A special tutoring program helps parents and their children learn amid the pandemic
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit last March, Sandra Mezares worried that she wouldn’t be able to help her children keep up with their homework and classes because of her limited English.
She quit her job at a laundry service to stay home with them while they figured out how to work with Zoom, Google Meet, wifi hotspots and Chrome books to continue their education online.
Mezares said she was especially concerned about helping her youngest daughter who has trouble with pronunciation.
“I came from Peru about 10 years ago, and I understand English better than I can speak it,” she said.
Her three children, Christopher Vargas, 12, Carlos Huatuco, 9, and his younger sister Haru Huatuco, 7, are getting extra help after school thanks to the Village Library, which is part of the nonprofit Mission Central.
Mission Central helps families in Hurst, Euless and Bedford with clothing, food and job resources.
Lola Nelson-Spay, the Village Library director, said tutoring is available to students who have “significant” educational needs, whose families meet economic guidelines and if the parents have difficulty working with their children at home because of a language barrier.
“The Village Library is so helpful. If my kids have problems with their homework, they can ask their teachers,” Mezares said.
The children have tutoring at least three days a week.
During a recent afternoon, Carlos and other students worked with a tutor over Zoom to review how to figure out area and perimeter to prepare for a math test the next day.
The tutor, Miss Susan, greeted Carlos and encouraged him to solve a word problem asking about the area of a flower bed which is 8 meters long and 7 meters wide. Carlos responded with the answer, 56.
Carlos said his favorite subject is math.
Mezares said her oldest son Christopher attends in-person classes at Central Junior High, but the other children who would attend Viridian Elementary are learning online at home.
The children miss their friends.
Nelson-Spay said she and other tutors had to work quickly to teach the children over Zoom.
“It was a shock when the pandemic hit,” she said.
Nelson-Spay said she was in Arizona during last year’s spring break when she learned children would have to get tutoring online.
She misses seeing her students in person, but most volunteers are over 50 and are retired teachers from the Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district and retired engineers from Bell Helicopter.
The engineers created a video to help the other volunteers learn how to use Zoom.
The tutoring program is designed to help children whose parents can’t assist them at home. Many children are from immigrant families, she said.
Nelson-Spay said although the volunteers are helping the children virtually, they found ways to reach out to them by providing Christmas gifts. They also learned about concepts brought on by the pandemic, such as social distancing and quarantine.
“We want to be there for our kids,” she said.
Nelson-Spay, who is a retired teacher and counselor from the Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district, said working with the children is rewarding. Many are enrolled in gifted and talented and pre advanced placement classes.
“Every time I see their report cards, I have a cryfest,” she said.
Many children fled from war-torn coutries in Africa, Nelson-Spay said.
Mezares said she and her husband Carlos Huatuco said they’ve seen positive changes since their children started with the Village Library.
“I’ve seen improvement; their grades are going up,” Carlos Huatuco said. “I feel like Lola has become part of my family.”
The three children said they want to continue their tutoring sessions and look forward to their after-school meetings.
“Sometimes, my tests have difficult words. I struggle with them. Every time I ask my tutors about the words, they help me”, Carlos said.