A Family’s New Normal Amidst COVID-19
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our ESP families have been forced to live a new normal to continue moving their lives and their child’s early learning forward.
For Ms. Turner, a single working mother whose son is enrolled in our Head Start program at the Child Development Center (CDC), she has had to adjust to make the necessary accommodations for herself and her son.
On a normal school day, the child who also receives special needs services would ride the bus to school while his mother would catch a ride to the local fast food restaurant where she works full-time. Ms. Turner has no transportation of her own.
Our center closings during the onset of the pandemic impacted them significantly and caused Ms. Turner to have to take the child to work with her. He would wait in the lobby area as she worked her shift. Other childcare options were not affordable and she has no family here for support.
In spite of, she has persisted. ESP has also adapted to meet the needs of families.
When a home visit was completed by our Parent, Family and Community Engagement Manager to deliver food and home learning materials, Ms. Turner proudly displayed the poster she made and taped to her wall of the sight words and learning worksheets she has Zenobi complete that were
provided to her by our program.
Each night after she gets home from work, Ms. Turner ensures that her son has his night school session where they practice him identifying his sight words and letters.
She attributes her ability to reinforce what he has learned to Mrs. Dumas and Mrs. Huguley, his teachers at CDC.
Ms. Turner’s commitment to being her child’s primary teacher is clearly evident in the action she has taken to continue his learning at home amidst adjusting to her new normal.