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School in our state went back full time this week, week 5 of the term. Before the Easter vacation, attendance had dropped to about 10% in the public system as parents were worried about the situation and seemed enthused about homeschooling.
But the schools were always open for the children of essential workers and the definition of that was loose. Basically people could send their kids if need be. This term weeks 1 and 2 were supposed to be a continuation of keeping kids home where possible, then kids going a day or two a week for two weeks. By the end of this period attendance had jumped to 30%. So either the parents were no longer as concerned or simply could not cope with the homeschooling. Probably both.
Apparently on Monday, with the full resumption, attendance was pretty much at normal levels. Having spent about 14 days working with grandkids, I could see the stress homeschooling was causing. Most parents here both work, most were trying to work from home, many cannot just organise their time to suit the kids schedules .Young kids, five year olds in particular, cannot just organise themselves, get themselves online at the required time and so on. My five year old grandson got into a habit of going tap, tap, goodbye teacher, at completely the wrong time.
School in our state went back full time this week, week 5 of the term.
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Can you share what safety measures were implemented? I just can't imagine how difficult the recommended guidelines are when young children are involved.
We already homeschool three of our kids. We use a charter school. They’re going into 8th, 5th and Kinder. Our oldest will be a sophomore. She attends an independent study “unschool” high school with only 100 students and only six or seven advisors/teachers. Students were allowed to work from home when they wanted/needed as long as they were completing assigned tasks.
The learning model made it easy to transition to distance learning since her math and science courses were online already and their learning plans are student directed. There are no true “classes.” We heard news that the coming school year will be a hybrid model. They will have first/second year students attend on alternating days with third/fourth year students. She started dual enrollment this past spring that moved to distance learning in March and all classes for summer and fall are online.
It’s pretty much business as usual for our other kids.
Homeschooling has been a terrible experience. I'm in suburban NYC, Long Island, and we have a typical/high functioning 10 year old girl (5th grader) and a low functioning/special needs/autistic 8 year old boy (3rd grader).
The big sister has done okay with her online lessons, though the quantity and quality of education are far less than what she ordinarily receives.
The little brother has really suffered through this - he needs the structure of a school day, and we need a break from his obsessive behaviors. And he can't really attend to classes given electronically over the iPad - he has a very short attention span and gets distracted easily. One of us must be physically present by his side for every session, 3-5 per day (he has many therapists), and try to get him to focus when he tunes out the teacher/therapist.
My wife is a suburban public school teacher and has lessons she needs to prepare and videos she has to make for her own students.
I was WFH office work but now I'm transitioning to a job in the courts system, which will start on-site soon.
Lots of stress about the fall schedule, which hasn't been set yet. It will be a big political battle between the governor, the teachers unions, parents and employers. There's talk of a staggered schedule in which kids are split into a morning and afternoon session, half distance and half on-site, rotating on-site and distance learning, all sorts of permutations. Anything but what we've had in the past will be a disaster because of childcare needs.
Personally, I think we should go back to a normal schedule, with perhaps increased monitoring. The big health concern seems to be older teachers and staff getting infected, and I think the solution is either to give them unpaid leave or provide retirement incentives. I don't feel the health concerns of older, less healthy employees should override the educational imperatives for the schoolchildren or the childcare needs of the parents who are paying for a traditional education via some of the highest property taxes in the entire country.
Can you share what safety measures were implemented? I just can't imagine how difficult the recommended guidelines are when young children are involved.
Yes, but the context is that we have only 376 cases still active in our state of 7.5 million people, only I think, 14 in hospitals and one in ICU. However, there were two cases in schools on Tuesday which caused the particular schools to be evacuated and closed for a few days. So the virus is still out there.
It was decided that it is impossible to implement social distancing in schools amongst children. Any danger is to adults. So children are to be dropped at the gate and parents cannot assist and interact with teachers. So as to limit interaction between adults, there are to be no assemblies, excursions, and only non-contact sport. On public transport, no social distancing on specific school buses. On normal public transport, school students can sit with each other (almost all kids here wear school uniform right to the end of high school so can be easily identified) but need to keep a distance from other people. Extra cleaning in schools, no sharing of food ( most kids here take their own and eat picnic style) no masks required. No sick kids to go to school.
