DALTON, Ga. — Parents across the nation find themselves unexpectedly spending more time at home with their children, thanks to closures of school buildings due to the new coronavirus (COVID-19). Some local parents who have long homeschooled say the transition may be rough for some but with a little patience it can work.

Murray County resident Stephanie Miller said having all four of her children at home during the school day provides a bit of déjà vu.

“We homeschooled all four of them at one point, so we had done this before,” she said. “The kids knew what was expected of them at home. We just had to get back into the flow.”

Three of her children attend schools in the Murray County Schools system and one continued to be homeschooled with a program through Abeka Academy, a Christian homeschool program.

When Murray County Schools closed school buildings in March because of the coronavirus, the other three children began to do their school work on the computer.

“That has been the biggest difference and the biggest challenge,” Miller said. “When we were homeschooling them before, they all had tablets. Now, we have one computer and scheduling all of them around that one computer is tricky sometimes.”

Miller said she advises parents who now have children unexpectedly at home during the day that consistency is one key practice.

“When I started homeschooling, the biggest lesson I had to learn was to be patient and to be consistent on times,” she said. “It’s easy to put things off or to get distracted, and being consistent in when they do their work really helps them avoid those things.”

Some homeschoolers also recommend that, if possible, families designate one room or one place as the school area where children should work.

Murray County resident Megan Rewlis is homeschooling two children.

“I also have a toddler at home,” she said.

Rewlis said she and her husband wanted to give their children a faith-based education.

“Given that we have multiple children, we knew we could probably not afford a private school,” she said. “Also, my husband is in the military (National Guard) and travels from time to time. Homeschooling makes it easier to visit him. We have flexibility. We aren’t tied down to a traditional school calendar. But we are still providing a proper education for our children.”

How do homeschooling families deal with the inevitable distractions of educating from home?

“I have a friend who homeschools and she told me never put my children in a room where there are no distractions,” Rewlis said. “They learn to focus. They learn to multitask. When my oldest started homeschooling, I had a toddler at the time, and she was always in the same room. It’s like the sleeping baby. When everybody is quiet the baby can only sleep in quiet. But if there’s always noise, the baby learns to sleep through it.”

Homeschoolers say it’s important to find time for yourself.

Rewlis said that, before the coronavirus pandemic, she and her sister-in-law, who also homeschools, could leave their children with the other when they needed to shop or get a haircut or pedicure.

“Also, when my husband gets home, I can go shopping, or after I drop my daughter off at dance I can spend some time by myself,” she said. “We do try to work diligently to make sure mom gets her quiet time.”

Rewlis also advises parents to have patience, not just with their children but with themselves.

“I spent an entire summer preparing to homeschool,” she said. “I had time to prepare space. I had time to mentally prepare, and a lot of these parents were just thrown into it. For us, homeschooling is a calling. But for a lot of parents it’s something they didn’t have any choice about.”

Rewlis said the pandemic has had an impact on homeschoolers as well.

“All of our social activities came to a halt,” she said. “We took field trips. We can’t do that now. We had homeschooling friends that we spent time with, so our children have lost opportunities to spend time with their friends. My husband works in Atlanta, and thankfully, he hasn’t been furloughed. But he is working at home, and that changes the dynamic as well. He has set up an office in their classroom.”

But Rewlis said her family has improvised by planting a garden together and building a chicken pen.

“My kids have been very involved, and I don’t know if they would have been quite as involved if we weren’t going through this,” she said.