Post by mustardseed2007 on Mar 13, 2020 13:47:51 GMT -5
We had parent teacher conferences today and in between our conference with DS' teacher and DD's teacher the school sent an email extending spring break by one week. The teachers were all in their conferences and didn't know it was sent out, which created a weird moment.
I'm working on hiring DD's prek teacher to come to our home. She's willing but she may have to come to work to create video content for at home learning. Yes. Really.
I also have talked to DS' dyslexia tutor and she can help. I can work from home but DS is supposed to do school work so I think I need some help. I've been on the phone troubleshooting all day today. If this continues then I'm not going to be able to give my kids the attention they need if I'm working from home and they are also just here...not all day anyway.
DH will not be able to work from home or take vacation. Just where he is right now in his schedule he's probably going to need to go to work.
Post by erinshelley21 on Mar 13, 2020 14:02:54 GMT -5
Indiana is basically closed. The entire state. Schools, 4H, the speedway, childrens museum. We will do eLearning next week then we are off for 2 weeks for spring break.
I went to Meijer this morning. Ended up grocery shopping for the week plus the stuff on the list DH and I made last night. That was nice and expensive.
I cannot imagine being in healthcare right now. The pedi just called to reschedule DD's well check. The amount of calls and chaos going on at dr's offices and hospitals right now has to be insane. I am interested to hear what DH has to say when he gets home in the morning. Him and another guy basically told the dept that they need to get a plan of some kind for something in place because it hadn't been brought up at all as of yesterday morning.
I spoke too soon this morning. Now schools are closed for a month - two weeks quarantine and two weeks spring break. Fingers crossed the YMCA camps stay open for spring break but I’m not terribly optimistic. Thank goodness our daycare provider says she’s staying open. There would be no working from home with a 2-year-old boy. We can juggle the 6- and 7-year-olds with lots of screen time.
Three week school closure. Teachers are prohibited from giving the students anything to work on. That gets the biggest of eyerolls from me. Daycare hasn't announced a closure yet, but considering they lease their campus from the school district, my guess is that's coming soon.
I'm working home for the next two weeks. I anticipate this all being a cluster.
k3am the flip side is that we got giant lists of stuff to do from the kids’ teachers, and when exactly am I supposed to work on that stuff with them if I’m supposed to still be working during this time too? My 2nd-grader is pretty self directed but my kindergartener can’t do any of it without a lot of adult involvement.
I'm okay with them not having homework. It would be nice if they gave us some non-compulsory stuff for parents/kids who WANTED to attempt something.
One of DD's extracurricular after school programs is putting together something, so we may pay to sign her up for that. But even distracting her for 3 hours doesn't help when DS, who is WAAAAAAAAAY needier will likely be around.
We are closed for 3 weeks. We have e-learning for next week. Then I think the governor had to allow them to do more e-learning or they need to make plans because there is nothing planned yet.
Post by freezorburn on Mar 13, 2020 18:22:29 GMT -5
(comes up for air)
Hey everybody, long time. Don't know if I have ever told you all that I am in Seattle. Wednesday and Thursday a crap ton of stuff happened. On Wednesday they told us schools were closing for a minimum of two weeks, and on Thursday the Governor issued an executive order extending the closure to April 27. Frankly I'm surprised it took so long.
Our Boys and Girls Club is valiantly staying open to support families where parents are not able to work at home. IDK how long they will be able to keep it up, but I basically cried tears of relief when I got their email on Wednesday night.
DS's dad is on the east coast, and over the last 24 hours we have had conversations about how this will affect our parenting plan. In the end we decided it is best if DS rides out the school closure with his dad, since he can work from home and would be better at keeping him on task. As much as I love our B&G Club, I think they will probably let DS disengage from learning activities since he is such a fast learner. And we know we don't want him to be bored.
One of the reasons I have posted less frequently the past year or so was frustration with my job search. I have not been able to get back into the professional field that I was in before I had DS, and it was weighing on me. But this week I am grateful to still be where I am. If I had found something this past year, I might be looking at a layoff in the coming months. Working at a grocery store is not where I planned to be at this point in my life, but I am grateful that I will have plenty of work through this crisis and likely beyond if I want to continue there, I have plenty of sick time saved up, health insurance, and a caring work family. Silver lining.
