Abalang Pinay: Covid-19 What have you done?

The county has been on Shelter-in-place since March 18 and school closure started last March 16, 2020. I just got an email from the school district that they are extending the school closure until May 1st which may or may not be extended depending on what is going on with the corona virus crisis.

These are the challenges that I as a parent is facing because of this:

1. School closure- This means that as a Sub-Teacher in the district, there will be no available jobs for me. They already cancelled my accepted jobs as they don't really need my services.

2. No childcare- Since school is closed, Childcare is needed for me to be able to work but it isn't smart to find childcare when we are on shelter-in-place. It would be endangering the health of my child and my family and the family of those who would be doing child care.

3. Unemployment- School closure and childcare would mean not having any available jobs. This is when I decided to try applying for unemployment.

4. Shopping- It is not advised to go to crowded places with kids at this time. They can get sick. So my solution one day was to ask a friend to watch my kid at the parking lot. So my friend stayed in her car and parked by my car. My daughter stayed in my car while my friend also stayed in her car. She was able to watch my daughter as pick up my groceries from Target. In that way, I didn't have to bring my daughter inside Target and I was still able to pick up my groceries. Thank you my friend Louise.

5. Free breakfast and lunch-We have been so lucky to receive free breakfast and lunch daily for my child. We needed to pick up the food daily from 10 to 1 pm. In April, they said they will be changing it which means we will have to pick up the food for the week every Mondays from 10 am to 1 pm. It is really great since I can't really go shopping and I am jobless.

Here are some of the free breakfast and lunches we picked up from the nearest school.

My daughter loved picking these up because that's the only time we will go outside for now. She would also immediately eat some of it as soon as we go home. It helps save money at this time of crisis.

Sheltering-in-place due to Covid-19 Pandemic Day 8

6. Crisis Review- The only thing that isn't a challenge for me is teaching my own child. I love helping my kid learn and being able to teach her at this time of crisis. The teaching experience does help and there are also lots of resources online. You can join fb group that is dedicated to Parents that are new to homeschooling like Now that you're a Homeschool Teacher or The Learning Teacher Page and many more.

One more thing, our kids don't need so many hours of studying. 2 hours a day is enough as there are so many life skills that we can teach them at home.

With all the said challenges I am facing at home, I know some of you can relate, I hope that we all just stay positive and follow the government's order of staying at home as much as possible. We need to be safe for our love ones.

As of today, March 26, 2020, There are already 14 confirmed cases at San Benito County. So please, let us all Be Patient, Be Kind, Be Safe and Stay Home.