This is the last post in an eight-part post series that shares some insight into what some of PPTC’s teachers and parents are going through. Today’s interview is with Jana Veliskova.

Jana (pronounced “Yah’ na”) has been a member of PPTC since November 2019. Jana is a former competitive Latin dancer, and has been holding weekly Latin dance classes via Zoom for PPTC members. If you follow Jana on Instagram, you’ve seen that she has also been busy baking up a storm and sewing face masks.

How many children do you have and what are their ages?

What most people see is two boys: Teddy (who is two and a half), Lucas (who is four and a half), and Smoula (an 11-year old cocker spaniel). But it feels like having approximately 28 children. The children have a seemingly endless amount of energy, especially because they’re cooped up at home. They don't stop: They will turn couch cushions into slides, and dismantle the laundry drying rack in five seconds turning it into a fort with your freshly cleaned bed sheets. They run amok in different directions looking for innovative ways to injure themselves.

It's a never-ending wonderful chase, where you just hope and pray on a daily basis that your reflexes are quick enough to prevent a trip to the emergency room. We run a pretty tight ship in terms of discipline, but they are little and clearly need to let their energy out and explore the world, but that's not entirely possible right now. Also: are we counting my husband Adam (who is also a PPTC member) in this?

If you are currently employed, what is your occupation? Are you currently working from home?

I am currently employed and working as full-time as I can. I work as a user-experience architect/front-end engineer and professional cat herder (per my answer to the first question!)

What has it been like for you and your children since remote learning started? Describe a typical day when you help your children with remote learning.

Since my children are so young, each day looks a bit different. We stick to an approximate schedule that my older one’s preschool kindly provided, and sprinkle in various school meetings and extracurricular activities. We have breakfast, and the children are responsible for setting and clearing the table. We have free play from about 9-10am, then we have a Zoom call with yoga, class, or music. Around 11am, after snack, we go outside for a scoot around the block or to play behind our building.

The children need time outside every single day or I lose my marbles they lose their noodles. After lunch, the younger one goes down for a nap and the older one has quiet time. We read books or let him play quietly on his own. You can imagine how well that goes on any given day.

Jana’s sons, Lucas and Teddy, helping her with mask-making.

In the afternoons, we work on craft projects, go outside again, and prepare dinner. The children have been helping me make masks, which we’ve been giving to anyone who needs them. I let them press buttons on my sewing machine and inevitably we wind up sewing random scraps of fabric together. We’ve tried knitting, but that quickly morphed into knitting needle sword fighting. The last thing I need is for someone to poke out an eyeball — I don’t recommend knitting with a two and four-year-old.

Side note: For the first few weeks when my husband Adam and I balanced full-time work [with childcare], this schedule was a saving grace. We are very grateful for our nanny, whom we gave a few paid weeks off. We’ve agreed on a limited schedule with her so she doesn’t need to take public transportation or come into contact with anyone else.

Our employers have both been very understanding, but with that understanding comes a self-imposed pressure where you feel like you still need to perform up to your regular standard. It’s an incredibly challenging mental and moral balancing act.

“I knew that my kids liked helping out around the house, but I didn’t realize how much they actually love to vacuum. Once things are “back to normal,” I am going to use this knowledge to my advantage!”

What has pleasantly surprised you about remote learning and being quarantined with your children?

I was most surprised by how the entire community stepped up to help ease the transition. From the understanding our employers showed to the schedules and meetings my son’s preschool put together to the invitations to speak to the school therapist: Everyone came together to make the best of this situation. My children have been handling this as well as they can be.

What is your biggest complaint about remote learning?

I’m being really nitpicky here because everyone has been doing a phenomenal job creating an online curriculum. However — because it’s a new technology for many educators — Zoom calls shift around due to tech issues and with young children, that unpredictability can wreak havoc. You have a schedule and prepare the tiny human tornadoes to sit still and listen to something. Then it’s delayed, and they lose their minds (and 90% of the time their clothes). Of course, you plan this around your own work schedule, so you’re chasing two naked miniatures of yourself around a 900-square foot apartment while attempting to talk to your boss about how to best design an intuitive web form and how David (not his real name) really needs to understand that you don’t need 20 fields on that sign-up.

What is your approach to helping your children with their remote learning?

It’s about 50% drill sergeant and 50% laissez-faire. At some points firm structure makes sense; at others, my husband and I just don’t have the energy to facilitate yet another activity. As long as they don’t break anything substantial, jumping off the side of the couch is perfectly acceptable. For scheduled activities, I have the kids help with preparing their supplies or snacks (and cleaning up supplies from previous activity). That helps ease the transition into an activity.

Do your children understand why we have to be in “lockdown”?

We’ve explained to them in age appropriate ways what’s happening. They miss their friends, and that’s definitely been one of the hardest things to explain — why we can’t see our friends and family right now. I usually just let them know that I, too, get sad sometimes that I can’t see my friends, and give them options on how to connect with their friends — such as video chat, writing a card, etc.

I host little dance parties for the kids, chase them around my couch, or become a human jungle gym. I regularly go through our recycling and try to reuse items for crafts (making music instruments from toilet paper rolls, using egg cartons to sort pompoms, etc). But I’m not a saint: At some point Paw Patrol comes to save the day, and I have no qualms about it.

Have you been running? How has your running changed?

I’m so grateful for PPTC and the running community here in NYC. It has been the keystone to my sanity and livelihood, from the virtual yoga classes to the virtual club meeting. In general, I run when the children are asleep either during naps, in the morning, or in the evenings. Running is child-free time. So far I’ve been getting in somewhere between 30 and 50 miles a week, and I’ve had a few socially distanced runs with a couple of members. Instead of giving a hug or high-five goodbye, I give them the most glamorous bow I can muster up after a run.

Right now, in order to avoid as many people as possible, I either run early in the park (6am latest), or avoid the park and instead run through less populated areas.

Do you have something else you’d like us to know about your experience with remote learning (or more generally about your lockdown experience?)

Is it just me, or do children not understand the value of toilet paper? I’ve had to put rolls out of reach from them because they’ve been a bit too frivolous with the amounts they’re taking. If the only thing I teach them is how to save a square or two, I consider remote learning a success!

In all seriousness, they’ll learn formally again soon, so I’m not too worried about not providing a great home-schooling experience. The lessons they’re learning right now are dictated by necessity and don’t correspond to any curriculum, and that is something you can’t learn in a classroom. They’re learning how to deal with extreme emotions, how to be good brothers to each other, how to be creative with limited resources, and how to be good neighbors and humans.

Interview and text by: Linda S. Chan
Photos courtesy of: Jana Veliskova
Edited and produced by: Alison Kotch

PPTC Parents In The Time Of Coronavirus: Jana Veliskova