sdlaura, I'm with you on distanced social interactions. When we go pick up lunch from the bus, there are two other families at the same bus stop. We all stand very far apart (much more than 6 feet) and yell back and forth. It's nice to just talk to humans "in person" for a couple minutes.
I agree. Someone on our nextdoor was upset a group of teens had made a wagon wheel and sat in the backs of their separate cars talking to each other, all 6 ft apart. It’s nearly impossible to have no human interactions for months. Ds1 was sobbing last night after we found out the rest of school was cancelled because he misses his friends. I feel so bad for him, he’s only 8 and friends are the best part of his school day.
k3am , I am sure that this is where we are heading (we are finally rolling out e-learning next week, with the school district shipping us devices). But I don't want it to be. The summer camps potentially being open are the only thing allowing me to hold on to sanity and any hope of work productivity.
And... school is now online for the remainder of the year in MI. Governor just announced it. We haven't told the kids yet. I'm so sad; probably will be hiding in the bathroom crying this afternoon. This is our life now for 2 more months. DD won't get to go to the state capital in May (that's the big end-of-the-year field trip for 3rd graders), and she was looking forward to it all year. And probably no little league baseball or softball. DD was really looking forward to her first season of softball.
Post by librarychica on Apr 2, 2020 11:04:01 GMT -5
Social distancing confession: I’m still seeing my parents. We are leaving our respective houses less than once a week and seeing no one else but I worry about my mom’s mental health (she’s prone to depression) if I keep the kids from her. So accepting this limited risk. I feel a tad guilty.
OTOH, my neighbors college students are throwing pool parties. 😡
So yeah, this social distancing thing is a spectrum.
librarychica, I am strongly considering sending my kids to visit my parents for a few days during spring break. We live in the same state. I can no longer take the week off, we will have no distance learning assignments, and that is technically my week per the custody order, so I will get no breaks at all from XH. I feel like by the end of the month, I will need it for my own sanity. (Obviously this will be based on where we are at by that point in time with everything going on)
And... school is now online for the remainder of the year in MI. Governor just announced it. We haven't told the kids yet. I'm so sad; probably will be hiding in the bathroom crying this afternoon. This is our life now for 2 more months. DD won't get to go to the state capital in May (that's the big end-of-the-year field trip for 3rd graders), and she was looking forward to it all year. And probably no little league baseball or softball. DD was really looking forward to her first season of softball.
I am sure we are not going back. I think I’ve said that a bunch of times in here because we only have 7 weeks left anyway and shelter in place ends with 3 weeks left (and likely will be extended anyway). I don’t think DS has grasped that baseball isn’t happening, and I’m not telling him. I’m letting him figure it out in his own. They haven’t officially cancelled. He watches the news, and he knows what is going on, so part of him likely knows. But he did ask the other day and DH just said he hasn’t heard anything which is true.
librarychica and twinmomma, we've been seeing my parents this whole time. I figure it's not any different than if we all lived together as an extended family. I would be more concerned if any of us were still interacting with anyone other than each other. My parents have said that they wouldn't interact with my sister's family if they were back in Maryland, sine my BIL is still going to work and my niece is still going to daycare.
Post by erinshelley21 on Apr 2, 2020 14:55:47 GMT -5
Our schools just closed for the rest of the year. Most schools were scheduled to get out before Memorial Day weekend, so its only 3 additional weeks than the most recent announcement.
sdlaura- Same. MIL has eaten dinner at our house every night for 3 years. When we went to shelter in place, we started treating the 5 of us as one unit. If she were home alone, we would find her dead. No question. So the lesser risk is considering her house an extension of ours.
Post by ilovelucyvv on Apr 2, 2020 15:59:03 GMT -5
Distance learning week 3 and by far this was the worst week yet. I’m ready to have a CTJ talk with the teacher if things don’t improve next week, either that or talk with the principal. One day the teacher didn’t post anything. Later in the same week she posted the same assignment on different days as if it was a different assignment. She has been telling the kids to search for educational videos using a website that totally sucks. She posted a spelling list for one set of words on monday then posted a spelling test on totally different words today. I don’t know how much lower i can lower my expectations 🤷♀️
Yesterday was, by far, the most challenging day that we've had with our distance learning. DD2 is motivated, but just needs help here and there. But DD1... omg she's so smart, but she cannot keep herself organized. It's all part of her ADHD. Her teachers are AMAZING and much of the beginning of the year was spent trying to teach the kids to be organized and keep things neat and easy to find. Now she needs to learn a new system, and she just doesn't want to.
So each day, I get onto the portal and write out a comprehensive list of things for the day/week. Each assignment is an off-line task and then a short on-line component - a quiz or post the answer to a question on a wall - just to prove that the student is engaged. So my list breaks out each component into a separate line item to ensure that she doesn't forget anything. I keep telling her not to write "Do Math" on her list, because Math has several pieces, and she will forget. She refuses to be more detailed, and keeps missing tasks.
It's fine that she's missing tasks - that's bound to happen, and I'm just trying to help her improve. But she is ADAMANT that she is NOT missing tasks, even when I ask her to read me the instructions out loud and POINT OUT where the teacher states that she is to complete a task. Then she yells at me and tells me that I don't know what I'm talking about, the request is impossible, and I'm mean for making her do it. We just had another fight... she was told to upload a paper assignment - she insisted she didn't have to. I had her read me the instructions that stated she had to... still said she didn't have to do it. Showed her that her classmates had done it... I DON'T WANT TO!!!!
