The past year was filled with twists and turns, and life for many families was turned completely upside down. The pandemic has brought about its share of challenges and, despite the months that have passed, many still remain.

After a period of uncertainty, distance education was deployed and continues for a large number of young people. Whether hybrid education, self-isolating for 14 days (sometimes more), or distance education for everyone at certain times of the year, these methods will remain for the months to come.

Distance education becomes a source of stress, but also represents an opportunity to get back to basics in child-teacher, parent-child, and parent-teacher relationships. There are undoubtedly good things to be discovered and a world of possibilities to be created within the current context, which will help you to stay positive.

As parents, how do you support your child in their learning when they’re at home? How do you keep them motivated, and help them commit to completing their schoolwork? How do you collaborate more with their teachers? But above all, how do you maintain morale to get through this challenging period?

The École branchée team shares a common vision with the Fédération des comités de parents du Québec (FCPQ) and the English Parents’ Committee Association (EPCAQ) and we have mobilized to offer you an incredible issue that is intended to be a useful guide to family survival in this time of pandemic. We must first accept this new reality, let go of the things beyond our control, pay particular attention to other people’s well-being (as well as our own first). In short, let’s create conditions favorable to maintaining a family balance (you know the expression… a healthy mind in a healthy body?) so that we can then promote distance learning with children and adolescents.

We hope this issue will help you create new points of reference, better understand the inner workings of distance education, and become more comfortable in the current situation. It’s also part of a series of support tools provided by the FCPQ and EPCAQ, which are available free of charge: https://parents.quebec 

We hope you enjoy reading!