MCO, CMCO and the Covid-19
It has been more than two looooong months since the Covid-19 and the MCO. There has never been a moment where there was so much of focus on self and the immediate family. Forced as it was. Due to less... no, zero time spent in the traffic, mornings were peaceful time spent sipping coffee while the child gets all green light to be stuck to the screen for the rest of many more hours in the name of education.
There were time enough for binge-watching on Netflix, I even downloaded loads in case too many users streaming causes bad quality on the screen. Armageddon apocalypse worrywart that i am. I call it forward thinking. I have "attended" as many webinars as episodes on Netflix. Our family have bonded and have fights that we had to resolve because other than moving out, we just have to talk it out. The things that we have learnt does make us better than ever.
Learning as i have discovered, is very much a personal thing. During this period, all the e-learning school has provided has given me lots of insight as to what my daughter's interest and strengths are and what exactly is the school teaching. We have learned to pace ourselves. Picking subjects that she enjoys working on and subjects that i enjoy guiding her in. Other stuff... meh... no point getting all stressed out. We do have to all live together 24x7 for who knows how long more you know!
With Willow Academy, we had to temporarily cease operations during the MCO (movement control order) after only opening our doors since mid 2019. There were many talks on forums about how schools are not giving discounts or not giving enough discounts while service were not rendered. What about facilities that were built? Books and materials bought and paid for?
From the parents‘ point of view, it is true too that some families‘ household income is affected and every penny counts. So what can we do as a community? We help each other. We support where we can, take if it is needed.
We are very much blessed with parents who are very community minded. That is part of our core values - creativity, conversation, confidence and community. Everyone of us in a sense, are linked. There is strength in numbers as there is strength in being small. We are not a franchise nor do we have branches.
Willow's community feels very personal and very dear to me. In the beginning of the pandemic, before the announcement of the MCO, we shared contacts for food delivery, updated each other on which grocer has chicken still for sale (in Malaysia we had plenty of toilet paper but ran out of chicken in some grocers right before the MCO announcement. Not that we ever had supply issues. It was stocking up that spiked demand more than usual supply and replenishment) or which grocer has the shortest queue... when we had to close temporarily, we sent activity packs and did library book exchanges sent to our children’s doors. We even sent cookies, banana loaves and update each other on how our tadpoles and class science green beans grew!
I am just counting my blessings for having the parents and children that we have. Small that we are. Our tribe does not need to be big. Just need to have loads of hearts! Thank you for being a part of our little family.