So far so good but it is early days yet. The object is to be able to trace cases and to thus manage them. The government acknowledges that there will be cases in schools but believe they can now be managed without harm to the children.
I've been working full-time from home, which basically translates into starting my work dat at 6am, taking breaks every couple of hours to get the kids back to work and off the tv, and then wrapping up my work day around 9:30 PM. There is no balance anywhere.
I will have a HS Freshman, a 5th grader, and a 1st grader this fall. I am the primary wage earner, so no chance of pulling back and doing HSing. My elderly MIL (who, btw is a retired teacher from all of those ages/grades) lives with us and is high-risk, but has zero interest in helping with the school-at-home sitch. And my husband does not have the personality to teach our kids (though, I don't think I do, either).
Honestly, we're just trying to keep the boat upright, and I imagine this fall will be more of the same.
Whose house is it? If it is yours, and you are giving your MIL a roof over her head, she owes you. I'd remind her of that. She SHOULD be obligated to help with the kids' schooling.
Parents, what are your thoughts about sending your kids to school in the fall? The schools around here are talking about a mix of remote learning with one or two days a week of in person learning for kids. Kids will be in small groups of ten to fifteen and most likely be required to wear masks for the duration of the school day as well. I am seeing more and more people wondering out loud about homeschooling. I am hearing a lot of panic from working parents and particularly single parents as to how they will be ableto manage this. What are your thoughts?
I am planning on homeschooling next year. I never planned on being a homeschool parent, but looking at past pandemics, I'm expecting the virus to have another (probably worse) peak this fall/winter. This public-school-at-home thing has been difficult for me and my kid to adapt to (the zoom meetings, busy-work worksheets, etc). If I am going to be responsible for teaching my kid at home, I'd much rather do it in a way that works for us, in which learning is fun and not as stressful.
That being said, we are greatly looking forward to this whole thing being over with, and public school being a safe option again.
Are the schools in your state planning to open normally?
No, but they have no idea what is going to happen, so they're just spitballing right now. Supposedly there will be 3 options for keeping your kids in the public school system.
1. They attend as much as possible within state guidelines. Supposedly 2-3 days a week on a staggered schedule. Masks, social distancing, etc.
2. They attend some sort of ultra-reduced schedule where they come in maybe once a week.
3. You homeschool them but use the public school resources and get assigned a teacher. (That's what's happening now and it sucks)
Obviously this is to try to keep people from actually homeschooling with financial assistance (and the school losing out on the money they would get from educating those students.)
Since the virus, after the first few months, still appears to be almost completely harmless to children (or at least less harmful than most other forms of infection), we're not at all worried about them catching it. We don't WANT them to catch it--we don't want them to catch a cold either--but we feel like their education is suffering under the current system or if we were to go full homeschool.
We also don't want them to become a vector for the disease to reach an at-risk population, like their relatives, their teachers, etc. However, if schools are open, continuing to isolate ourselves seems pretty pointless.
Also, my life insurance is paid up if they should happen to bring the virus home and my number comes up. But I'm already working outside the home, so I'll probably pick it up from my idiot anti-mask coworkers before my kids get it from school. 6-year-olds can apparently be better at social responsibility than some dipsticks I know.
Also, my life insurance is paid up if they should happen to bring the virus home and my number comes up. But I'm already working outside the home, so I'll probably pick it up from my idiot anti-mask coworkers before my kids get it from school. 6-year-olds can apparently be better at social responsibility than some dipsticks I know.
My husband has been working with the public every day and then coming home, and we don't quarantine or distance or any of that...so I am not too concerned about my high schoolers going to class. I have a feeling only people who are still hunkered down, working from home, ordering groceries delivered, and not seeing anyone outside the family unit, are that worried about their kids going back to school and exposing Grandma to Covid.
Those families, and the teachers. This is probably actually more about the teachers than the kids. I know that in my time, I had some crusty, superannuated teachers who should have retired ten years before...and maybe this will encourage them to do so. There are many young, newly certified teachers who would love to get a toe in the door, so this would be a good time for them to get started.
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