Lin-Manuel Miranda Says He Appreciates Teachers More After Homeschooling Kids Sebastian and Francisco

Mary Poppins Returns star Lin-Manuel Miranda is learning what teachers go through every day. While appearing on the Wednesday, March 18, episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: At Home Edition, he revealed he’s been homeschooling his kids amid the coronavirus outbreak.

“Everything is cool. We are doing the cool thing to do which is self-quarantining, which means we are at home with our two kids,” he said while referencing his wife, Vanessa Nadal, and their children — Sebastian, 5, and Francisco, 2. “We have a kindergartener and a two-year-old, so we’re learning how to homeschool.”

However, everything isn’t what the Hamilton creator thought it would be. Lin-Manuel, 40, said he agreed with Shonda Rhimes when she said teachers deserve to make more money. “Been homeschooling a 6-year old and 8-year old for 1 hour and 11 minutes,” the TV producer tweeted on March 16. “Teachers deserve to make a billion dollars a year. Or a week.”

After finding a newfound appreciation for teachers, Lin-Manuel noted he hasn’t been able to work on any new material because he’s spending all of his time with his children. “I’m not getting any work done! I’m learning how to teach math,” the actor said with a laugh.

Although Lin-Manuel will have to homeschool his kids until it’s safe for them to return to school, he doesn’t have to worry about how well they’ll understand his lessons. When he attended the CTAM TCA Summer Press Tour in July 2019, the Moana composer revealed his son Sebastian is a fast learner.

After he played a song for the little guy, Sebastian quickly caught on to the tune. But, since the record was not released as yet, Lin-Manuel had to have a quick conversation with his kid about keeping the song under wraps.

“It was a Little Mermaid song and I played it for him and he started like humming and I had to kind of have like a copyright, NDA conversation with him, like, ‘Hey buddy, that’s a surprise for when your friends see the movie. You’re four, I can’t have you sign an NDA. But you can’t sing that song in class,'” he recalled himself saying, and since Sebastian is one smart kid, he didn’t ask his dad any questions.

“He totally got it,” Lin-Manuel recalled. “It was like our fun family secret and we sing it at the house.” How cool is that?!