Online School Questions

[waverly]

Now that our school is online, just wondering (again) what other people are doing.  I know we have 1 pod in our group and 1 daycare supervising e-learning.  I can't remember what everyone else is doing. 


1. Who is supervising your children?  

DH asked our nanny to stay on 4 days a week. I assume she agreed.  I would do the other day as a WFH day. 


2. Are you doing anything extra for socialization? 

For example, now that they won't see anyone but the nanny, should I allow them to do soccer to see people?  Ask to do soccer with their friends?  Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts will be mostly online, and the in-person stuff I am a bit wary of.  Cub Scouts are going to a baseball stadium (um wut?).  More playdates?  Field trips, and if so where because lots of things are like hmmm maybe we shouldn't go to a museum type stuff. Many of their friends are not doing playdates.

Should I use this time to see if I could get him in OT and PT for Fridays when I am off?  They are expensive though for therapy, and we are already paying an extra 2K we did not anticipate. Or some other kind of individual sport like maybe private swim lessons?  Something where it would be relatively safe because there would only be 1-2 people there. 


3. How are you setting up your home? 

I have all these school supplies we won't use now.  All I have is the dining room table.  Their desks are in their rooms, and I don't trust them to work there.  Sometimes they would do work in the sunroom or living room, and I would split them up.  I did buy the whiteboard.  I don't plan to buy school supplies next year.  If they spend the entire year e-learning on a computer, I doubt they will use a tenth of the school supplies the teacher would have had them use.  

[sandandsea]

We are doing a distance learning pod at the before/after school care site. We were considering doing our own pod but logistics and hiring/vetting a teacher was getting overly complicated so the whole pod is at the DL support site together. They cap it at 12 students/Cohort class and 4 of them are what was going to be our pod. It’s better for us as it’s on site so we aren’t using anyone’s homes or WiFi and the authority is a teacher unrelated to any of the kids. We also don’t have the noise or mess or stress than goes along with hosting a pod.

Ds is still doing soccer and cub scouts though everything is still either virtual or social distanced (no games for soccer and everyone has their own box on the field they have to stay in).

We aren’t doing any additional socialization or play dates more than normal as he sees some friends daily and will play Minecraft or roblox with other friends too.

[k3am]

1. We are the distance learning support person, so.. daycare.

2. The kids see friends at daycare. They see our neighborhood children daily. They see other friends here and there for playdates. DS starts soccer this weekend (no contact.. but they're 4, so who knows). As soon as we're able, DD will be back into ice skating.

3. We're not, since her school is done at the center.

Regarding your questions.. if you think he needs OT/PT, can afford it, and it doesn't add to your mental load, maybe. Although it kind of sounds like you're saying it's a choice between OT/PT or some kind of sport, so is OT/PT isn't a pressing need?

[waverly]

No, not really a choice between OT/PT and a sport- just trying to plan a fall that is probably unplannable. I think PT/OT end up being about 1-2K total. We just paid 1200 for his heart scans, and with the nanny being an extra 2K a month, I'm not sure we can afford it. Or if we could, I am not sure we should since we want to have some money leftover. I was just looking for enrichment ideas for them, and I feel he needs it.  He is and forever will be "borderline." 


I'm leaning towards soccer, so they can at least see their friends.  I might ask to be on their friends "teams" this year since it won't really matter anyway since there are no games. 

[mae0111]

So we are going back full-time, but I'm anticipating that we will be remote by the beginning of October.

1. I'm the Distance Learning Supervisor/Dictator. We all love it...

2. Socialization - DD2 is in soccer, which will be practicing 2 days a week. They've had practices all summer with the kids 6-10 feet apart doing skills work and drills. Scrimmages started last week. Just found out that they're requiring masks at all times now - while playing, on the bench, etc. So we will see how that works.

DD2's bestie is going to be fully remote, so we're planning to meet up once a week at a playground for as long as the weather permits.

3. School supplies... so I got them everything on the lists for back to school. In addition, all of their supplies from last year were returned at the end of the year, but only used from Sept-March. So pencils, erasers, markers, crayons, etc. are all being reused. I bought little caddies in the dollar bins at Target and loaded everything in. I got them each their own staplers, paper clips, and binder clips last school year because everyone was stealing mine.

