ANN ARBOR, MI - As everyone scatters off to a morning of at-home Zoom learning and teaching, Michela Arnaboldi believes her Ann Arbor family of four is very lucky.

“We have jobs that can be translated online and we have kids that are older,” Arnaboldi says, 15 minutes before the school day begins at 8:05 a.m. on a Tuesday. “I have no idea how parents of little kids are doing this.”

Arnaboldi’s optimism turns to frustration, though, as she describes how remote learning is going for her two children, Luca, 14, and Sofia, 12, a couple weeks into the school year at Ann Arbor Public Schools.

As the day is about to begin for Sofia, an Ann Arbor Open School seventh-grader, Arnaboldi pinpoints her biggest contention with learning remotely.

Five-minute breaks between classes leave her daughter barely enough time to go to the bathroom before setting up for the next remote class. Sophia quietly keeps track of discussion taking place over a laptop screen with no time for exercise, such as walking the family dog Charlie or interacting with other children.

“I thought since they were home they would be able to have a break whenever they felt like having a break. I just thought it would be more flexible,” Arnaboldi says. “If I had a kid I was worried about getting in trouble, I would appreciate that they are so glued to the screen, because they couldn’t do anything else. But that’s really not an issue here.”

Along with the challenges for their kids, Arnaboldi and her husband, Udo Becker, are both teaching remotely for the University of Michigan and have developed their own work-from-home routines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here’s a glimpse at what a day in the life of the family looks like as they navigate today’s realities of working and learning from home.

8:20 a.m.

After a few minutes together in the living room, Luca and Sophia set up their school work stations. Sofia opts to lounge on a red leather sofa in the family room to start her day at 8:20 a.m. Luca settles in a living room chair to begin class 10 minutes later.

The family’s internet provider has been put to the test, with one main router and three Wi-Fi range extenders in the house to support the family’s added hours online.

Sophia’s first task today is a 35-minute “advisory” period where she interacts with her teacher and classmates and is asked the pressing question of whether she likes pigs or cows better.

“Pigs are more cute,” Sofia says.

8:37 a.m.

Charlie cuddles up with Sofia in front of the screen posing for her classmates.

“(The teacher) likes it when we pet share,” Sofia says.

8:55 a.m.

Sofia’s advisory period ends, leaving her with five minutes before science class begins. She grabs a banana and moves her laptop to the nearby “art project room.”

“Sometimes when I’m not hungry, I might try to run around the yard, but I am hungry today,” she says.

9:15 a.m.

With both children fully immersed in the school day, Becker finishes making an espresso. Watching Sofia transition to her second class of the day with only a couple of minutes to prepare, leaves him flustered.

“When I read (Sofia’s schedule) I thought, ‘Is that in the interest of the parents or in the interest of the kids?’” he asks, sipping the espresso in the kitchen. “Is it a situation where parents are happy that they’re ‘out of my way?’”

Becker heads downstairs past a gallery of their children’s framed art along the wall of the basement, making his way to a tucked-away office where he sets up his computer and begins recording a lesson.

“Teaching this class is more work because I had my power points for (in-person) class,” says Becker, a UM professor of earth and environmental sciences. “Here, you have to improvise a bit. There’s high enrollment so there are a lot of questions.”

9:25 a.m.

On the home’s top floor, Arnaboldi goes through work emails before her first of four Zoom office hours of the day begin at 10 a.m. She also monitors a couple of online discussion threads for one of her classes under categories like “questions about class logistics.”

Even with remote learning, Arnaboldi says she believes in engaging with students in as many ways as possible. Even if there are sometimes 200 of them in her classes.

“It makes a very sterile learning environment more personal,” she says.

10:01 a.m.

Arnaboldi waits for students to sign in during office hours for her evolving oceans class at UM. When interacting with students via Zoom, she dresses up for the occasion - including wearing a mask.

“If it’s not a Zoom day, I’m in sweats and a T-shirt,” she says.

Typically, students look for a few different things when they join Arnaboldi for office hours.

“Some students show up and they want to introduce themselves,” she says. “Some students want that bit of personal time where we chat, and I ask what their interests are. Some students come in because they have a specific interest in the subject.”

10:06 a.m.

Sofia, who has moved from the art project room back into the family room to finish her science class, moves to the living room when Luca announces his arrival by beginning to practice his clarinet.

Luca’s schedule typically allows for longer breaks in the morning, particularly on Mondays and Thursdays. He takes advantage of the free time belting out a few notes, breaking the relative quiet in the house.