Post by erinshelley21 on Mar 13, 2020 19:27:22 GMT -5
Got an update from DH. If he gets exposed on a call, he gets quarantined for 14 days. At work. The man barely survived being stuck at home for 4 days with HFM. He will die if he gets put in a 14 day quarantine.
PA has closed all schools for the next two weeks and then will re-evaluate. My school district has decided to forgo online learning since the governor is waiving the 180 days of instruction guideline. I kind of wish there kids did have to do some learning just to keep them busy. So I'll probably rotate between working for home and going to the office for now. A lot of events and museums have closed too. At least it is getting warmer here so we can get the kids outside. Good luck to my DH since he'll be managing them. In other news, DS1 went to the Dr today. She doesn't think he has the flu; probably just some virus that is going around. He also had the very beginning of an ear infection so he is on antibiotics for that. Hopefully he perks up by Monday or the Dr wants to see him again.
Post by sandandsea on Mar 13, 2020 21:16:47 GMT -5
We have some e learning sites available by the school for the overachievers. I also got a 30day checkout of abcmouse for free through our public library. It works on their iPads. Dh just started a 30 day Netflix trial as well so he could watch the formula 1 show so the timing worked out well!!
I made a draft schedule for them too so they will do reading, writing, math, outdoor play, free play, and computer learning daily hopefully so I can actually work. I figure more activities they can do themselves will be necessary.
Post by covergirl82 on Mar 14, 2020 12:45:29 GMT -5
polecat8, I wish our governor had said right away that the instructional day threshold would be waived. Tourism is a big industry in MI, and that includes a lot of in-state tourists. Plus our summer weather always seems short, so we all want to enjoy it as much as we can. I also think there would be a rebellion if we had to go more than one week beyond the originally planned last day of school.
sandandsea, I'm also doing a schedule this weekend, to include all of the items you listed. My kids seem to like routine, and I'm going to make sure their brains are engaged academically during this time. I'm disappointed that the district hasn't come up with a digital learning solution for days when schools are closed (so we don't go beyond the scheduled last day of school), especially after we were closed for almost two weeks straight last winter due to the polar vortex. A former coworker has family in Minnesota, and they've been doing digital learning days on snow days for years.
I ask because I thought that my kids would ride bikes and run around with the neighborhood kids, but they are all sheltering in place and won’t allow their kids to interact with anyone. I’d told my kids no play dates where we are picking kids up and having them in the house, or going to someone else’s house and staying inside. But again, I figured people would be down with letting the kids roam the neighborhood.
We went to the park a few days ago. I think outside places that aren’t crowded are okay. I told the kids no touching anyone else, and no sharing toys. And we washed hands before we went and as soon as we got home.
Post by librarychica on Mar 14, 2020 15:15:15 GMT -5
I mean, we still have to work and it can’t all be from home so we and a few other parents have set up a childcare rotation. They won’t be exposed to the 1500 kids at school, but they’ll see a few other kids regularly. We will be staying at one another’s houses and not going to movie theaters, indoor playground or kids museums but we aren’t in total isolation.
We’re still out and about (just meeting at parks) and just washing hands and using hand sanitizer.
All the holier than thou super social distancing people are driving me nuts. On our school message board a single working dad with two kindergarten boys posted about how to entertain the kids and did anyone want to get together. And our old neighbor - who is a high school teacher with a stay at home wife and two older kids - wrote a long post essentially shaming the single dad for wanting to get kids together and spread germs. Must be nice to just stay home when no one has to go to work and your older kids can entertain themselves. I posted a piece from The NY Times about how you should still do play dates and tips for keeping safe during them.
sdlaura - thank you for posting this. One of the moms definitely shamed me, saying it’s just “something we have to do for the greater good”. And I felt terrible because my kids knocked on her door... but we’d all been playing yesterday, talked about playing over the next couple of weeks to keep the kids busy... I feel better about my thinking now...