As far as the home set-up, I had a small folding table in the hallway between their bedrooms. That's where all books, completed work, and pending work lived. I bought a few of those tiered folder organizers at the dollar store and some folders to try to keep subjects organized. Kids worked at their desks in their rooms, my office, sometimes my bedroom, screened-in porch when the weather was nice. We're even going to open up the camper for the kids to use if needed. One at a time, of course.

For whatever reason, I'm feeling better equipped to handle distance learning this year, when it happens. I have no business feeling this way, but I'm embracing my delusion.

[phdmomma]

1. We are hiring 3 college student nannies to cover the full week (3 because no single one can do all of the days with their classes). They will supervise the distance learning. We are online through October. We looked into the recreation league care options, but the schools we are districted to are not offering them. And the only private place close to our house is offering half days for $50 a kid per day, which with two kids makes the college students cheaper, although more to manage.

2. The kids have been going to swim lessons since they opened back up this spring. Other than that, not really.

3. I stuck two ikea sized end tables in the playroom, one for each kid. But in the same room, so the sitter can watch both at the same time. I bought a wooden crate for each kid, with their name on it. Where all of there school stuff is to be stored in the playroom. The district has been radio-silent about what the fall will look like, other then there will be synchronous learning. But no info on how much or when. I did purchase the school supply lists, because I still am not sure what of those supplies they will need to be able to use at home. Again, no details.

[hocus2]

1. For now we're not making childcare plans. If we're in full virtual (both kids hoping to go part time) I might try to find a college student to help out in the afternoons. my kids are older and I am cautiously hoping we can just make it work without help for now. We're both WAH for the foreseeable future. 

2. I may form a social pod with 2 other families who are are very careful. 

3. I always had an office (I have WAH for a long time). DH is in the guest room. The kids are split up. My older one is getting an office in the furnished basement. I expect her to have long days (5-6 hours) online so we want her to have a semi-private and more formal set up than just the dinning room. The younger one will be in the living room at a folding table (which is what he used in spring) though he may opt to carry the ipad up to him room some days which is a privilege I can revoke if I don't think he's paying attention or keeping his room neat enough for his class to see. He's not likely to have more than 3 hours of live instruction but we're finding out more this week.

[waverly]

Whelp- and the nanny is not a sure thing at this point. Apparently she started to get offers for pods. Should we offer more money?

[186momx]

1. I'm the distance learning business owner working mom headmaster
2. DD has been doing gymnastics and has no plans to stop. We should be back to 9 hours a week next month. It will be interesting how the gym will adjust with school starting.
3. if we get a district Chromebook I'm going to make DD a makeshift office in one of our storage rooms at the office. This way dad and I aren't distracting her and she isn't distracting us. If we don't get a Chromebook I need to look into a headset with microphone all in one and a new set of speakers and she will continue to use one of our office computers.

So far it looks to be more asynchronous than synchronous but we still have 4 weeks until school starts and teachers don't start until the 31st so everything could change.

[k3am]

186momx, is your district not required to give a device to all children who need one?

[sandandsea]

Aug 17, 2020 16:40:53 GMT -5 waverly said:

Whelp- and the nanny is not a sure thing at this point. Apparently she started to get offers for pods. Should we offer more money?

If you like her and need help and can afford it, yes! Not having a known, Trusted teacher/nanny was the breaking point of our private pod.

[sandandsea]

We got DS the Beats Solo pro wireless headphones and he’s liking them. They have noise cancellation and a mic and are lasting all day without recharging. And he got to pick his own color so he was more bought in. They’re $60off right now so we splurged.

[librarychica]

1. We have help from my parents 2 days a week, H shifted his schedule so he has 2 weekdays off and works weekends, and I work 4/10s so I am off Fridays anyway. The youngest is homeschooling (she’s 5 so light requirements) and the oldest is in asynchronous program that’s existed since before covid so the expectations are stable.

2. For context, we are coming down from crazy high numbers and high positive percentage rates. So we are cautious on the extras. We aren’t scheduling anything right now. I am planning to let them return to horseback lessons as that’s pretty damn socially distant just by nature, once the stable offers them again. They each chose a friend to be their play date friend for now. We don’t tend to sign them up for a lot so this isn’t too hard on them. The younger one is struggling with the smaller social circle some though. She’s been in daycare since she was 1 and loves people.

