School Days 2020

 

School has begun. It is without fanfare. Without grocery sacks filled with new supplies. Without actually going to a classroom.

As I've noted before, every adult in my immediate family (except the educator) has continued to go to work each and every day since the shutdown began last March. The grands and I struggled through the end of the 2019/2020 school year together. It was a mess. Disorganized, no new material taught. bad tech issues. Yuck. We were so glad when it was over.

We began the summer with anticipation of them going back to the classroom for the 2020/2021 start. Almost every day this summer one or the other or both of them would sigh "I wish I could go back to school". This from kids that normally whine "I don't like school". 

As the middle of July arrived it became pretty obvious that the classroom was not going to be an option. We got emails literally a couple of times a week outlining what school would look like, only to change completely with the next email. To say it was stressful doesn't begin to cover it.

Finally the school decided on distance learning for the first weeks. How long this will last we don't know.

We set up desks for each kid, one in their bedroom, one in my bedroom. The school provided devices. We sharpened pencils, laid out scratch paper and spiral notebooks, hooked up headphones and declared ourselves ready for class.

They are required to wear their school uniforms (at least the shirts). They are live, on-line in class from 7:45 am until 4:00 pm Tuesday-Friday with a 30 minute lunch break. I roam back and forth every half hour or so peeking in to make sure there's nothing inappropriate on their screens and that they're actually in class. (You wouldn't believe the stories coming out of some of the middle/high schools about what's being hacked onto devices) They both tell me that most kids have a mom/grandma/caregiver hovering in the background from time to time.

They make their lunches the night before. They have backpacks (empty) next to their desks. (just in case, I guess!) They adhere to a bedtime and a wake up time. Sunny has yoga as her first class and it's fun to peek in to see her learning the poses. Thunder has PE on Friday afternoons. It's a good thing he's set up in my room. It's bigger and he definitely used the space for PE!

All in all it's going well after one week. It's good that they have the structure of the classroom and that they can see their friends.

I'm glad to do this. My heart goes out to working parents that don't have anyone to monitor their kids through this. I have a friend who works, her 11 year old daughter is in charge of monitoring her younger siblings as well as attending her own classes every day. 

That's too much.