I don't want to go to natural consequences yet, because the teachers aren't allowing for that. They are spending hours hunting through the LMS and emailing parents to point out that kids have missed assignments, just because everyone is still getting used to things. I can't put anymore on them. So we will continue to scream at each other because IT IS TOO AN ASSIGNMENT!!
mae0111 , Solidarity. DD2 has currently decided she will not do any work for today. Her picture schedule only has the "breaks" squares on it and she's refusing to add anything else. Plus, she is only making a tiger noise on zoom calls, including my own work call that she crashed in the background. It's not even 10 AM and I'm ready to call it and start drinking.
ETA - and it turns out she just isn't doing her work at dad's house at all. Not shocked. But so, so pissed. She's on a group call right now to review work from the week and all the stuff from his days? Missing. So that's great.
For schoolwork at home, a teacher friend was telling us about the Wheel of Names. You can enter in school subjects/assignments and/or chores, and then spin the wheel to pick what work is done first/next. Just a way to add some variety/break up the monotony. I haven't tried it with my kids yet, as we're on spring break right now. Just thought I would share in case anyone might find it useful.
One of the parents posted her checklist for her daughter. Since our kids have a specific cadence that pretty much repeats every day, with special subjects they do once a week, she put it in a page protector and her daughter checks off her assignments daily. It was a good idea. I may take time this weekend and do it for DD.
We use picture schedules. If you google it, you'll see what it is. Usually used in SpEd classes. Basically, they have a sheet with velcro spots, a pile of picture squares for each activity/subject with velcro on them, and they put their daily activities on there in order. Then they can pull them off as they do it and re-arrange each day based on the order they need/want to go in. For DD1 it works perfectly. For DD2 it helps but I still have to sit with her to make the schedule each morning and prompt her through each step.
twinmomma, how do you make the velcro schedule? Is there a kit (that I probably can't buy now)?
I'm about to lose my mind. Kids Messenger has been amazing for DD's social life but the downside is she has so much attitude now. Her attitude and behavior is really affected by screen time. She is easily addicted and that's all she wants to do. If she can't have her iPad or tv, she starts screaming, crying, mean to her sisters, etc. We are going to make her earn the time by doing her school work but it requires constant monitoring and for me to come up with content. We still haven't received anything for virtual learning except a 2 minute video from her teacher each day wishing her well and a whole bunch of links to websites. DD3 won't leave my side either.
On a positive note, this video gave me all the feels.
Post by erinshelley21 on Apr 3, 2020 10:42:07 GMT -5
mae0111 this suggestion will mean more work, but can you give separate lists for each assignment? So if she has 4 assignments she would have lists on 4 separate pages. Words are hard today so hopefully that makes sense. Or have her check the tasks off within the assignment directions.
mellym, no official kit, just printed at home. My sister has the software to make it because she uses them in her class, but you can google most of the images you'd need and just print yourself. Then just use velcro sticky dots. I had some hanging around from all our crafting.
erinshelley21 - that’s a good idea. I’d been breaking the lists up by subject, but putting them all on one page. We have also tried putting them in her planner (her request). She ignored it and then just checked everything off.
I’m going to create shorter lists on separate pages and see if that helps.
I was tearing my closets apart this morning looking for a small package of 6 disposable gloves that I bought the last time someone had the stomach bug. No luck, but I did find: 1 full can of Lysol, 1/2 can of Lysol, one full medium pump size of Purell, one 3/4 size pump bottle of Purell, and 2 containers of Lysol wipes. I probably bought that stuff over a year ago.
mellym - my DD1 is acting the same way. I know she’s mentally stressed out over this suddenly and major change in her life. It’s awful and it takes every ounce of my patience to manage her all day long while trying to work. Getting outside or even moving to a different room in the house has helped. And I also started hugging her/comforting her a lot more. Oh and using melatonin at night because she’s been refusing to go to bed.
Distance learning starts next week and I’m hoping that some consistency from her teacher will help.
I noticed that our giant coronavirus thread had fallen further down the page - I think that's a good thing!
But, for anyone who is interested, this is a very long but interesting read with people throwing out a variety of viewpoints on when we reopen the economy. It's called "Restarting the Economy Means People Will Die. So When Do We Do It?"
I read something recently about the 1918 pandemic and how the cities with the most stringent restrictions bounced back much faster economically than those that didn’t. It was called something like “ Pandemics Depress the Economy... Responding to It Doesn’t”, which I thought was pretty accurate. I mean, our biggest concern at the start of this at my company was what happened if so many of our workers were affected that we couldn’t run our business. It’s still my greatest fear when it comes to food sources. If this hits the agricultural community, we are screwed.
Post by covergirl82 on Apr 11, 2020 10:04:28 GMT -5
MI's lockdown is now extended to April 30 and more strict than before, even though new cases are slowing, and the entire state outside of the Detroit metro area has few cases (as a % of population). May 1 we better be back to almost normal.
The city's big park and rec just announced they are closed until May 31st. Summer camps should start June 15th and I'm really doubting it. The governor closed all dine in eating and bars indefinitely this week. The restaurants can't last much longer on take out only so I see many closing over the next 2 weeks and most of them not reopening when they get the A-OK.
The small rec district DD does gymnastics through website says they are closed until April 30th and then will update plans weekly and hope for a partial opening.
I’m with sandandsea on hoping for June 15. But I don’t think it will truly be normal - I just want summer camps in smaller groups than normal, people still mostly working from home, and mostly still socially distancing by having more spaced out tables at restaurants and that sort of thing. Hopefully beaches and parks reopened but people still being careful.
Honestly I will work from home forever and not travel or whatever if we could just get some kid stuff going again.