Lin-Manuel Miranda Is Struggling to Homeschool His Kids, Just Like Us

While we’re all struggling to figure out this new normal we’re living in, it’s nice to know we’re in this together. The coronavirus has many adjusting to working from home for the first time, staying indoors as much as possible, and supporting those around them — including kids. Parents, guardians, family, and friends are figuring out how to be there for children and young people who can’t be in school. But everyone is figuring out how to be a teacher, including Lin-Manuel Miranda. 

We think of Miranda as the writer, director, producer, and actor who can do it all. But when it comes to working from home and being a teacher to his young kids, it hasn’t been that easy. Miranda appeared as a guest of Jimmy Fallon’s YouTube version of his late show, which meant no audience and it wasn’t recorded in the studio. Fallon shot his show at home with his kids and his wife, who served as the video recorder and featured Miranda as his first guest. 

The two dads talked about how they’re juggling trying to work from home while also teaching their kids and keeping them on schedule. 

Day 3 home school, morning shift:

-remote check in w actual kindergarten teacher: great! Se figured out the mute technology on Zoom so fast 🤣

-math: a disaster! 30 minute tantrum to get 5 minutes of writing numbers! I AM the father!

-art: thanks @The_Pigeon for doodle class pic.twitter.com/NUT9Z2Vhgm

— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) March 18, 2020

“Everything is cool,” Miranda said when Fallon asked how things were going for him and his family in the midst of the coronavirus. “We are doing the cool thing to do, which is self-quarantining, which means we are at home with our two kids. We have a kindergartener and a two-year-old, so we’re learning how to homeschool.”

Miranda said that after a few days of being at home with the kids, he agreed with Shonda Rhimes’ tweet in which the Grey’s Anatomy creator said, “Been homeschooling a 6-year old and 8-year old for one hour and 11 minutes. Teachers deserve to make a billion dollars a year. Or a week.” Fallon agreed wholeheartedly. “OMG, how hard is this? It’s insane.” 

Miranda added that despite the hard work of staying at home and teaching his children, he recognizes that he’s privileged to be able to remain at home when many other people have to go to work regardless of the health risk. 

He also said that he is trying to get some work done, including finishing up two films, Tick, Tick… Boom! and In The Heights, which is supposed to be released in June. Miranda said he’s still hoping for that June release date so we can all watch the movie together, but because of the coronavirus health scare, he’s not so sure. 

With all of this uncertainty, it is comforting to know that Lin is just like us. Here’s the entire interview below. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOS7e6UTNPI&feature=youtu.be