like the school, we would figure out a better plan. We would regroup and reassess.” Luckily, the kids were rolling with all the rapid changes. “Kids are so resilient,” said Meredith, “None of my kids ever really got very down about anything.” According to Meredith, the hardest part was having three devices going at the same time as her three children tackled their online learning – Owen at RSGC, their daughter, Tabitha, at St. Clement’s and Sebastien at the local public school. “Sebastien needed a bit more attention, which was fine. I would have thought that he would have adapted the most easily as the youngest, but I think it was actually the hardest for him,” said Meredith. “For example, my daughter already sits and texts her friends, which she was able to continue, but all of Seb’s stuff came to a grinding halt. There was no interaction with his class through the public school. It was interesting to me, but he certainly didn’t adapt as well to the online learning.” Owen, however, seemed to adjust well to online school. It helped that his teacher, Mr. Story, did a great job of keeping the Grade 5 class engaged, often getting his young son involved with the boys. It was also nice for Owen to see his classmates every day. “Owen is a pretty adaptable person. It didn’t seem to bother him very much to be home, but you could see that he missed his friends once he was able to see them again,” said Meredith. “When he finally got together with his friends again, you could just tell that there was almost a lightness to it all. Connecting with people really makes a difference.” As for Owen, he was more hopeful that the lockdown was only temporary, which may have helped his positive attitude. “I thought it was just for a few weeks, so I wasn’t super affected by it and it didn’t bother me that much,” said Owen. “I still held out hope that maybe we would go back to school, but I was pretty upset that I wasn’t going to see my friends for the rest of the year and that I couldn’t chat with them unless it was a video call.” As the days, weeks and months of online learning passed and parents, students and the teachers adapted to the new way of life, Meredith learned to navigate her way around the portal, and grew increasingly impressed by the way the College attempted to replicate its sense of community. “Having the virtual layby every morning, the coffee mornings – they definitely tried to bring some normalcy into it. It was hard to mimic what the school does, but they did a great job at keeping that alive,” said Meredith, who, upon reflection, also suggested there was room for improvement. “They could have set very clear rules early on as to when you talk and when you have your camera on. Rules like, you need to sit at a desk and not on your bed. The day was shorter than I would have wanted it to be, but I know that it’s challenging when your teacher is also working from home and has kids that they also have to teach.”