One local mom was forced to get creative with homeschooling her two young kids after the Province suspended in-class learning in mid-March in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Janice Friesen says they were three days into learning from their Neubergthal home and things weren't going well, particularly for her five-year-old son, and that's when she decided to start dressing up as different characters each day.

"He was having a lot of trouble with wanting to sit down and do some learning with me because he was at home and he just wanted to play. So, on that fourth day I went to my dress-up tub and put some stuff on and I came upstairs and said 'Ok, when I'm dressed up I'm the teacher,' and my son looked at me and said 'Ok' and he went and got his schoolwork," she said.

After explaining her reasons for doing this, Friesen says her kids got involved with naming each character and even started prodding her the night before for clues about her costume for the following day.

Inspired by movie, television, book, and even real-life characters, Friesen dressed up for 50 consecutive days through to the end of classes for the school year. Having already collected various costumes over the years, she says she researched hair and make-up tutorials online the night before introducing a new character the next morning.

With the school year now behind them and reflecting on the past few months, Friesen says circumstances don't have to dictate our attitudes and admits she was among the many parents dreading what this time would look like.

"I wasn't pumped about the idea of teaching and (the kids) weren't excited about being at home, but I feel like we took a situation that was less than ideal and turned it into something fun," she explained. "I always tell my kids that happiness is a choice and I really had to put that into practice."