Work From Home featuring Kim Thompson-Springer

Hi EWF members and friends,

I hope you all are doing well during this globally historic and unprecedented period. We would like to share some of our thoughts and experiences as we all struggle to navigate this abrupt and drastic change to our lives as we knew them pre-COVID in the hope that we can collectively support as well as learn from our experiences.

Initially I found the transition to working from home relatively easy. I had a comfortable space for my office setup which was relatively separated from my kids’ activity space. My older kids ( both teenagers) were getting on with their school assignments as expected and my preschooler was generally well behaved and just happy to have everyone around.

As the weeks have now turned into months, I find the lack of social interaction to be a bit of a drain on my usual high energy personality. The simple act of passing someone in the corridor or lunch room and quickly chatting about how they are doing, what projects they are working and having a good laugh together really adds an unquantifiable quality to my days that I now very much miss.

I’ve realised as the weeks progress the level of engagement and enthusiasm around online school has declined. The nature of a teenager is such a social one that it’s quite challenging to keep them excited about online learning. If online learning is to continue as a means of educating kids I think more engaging tools will need to be developed. Perhaps the science of videos games can be transferred to e-learning!

On the positive side of this COVID experience, without the commute time to and from work and no where to go on the weekends, I’m spending lots more time with my family in the evenings, reading more books and watching numerous streaming services that I never watched before! Now that the weather is good, I’ve been doing more gardening than usual. I’m also drawing energy from the outdoors, I’ve found Alberta’s sunny days and big sky to be a source of renewal and energy as we inch towards the longest day of the year.

Even though this experience has brought much uncertainty and anxiety to many of us. I suspect when this is all over we’ll look back on this period with a bit of fondness…the time when the world stood almost still for a few months. Together we can get through this!

Kim