3. H has worked from home for many years so I moved into his office with him. We set up a desk in the playroom for the older kid and the younger works at the art table. Whichever parent or grandparent is on deck is with them.

[supertrooper1]

My DCP is waiting to see how online schooling will be set up and I'm pushing to have her be my "pod" teacher. If she won't do it, then I'll be trying to keep DS on track while WFH. EXH is on his own, but I know he's been working out something with our DCP too.

If DS goes to DC, then he'll socialize there. Otherwise, there are no group activities in our area and I haven't been pushing friends. He has seen his cousins a bit.

DS works from the kitchen table since I work from the living room. I can keep an eye on him that way and he's right there if he needs help.

On a side note, I had a Karen say out loud the other day while I was looking at school supplies for DS. "IDK why they need school supplies out when they're not going to school!" I kindly told her that they were still learning and doing school stuff, just at home. She huffed that the school in her area provided all supplies. I said my son's does not and walked off. Yes, we're all annoyed that there isn't in person school, but that's just the way it is right now.

[mommyatty]

1. DH and MIL will be supervision. I will pinch hit when I can.

2. I’m looking for ways to get play dates going. There are a couple of families we are very comfortable with who are also very careful. And I’m getting more comfortable with the idea of the kids playing outside with other kids and not maintaining strict distance.

3. I’m struggling with this because I’m not in charge and DH is just very blasé about it. DD is super responsible and takes care of business. So I don’t particularly care where she chooses to learn. But DS is a hot mess. And I think part of the reason is DH never set him into a situation where he could be successful. They would be on the couch or at a lap desk on the floor to do his writing. I think the kid needs to park it at the kitchen table or a desk. He only sat at the table for Zoom meetings. Also we don’t have room for desks. We could make room, but again DH isn’t interested.

[waverly]

What the heck, Karen. Why are you making random comments in the school supply aisle?

I’m tempted to re-arrange my basement and make a school area.

[campermom]

1. Who is supervising your children?
H will be at work, like he has been. I will work from home while supervising 4th and 6th grader. Kindergartener will do virtual learning at daycare. I’m dreading it, but it’s better than also juggling the little one.
That was the plan. However, our district might make staff go in and work from the empty school building instead of home. They will make the decision 7 business days before we would be expected to show up there (although we start working virtually the first week which is only 2 business days after they made their decision).
If that’s the case, I can’t find daycare. I’ve spent a few days calling everywhere. If there are spots, it will be $2700 a month and I don’t have it. I’m seriously considering taking Families First Coronovirus Response Act for leave.

2. Are you doing anything extra for socialization?
Oldest DS is in fencing and baseball. We just bought a Switch and he now has my old phone and can text a few friends.
DD is in field hockey.
Little DS will have daycare.
We all do walks/bike rides with the neighbors (stay outside, wearing masks.)

3. How are you setting up your home?
Bought 3 chromebooks, but DD and I will sit at a folding table and chairs I borrowed. DS will be at a card table and chair in his room.

[mustardseed2007]

Aug 17, 2020 18:31:22 GMT -5 supertrooper1 said:

My DCP is waiting to see how online schooling will be set up and I'm pushing to have her be my "pod" teacher. If she won't do it, then I'll be trying to keep DS on track while WFH. EXH is on his own, but I know he's been working out something with our DCP too.

If DS goes to DC, then he'll socialize there. Otherwise, there are no group activities in our area and I haven't been pushing friends. He has seen his cousins a bit.

DS works from the kitchen table since I work from the living room. I can keep an eye on him that way and he's right there if he needs help.

On a side note, I had a Karen say out loud the other day while I was looking at school supplies for DS. "IDK why they need school supplies out when they're not going to school!" I kindly told her that they were still learning and doing school stuff, just at home. She huffed that the school in her area provided all supplies. I said my son's does not and walked off. Yes, we're all annoyed that there isn't in person school, but that's just the way it is right now.

A guy cussed DH out at target when he said "Do you mind please stepping back to that red dot. That's the 6 foot distance mark." 

