DE PERE, Wis. (WBAY) — Parents not only have a responsibility to watch their children while schools are closed, but educators urge them to help keep the learning disruption to a minimum until face-to-face classes can resume.
Tyler and Hilary Krueger call the last few days a roller coaster as the describe days that have been “really good and also really terrible.”
Their two oldest daughters are students at Father Allouez Catholic School. The school is part of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) school system which was the first in our area to transition to alternative learning because of COVID-19.
The Kruegers say that news came at the end of their childrens’ spring break making them “so, so, so sad” they would not be returning to their friends and teachers.
“We’re just getting used to it and just finding our groove,” said Ty Krueger. “The one thing that we’re really focused on is structure and having some sort of routine.”
Krueger owns Packerland CrossFit in De Pere. That gym closed on Tuesday as a precaution to stop the spread of COVID-19. Now, those classes and another special one aimed at young students at home are being hosted with the help of technology.
“We decided that we would run a structured in-home gym class type with social skills at the end,” said Hilary Krueger. “So, get their heart rate up, get them moving, get them sweating, and then at the end coming back down and talking about a social skill. Just a half hour every single day.”
A total of 60 families registered for the first 30-minute webinar hosted on Monday through Zoom. It happens every day at noon.
“When a parent signs up, we simply send them the link. They don’t even have to have their own Zoom account,” said Tyler Krueger. “They can open up the webinar, and boom. It’s right there for them.”
Interested parents can message the Kruegers to sign up through the ‘Behavior Change Collective’ Facebook or Instagram pages. There is a small charge to help cover the cost of hosting the webinar.
“I love getting the pictures from parents. They send them in emails or to our Instagram account like, ‘Coach Ty is so fun,'” said Hilary Krueger. “It’s so cute.”
The Kruegers see life as a series of phases and believe this stint will make the kids more resilient to face adversity in the future.
“It’s new for our older girls, so that’s where the structure of having some academic lesson time, some fixed electronic time that’s limited, incorporating some of the digital learning that our school district is giving us, and then obviously putting this workout and this fitness in along with getting outside and taking walks—having some of that structure is important,” said Tyler Krueger.
The couple says keeping structure and managing anxiety for their girls was as easy as picking up an $8 whiteboard from Menards to put in their kitchen. There they write down schedules, lunch menus, and planned activities for the day to help their children keep a routine.
“If we don’t plan, it really just gets chaotic and our girls just really like to know,” said Tyler Krueger.
The Kruegers plan to host the in-home gym class webinars for two weeks and say they will extend it if necessary.