"Mama, can we suspend OUR classes too?" the boys ask me with hope in their eyes

You’ve all probably heard, but just in case it has escaped any of you: the Egyptian government has forced all schools here to close for a certain period of time. Or not close entirely. All AUC classes have been suspended until 3 October. Professors have been encouraged to continue instruction using technological means, such as Blackboard or other web-based applications. Should this not be possible, then the university administration has created a catch-up schedule, which means classes on days that there normally wouldn’t be any classes. So far, Prof. Husband has managed to set up his students with assignments etc. online, and if they manage to do it, then they will not have to make up for lost time. The Cairo American College has closed its doors to students until after the 6th of October holiday, and will open again on 7 October. The Canadian school, as far as I understand, is closed until January. A couple of families with children in the Canadian school have already contacted me, asking about homeschooling. A lot of families I know have at least one parent at home, or a full-time nanny/housekeeper, but I can’t imagine what the families that don’t have any of these available will do. It’s not just that they need someone to take care of their children while they work, but the children are also missing out on important learning.

When the boys first heard about the class suspension, they didn’t say anything. It’s not uncommon that the CAC has days off when we don’t, or vice versa. Today though, a couple of days later, something clicked, and they carefully asked me if we were going to suspend OUR classes. Explaining to them that this was out of the question was not hard, but they had trouble understanding the logic – which I will have to say in their defense, I do too – and kept insisting that if their friends weren’t going to go to school for no reason, "but mama, NOBODY is actually sick!" then neither should they.

You can read about the reason behind the suspension here. It’s true that you might prevent the swineflu from spreading by keeping your children home, but we live in a country where pretty much everyone goes to the mosque several times/week. It doesn't seem like the closing the schools would make any difference then.

From a personal point of view, the suspension does not impact our family all that much, except that Prof. Husband is home, which creates more chaos during the day than if he weren’t. He still works a lot, but there are more dishes, more of a mess, and more hanging out (which is nice, but it prevents us from doing the things we normally would have done at that time). Also, although it’s great to have someone else do the science lessons with the boys, and as much as they enjoy elaborate chemistry experiment, when they’re done, my kitchen & living room look like, well, as if someone had been conducting elaborate chemistry experiments in them!