So.

Yeah we're all on edge but some of us are on edge assholes. 

[sdlaura]

1. We formed a pod with 3 other kids, so 5 kids total (3 first grade boys, a second grade big sister and 3rd grade big sister). We hired the boys’ long term sub from last year to facilitate public school distance learning/also teach when necessary from 8 am to noon daily (the normal school day is 8-2:20).

2. The kids then come home for lunch and we drive them to the YMCA for 1:30-4:30 enrichment activities like skateboarding in the skate park.

I feel like I’ve essentially tried to recreate the learning, social interaction, and exercise of normal school and aftercare, but it will cost me an extra $20k for the year and doesn’t provide as many hours of work time for DH and me, and requires additional logistics like feeding and driving them.

3. Another pod family is hosting it, so it’s in their garage a few blocks away. It’s a 3-car garage and the classroom is in the 2-car part. We tried to make it look as much like a classroom as possible. We ordered matching ikea plastic tables and chairs as desks. There are cubbies to leave stuff and posters for birthdays, days of the week, etc, and a tv for go noodle breaks.

We should be able to leave the garage door open year round if this lasts that long, and luckily it’s on the shady side of their house in the morning (since we currently have a SoCal heat wave). There are also two patio chairs and a couch with cushions for cozy reading time. The kids just go into the house to use the bathroom, and that’s right off the garage. They also have a utility sink in the garage for hand washing.

I’m grateful to them for offering to host - it’s as good a home set-up as I think we could get. The other non-hosting family and our family and are providing snacks, wiping down the stuff each day, and providing any other incidentals.

The school is kind of being jerks about people forming pods. I realize they contribute to inequality, but since we don’t have the option to go in person, I’m not sure what they’d like working parents to do.

[sdlaura]

waverly personally I’d probably offer more money since you already know your nanny and presumably like her. We negotiated with our pod teacher after she got more offers and ended up paying her 25% more but are glad to have her.

[edwardo123]

Aug 17, 2020 19:12:14 GMT -5 campermom said:

1. Who is supervising your children?
H will be at work, like he has been. I will work from home while supervising 4th and 6th grader. Kindergartener will do virtual learning at daycare. I’m dreading it, but it’s better than also juggling the little one.
That was the plan. However, our district might make staff go in and work from the empty school building instead of home. They will make the decision 7 business days before we would be expected to show up there (although we start working virtually the first week which is only 2 business days after they made their decision).
If that’s the case, I can’t find daycare. I’ve spent a few days calling everywhere. If there are spots, it will be $2700 a month and I don’t have it. I’m seriously considering taking Families First Coronovirus Response Act for leave.

2. Are you doing anything extra for socialization?
Oldest DS is in fencing and baseball. We just bought a Switch and he now has my old phone and can text a few friends.
DD is in field hockey.
Little DS will have daycare.
We all do walks/bike rides with the neighbors (stay outside, wearing masks.)

3. How are you setting up your home?
Bought 3 chromebooks, but DD and I will sit at a folding table and chairs I borrowed. DS will be at a card table and chair in his room.

I remember your similar circumstances on an earlier thread. I have now been approved to work from home for the afternoons. My oldest is also in sixth grade, so she will be home alone for an hour or two with my husband adjusting his hours to 11-7. I was also told that I could work fully remote if my kindergarteners private daycare closes again. I think that schools will have to be flexible because there are not enough subs available, especially someone who is able and willing to teach virtually.

[gaudi]

DH and I are both working from home but I do most of the supervising. I go to my office once ever two weeks and he supervises. Last week, they never bothered him and I got 3 phone calls about snacks and asking to play with the dog at break time. If we stay virtual all year and we have to be back in the office, my mom and MIL are both retired teachers and will supervise.

Kids (4th and 6th grade) are doing music lesson, golf lessons and golf league. Most of our friends and family are being way too relaxed for us to be comfortable hanging out.

Each kid has a desk in their room and we hung cork boards and white boards so have a dedicated school space. They both wrote out their schedules with the zoom codes and hung them up and programmed alarms in their ipods.
They have school issued devices. Neither of them like wearing headphones, so it's important they each have their own space. My office is in between them, so I am right there if they need something.