His schedule now is a little different than it was last spring when classes went remote at the start of the pandemic.

“Last year I would wake up at like 9 and 10 a.m. and do work if I had it,” says Luca, a Community High School ninth-grader. “Now I wake up earlier and I actually have Zoom meetings and actual work to do everyday. I didn’t have that in the spring, really.”

10:40 a.m.

After laying the groundwork for the family’s lunches, Becker heads back downstairs to continue recording his online lecture.

Sofia rushes to the back yard to a large family tree swing before jumping on the trampoline for a couple of minutes before heading back inside for her language arts/social studies class.

11:03 a.m.

Arnaboldi is peppered with questions about coral reproduction and photosynthesis during her second office hour period of the day.

She says she chooses Tuesdays and Thursdays as “teaching days” even if she can’t teach in-person, offering more extensive office hours to build positive relationships with students.

“My biggest fear this semester is to forget things, like when I need to post things or when I need to meet with students,” she says. “It makes for a really long day, but it’s just easier for me to have a routine.”

11:38 a.m.

Sofia has 15 minutes free after her class lets out early, allowing her to microwave some leftover pizza. Luca, back to lounging in a living room chair, thumbs through his texts while waiting for lunch.

11:56 a.m.

With lunch taken care of, Arnaboldi uses a short break to go outside for some gardening in the front yard. She calls the pastime an “obsession,” while picking grape tomatoes to eat with lunch.

“I don’t' know if you learn to hate squirrels until you have a garden,” Arnaboldi jokes. “Often times, I just pick stuff so they don’t get it.”

12:03 p.m.

Lunch times don’t always synch up, but today the entire family joins together as Becker, who’s in the kitchen, assembles bread slices for sandwiches of ham and pieces of pineapple, topped with Colby jack cheese.

As Baker toasts the sandwiches, the other members of the family comes from different directions to the kitchen to reconnect.

12:28 p.m.

Luca is entertains Charlie by wrestling a stuffed animal away from the Jack Russell terrier-Australian red heeler mix, eventually bringing the dog outside to play fetch and run around the yard with Sofia.

12:35 p.m.

As lunch is served, the family discusses how the pandemic, and being in the same house together the past six months, has changed the family’s social dynamic.

“Sometimes there is too much closeness,” Arnaboldi said. "(The children) are fighting, (Udo and I) bicker. At the beginning of this, I thought it did bring us closer together, being forced to spend so much time together.

"Now that school has started and our semester has started, it’s stressful.”

Becker and Arnaboldi said they chose Ann Arbor Public Schools' A2 Classroom Connect for Sophia and Luca because it seemed like the quickest path back into the classroom.

“If I had known from the start that for sure this is it and we’re not going back to (in-person) school at all, we might have chosen the virtual option,” Arnaboldi says, noting that option gives students more freedom to work at their own pace.

1:13 p.m.

Back on Zoom for her third office hours session, Arnaboldi remarks how impressed she is with a student who has hand-drawn a map of three provinces she holds up to the camera while asking a specific question.

“I love how organized you are,” Michela tells the student, who has asked her several questions.

1:41 p.m.

Sofia gets another break after her Italian culture elective class wraps up early. The final 10 minutes of class is supposed to be dedicated to students finding a recipe for an Italian dish. Since she’s already selected her dish – gnocchi – she uses the extra time to feed Charlie a treat and do some stretches before her final class of the day.

1:59 p.m.

With a few minutes to spare before her final class begins, Sofia goes upstairs to catch up with Arnaboldi about how her day has gone.

However, Arnaboldi, who has just a minute before her final office hours of the day begin, says she “has to talk to students now.” So Sofia goes next door to her room and lays on the bed for a couple of minutes before heading back downstairs for class.

2:20 p.m.

During conference hours, Becker tells a student he’s struggling to locate a file inside a folder on his computer.

“You can’t see what I’m doing, and I don’t know what I’m doing, so we’re fishing in the dark,” he jokes.

2:33 p.m.

After recording his lecture and hosting meetings, Becker takes off for a physical therapy appointment. When he returns, he will dive into his research “until 1 or 3 a.m.”

2:38 p.m.

Sophia’s final class of the day, health, offers students the option of going outside for some physical activity. She takes advantage of the opportunity, putting a leash on Charlie and going for a walk.

“I need to go get more exercise,” she says. “We’ll see if (Charlie) chooses the front door or the porch.”