Post by covergirl82 on Mar 14, 2020 18:52:43 GMT -5
I did let DS have a friend over today. I had them wash their hands before they had a snack and wiped the basketballs and video game controllers down with disinfectant after the friend left. I'd be ok with letting them have a friend over once or twice a week, as long as we stay healthy and as long as the friend and their family has been healthy. However, if we can plan to meet friends at a playground (although the weather doesn't look great for that), that would be ideal. I just think it will help their emotional health to be able to see friends a couple times a week (and unfortunately we don't live in a big neighborhood or in a place where they can safely walk or ride a bike to a friend's house).
DD had a friend come over and spend the night Friday night. We only have 1 confirmed case in our county. She stayed all day then DD went to her house this afternoon. I feel like now is safe. Later on this week? I’m not so sure.
I am sending little DS to daycare Monday while I go to a dr appt that he can’t attend (DD can and DS will stay home) and then work from home. This is unprecedented....we are NEVER given “credit” for the time we work at home, as it is just expected. But buildings are closed and my work must be turned in with timelines, as best we can. (They will be late)
The 2 big kids will stay home w me for at least 2 weeks but likely more. Little might go into daycare more the next few days after that until so finish the work that needs to be done, but I’m kind of frantically trying to get it done so I can keep him home. If H wasn’t a drill this weekend I could knock it out but it’s just not physically possible to get it done with a 4 year old. At this point there are 26 confirmed cases in my state. I’m kind of desperate to get my work done so I can keep everyone home.
I cancelled a St Pats party for family for this Friday. H wants to go to the gym on Monday night and is annoyed that I don’t want him to. But this is a man who has to be reminded to wash his hands. So, no.
It’s not us I’m worried about, it’s our parents who will pay for our actions.
Work has been a cluster, and I’ve been crying daily if not 2 times a day. And I wouldn’t normally describe myself as a crier. I called a board member today. Which has never happened. 😢
Post by sandandsea on Mar 14, 2020 22:24:00 GMT -5
I’m uncertain for now. I mean the point of a quarantine is to be alone so if we break it then the 3 weeks school cancellation is for naught. We have talked about a couple of play dates but idk, we will see. It’s also prevalent in our area.
They’re now saying a majority of transmissions seem to come from people who are asymptomatic. So we all have to stay home even if we feel fine because it’s still super contagious. Having said that, we’re setting up daily “recess” with the family across the street so the three kids get play time. Trying to contain our in-person exposure to just them.
Right now our town refuses to close school. I'm arguing with XH on whether to still send them or not.
I plan to avoid play dates except with Beau and his son for now. We figured that's at least a chance for some socialization for all of us since they live right in town. If the girls' BFF's family is desperate for childcare if schools close, I could see myself taking her at my house too. I'm already WFH and the three of them will occupy each other.
shakinros something like the daily recess with other kids totally makes sense to me. That’s essentially what we’re doing by meeting other families to ride bikes at the park.
There are a lot of people in my neighborhood who seem to think the only thing that’s responsible is to lock themselves in their house and see no one. And that’s not realistic if you still need some sort of childcare or have small kids in a small space.
It also bugs me that I feel like there’s some white/rich privilege judging going on here - the people in my neighborhood who are judging others for leaving their houses have giant fancy houses with pools and backyard playgrounds. The single dad on our neighborhood message board who wanted to meet up outside lives in an apartment. I fall more in the former category than the latter, but others don’t seem to realize their privileged positions.
I think some people you all are describing are mixing up social distancing and isolating. Unless you are told to quarantine, you do not need to stay in your house without any outside social contact. The social distancing is to limit large groups and to practice good hygiene. Limit physical contact and distance yourself . Practice extra good hygiene. Fresh air outdoors is a good thing.
We should all be very grateful that this isn't hitting a young population hard like the 1918 Spanish flu. We would all be loosing out minds if this was taking out the very young in 48 hours of onset.
Post by erinshelley21 on Mar 15, 2020 9:40:26 GMT -5
rere I agree with people confusing them. I've been thinking about setting up game nights and play dates with friends for the next 3 weeks. DH's exposure to all kinds of crap is the biggest thing that would prevent it. Another being that one friend works in a hospital.