[186momx]

k3am, the district doesn't have enough Chromebooks to be 1:1. In the spring if your child had access to any device at home they couldn't get a school device. I put us on the list to get a Chromebook but I can't lie and say we don't have access to a tablet or computer if the ask.

The only way schools get Chromebooks or Ipads are if the teachers get grants for tech or the PTO buys them. DD's school has 30 IPads and 80 Chromebooks for a school of 300 kids.

[k3am]

186momx, that's crazy. At least in our part of the state, and the districts I know of in SoCal, any kid who signed up for a device gets a device. The district also won't provide any kind of support if you bring your own device, so that made it any easy decision.

[waverly]

Nanny has an offer to do a pod for $800 a week which is a lot of money. We offered more, but no way can we match $800. She is going to let us know tomorrow. I have a call into the daycare, but they said they were full. Then they said they had a waitlist. Then they said we'll call you back to let you know if we are full in an hour. So who knows?

[k3am]

waverly, any chance you can find a group of kids to do a pod with? If she's doing the WHOLE pod for $800/week, if you can split that with a couple other kids, it would be doable. And it provides some socialization.

[polecat8]

We are hybrid here, but DH will be supervising school work on the online learning days.
DD (6th grade) will probably be downstairs in the family room with me. She is pretty self-sufficient and great at getting her assignments organized and done.
DH will help DS1 (1st grade) with his assignments at the kitchen table. DS1 will be getting a school issued Chromebook, so it will be interesting to see how he does with it.
I'm sure DS2 will float between us in an effort to find something to do while his brother and sister are working.

We don't really have plans for extra socialization. They will be in school 2 days/week (as of right now), so they will get to see some friends. DS1 is signed up for fall soccer. I won't believe it is actually happening until we start practicing since things change quickly here. The governor of PA doesn't think it is such a great idea to have high school sports right now, so the high school sports associations are having a lot of meetings to determine if sports can be done safely. I appreciate the effort to try to make them happen. I just hope people don't complain too much if sports don't look like what they were last fall. There is talk that sports can happen but with very few, if any, spectators.

[waverly]

k3am , I could. But our closest friends/ neighbors are cheap, and wouldn't want to pay $400 a week. Our other friend's daughter has ADHD and struggles with e-learning, so they might be doing an adaptive curriculum.  I think second friend is more likely.  

Another family also probably doesn't want to pay $400. I have cheap friends I guess. I think they are more likely to swap kids themselves rather than pay someone. If she says no, daycare is a maybe. If daycare is out, I might suggest that the neighbor and I swap. Then I could do 2 days a week and they do 2 days a week, and then only work a weird night shift once a week. I have a feeling she is zeroing in on her SAHM friend though. That friend isn't seeing people due to Covid, so who knows? Big mess! But she had that friend doing aftercare for her last year....

Also nanny is a bit unsure of having 4 kids.  She has to decide if less hours and kids is worth it or go for the big bucks and manage 4 kids to higher standards probably than mine. She knows us, and doesn't know them and we gave her a December date where they gave her an October date.  I mean no one thinks we are going back to school before a vaccine, do they?  Although DS might due to his IEP, but they gave us no indication of anything. 

[waverly]

sdlaura , maybe. I'm feeling a bit bullish on it. The aftercare sent an e-mail saying see you when school opens even though their website touts remote learning supervision.

The Park District said Kindergarten enhancement will be remote because school is remote.

The closest YMCA is a 30 min drive. We have 2 daycares in the area. Maybe the churches would step up but they tend to like to do preschool that is 2 hours long. They don't have a concept of longer days..... Maybe the other church might since they have a summer camp? The nanny will let us know tomorrow.  Daycare never called back.  IDK why she couldn't give me a straight answer unless that answer is they don't know....

[sunbutter]

1. They are 12 and 8 and supervision is a mix of me and each other.
2. They stay connected virtually with friends daily. I would consider strategic play dates as time goes on. Thank god they like each other.
3. We moved two years ago to a much bigger house. We have lots of room to spread out. DH is back at work out of the house so the kids and I share the dining room table and we all have desks as well in different rooms of the house (bedrooms/offices). We can spread into the finished basement as well if needed.