Apart from being his mother, friend and tutor, now I have one more role to play for my son: his classmate. I’ve been his classmates for two days in live streaming classes. We take lessons and do exercises together. Honestly it’s pretty new to me.

To see my son from this point of view, I discovered another part of him: sometimes smart and funny, sometimes irritated and annoying, sometimes sloppy, and sometimes hard-working.

I am familiar with every part of him, but being his classmate, I have been given another thread that helps me to hold every piece together---a more complete picture of my son.

I could see the conflicts inside this boy as he is struggling to form his true identity, to find out the answer to that million-dollar question: who am I？

The reason he likes math is probably the same as he hates English. The former gives him confidence while the latter makes him frustrated.

The desire for understanding sometimes can be overwhelming. A flicker of expectation could turn into the flames of disappointment or even indignant when we fail to receive the message he’s trying to send.

As a mother, I might get irritated and I would think he is overreacting and instead of being offended, he really should take his mistakes as a learning process. But as his classmates, I could understand more.

I still have my doubts about online classes. But on the other hand, it might be the best solution we can get now and it is, not only for the children but also for our parents, the opportunity to learn, to bond with each other and reach out to each other.