ANNIE Keipert is a local mum of four, with three children in primary school and a sixteen month old toddler.

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Annie also runs her own small business from her home.

Her older children are in year four, year two and kindergarten, and like so many in our community, Annie was faced with the challenge of homeschooling all her kids at the same time.

Annie’s secondary school teacher hubby was also working partially from home at the time.

There were many challenges, not the least of which was the lack of space in the house, as well as a variety of technological challenges, like sourcing new devices or having enough capacity with the home internet network.

Annie’s son Ezra is five years old and was anxious about making friends before commencing kindergarten at the beginning of the year, and was just starting to connect with other children in his group when the family elected to keep the kids at home.

While Ezra and his siblings performed well in their home based schooling and were well supported with online learning by the school, he has shown an increase in his anxiety about friendships and was nervous about returning to the classroom.

“We have felt a bit disconnected from the school, not being able to connect with the teacher as we had with the older kids, and we have missed the big activities like the Easter Hat parade, although Ezra made one as a home school activity,” said Annie.

One upside of the past few months, is the time that the Keipert’s have had to connect as a family, finding a common interest in watching Star Wars movies together.

May the Force be with them.

By David TUNE