The Hammonton Gazette 050620 Digital Edition of The Hammonton Gazette | Page 5

Helping kids through the COVID-19 pandemic era
Page 4 • Wednesday, May 6, 2020 • The Hammonton Gazette
PARENTS, from Page 3
across the board.
“They get very frustrated with
me a lot because it seems like so
much more work then what it was
like in school. Home was always
separate from school. School
work at home was maybe an hour
or two after school. Now it cuts
into all parts of what made home,
home. Having them separate kept
a better balance,” Weber said.
School is also a concern for
Kimberly Boggs’s two daughters,
9-year-old Bella and 12-year-old
Ava.
“They ask if I think they will
need masks to go to school, or if
they will be going back this year
at all. The biggest frustration has
been the school work. They are
not getting what they need out of
this and I’m scared they will be
behind in the next school year. I
really feel for them. You can see
the stress on their faces with
school work; it’s just not right.
Ask any parent; I’m not the only
one that feels this way,” Boggs
said.
Boggs said that she has been
doing her best to keep her girls oc-
cupied outside of schoolwork.
“To keep busy we have been
trying to get outside—when the
weather wants to cooperate—arts
and crafts, painting and we have
done a couple kits from restau-
rants in town; their favorite was
the cannoli kit from Mannino’s.
All I can tell them is, this is so you
don’t get sick. I’d rather be stuck
inside at home than stuck inside at
a hospital,” Boggs said.
For Ben Ott’s four children,
ranging from nine years to nine
months, life at home has only re-
quired an adjustment for 9-year-
old Brayden and 6-year-old Alex.
“We say that we have to be safe,
because people could get sick or
get other people sick. They’re fine
with it; I’m not going to say that
they’re homebodies or that they’re
not social, but they really have no
problems sitting at home and
doing stuff all day. I told them that
they weren’t going back to school
and they were not upset. Some
kids love their teacher, they love
their classroom, they love seeing
everybody, but my kids were like
‘Pokémon all day?’” Ott said.
Because of their ages, Ott and
his wife, Laurie, decided not to
say anything to 2-year-old Evelyn
or 9-month-old Kyler.
“We tell them don’t touch peo-
ple and they’re happy as a clam,”
Ott said.
Ott said that keeping his two
school-aged children interested in
the curriculum has been a chal-
lenge, but he has been trying alter-
nate means of education.
“I asked my son—and this is
my favorite part of the whole
thing—‘what do you want to learn
about? If you have unlimited time
to have access to your mom and
dad, what’s something we can
teach you?’ So we spend a lot of
time doing nuts-and-bolts work,
how engines work, how investing
and money works. While we were
throwing the football in the back-
yard I did a whole lecture on what
a stock is,” Ott said.
For Ott, one of the biggest chal-
lenges is getting his children to
cooperate with him so that he, too,
can work.
“I might get an hour or two of
work in a day between cleaning,
and the dishes, and people break-
ing stuff and the school work ... I
think every other word out of my
mouth is ‘shush’ right now, be-
cause someone’s always sleeping.
Especially when it’s the baby; do
not wake that baby, it’s the only
chance I have to get any work
done. Once the baby’s up, some-
See FAMILIES, Page 8