One family, five children: the ups and downs of remote schooling

DEER ISLE—Five kids, a home-based business and a lobsterman husband equals a busy life on any usual day. Throw in an abrupt change to home-based learning, after schools closed in March and a stay-at-home directive was issued over COVID-19, and life became a lot busier for Deer Isle mom Ashley Oliver.

- ANNE BERLEANT

Like all parents thrust into the role of teacher, she has had to find what works best for her own family, collectively, and for each child: fifth-grader Jaylin, second-grader Lucas, first-grader CJ, and Nya and Gianna, pre-K twins.

During the first week of remote learning, Oliver sat all five down at one table, matching each to a specific assignment.

“You do this, you do that,” is how she described it. “That didn’t work.”

Now, she has a dedicated place, her own desk, where she works with each child, one at a time, for an hour or more each day.

“I have to sit down with them,” she said.

This means Oliver’s school day ends a little later than a normal brick-and-mortar school day, around 3 p.m.

She also manages the eight to 10 weekly ZOOM meetings and at least 15 school-related emails per day. By the end of the school day, she said, she has mentally checked out.

“It’s a lot,” she said. “And it’s really hard to juggle. I can’t get my dishes done!”