A RETURNING Negrense has made quarantine a fun learning experience for his two small children by turning the classroom that serves as their quarters into an improvised kindergarten.
Photos and videos of 29-year-old father Mitchelle “Bon” Silaya teaching his young ones the basics such as the alphabet, numbers, colors, and shapes made the rounds in social media in the past days, with netizens commending him for being resilient and a survivor amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
“We don’t want this quarantine to bring a traumatic and stressful experience to the kids. Instead, we want to make them feel that everything is fine and that they can still play and learn,” he said in an interview on Tuesday.
Bon, his wife Shera Love, and their kids, three-year-old Alfonzo and one-year-old Brianna, were among the thousands of locally stranded individuals (LSIs) who came from Metro Manila. They arrived in Negros Occidental on July 31.
He hails from Barangay Sum-ag here but his family proceeded to neighboring Bago City, the hometown of his spouse, to undergo a 14-day mandatory quarantine in a facility inside a public elementary school.
While waiting for the results of their swab test, Bon, who worked as a technician in a hotel at the country’s capital since 2016, thought of setting up a class for his toddlers. After all, they were staying in a classroom complete with blackboard and chalk.
So each day, Bon acts as a teacher to Alfonzo and Brianna.
On August 1, the first day of their two-week quarantine, the children started learning the alphabet and numbers.
On the second day, their father taught them how to write.
On the succeeding days, they learned how to count and write more, identify shapes and colors, and draw different shapes and figures. At night, he also reads them bedtime stories.
“Alfonzo will not be able to go to school this year due to the pandemic so as parents we want to help him acquire advanced knowledge despite the challenging situation,” Bon said.
His wife takes pictures and videos of him and the kids to document their two-week quarantine experience, which also reveals the artist in the young father as shown in the sketches he does on the blackboard.
Bon said their family members as well as people who have read their story sent boxes of chalk so they will have enough supply while still in quarantine.
Every day, he does a countdown of their journey by writing the remaining days of their stay on the blackboard.
On Tuesday night, he posted on Facebook a cheerful photo of him and his children sitting in front of the board, where he wrote “Aug. 11, 3 days left” beside a sketch of a popular storybook character, which he drew using colored chalk.
He also wrote, “Laughter is timeless. Imagination has no age. Dreams are forever.”
Bon said the kids’ daily lessons will go on until the end of their quarantine on August 14, and he will continue teaching them once they are home.
He and his wife committed to being hands-on parents when it comes to teaching their children, especially that face-to-face learning is still not allowed.
“We did not expect our story to go viral. Our situation seems ideal for learning. We are staying in a classroom, we have our kids, and since they have no class to attend, we have an opportunity to help them learn,” the father of two told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
In the course of the quarantine, Bon said they received their swab test results, showing they all tested negative for Covid-19.
“We thank God we were not infected by the virus, especially our two children, despite being stranded in a port with so many other people. I’m also thankful that we were able to book a flight so we can travel faster and safely back here,” he added. (By Nanette Guadalquiver and Erwin Nicavera)
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