twinmomma that’s exactly what I’m doing for camp with hand sanitizer - target has the small bottles and I’ve been refilling them. Camp has hand sanitizer, but the kids don’t like how it smells 🙄
We need wipes for our office and can't find them. I'm pretty sure I'm going to make a bleach solution and buy some white shop towels to sanitize stuff here at work. I have a couple bottles of Clorox wipes at home. I buy from Costco before school starts and they last me all year plus some.
k3am, that is what I was expecting and has me really thinking going virtual for the school year.
DD is obsessed with hand sanitizer. I keep telling her that if there's a sink and soap available, she's not sanitizing. She's in a classroom with a sink and they wash hands.. a lot. So no sanitizing there. But she always makes sure to grab some on the way onto and off campus just because she can.
traveltheworld... 48 pencils? There are 180 days of school? So a pencil only is expected to last 3.75 days? That's nuts. Or maybe they assume that only 4 parents will actually buy supplies?
You’d be shocked how many kids can’t hold onto a pencil for a single day.
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
Post by erinshelley21 on Jul 16, 2020 18:00:57 GMT -5
The school asks for donations for regular supplies. In a normal year we only have to buy kleenex. This year they added disinfectant wipes and ziploc bags. Not sure what those are for but whatever.
traveltheworld ... 48 pencils? There are 180 days of school? So a pencil only is expected to last 3.75 days? That's nuts. Or maybe they assume that only 4 parents will actually buy supplies?
You’d be shocked how many kids can’t hold onto a pencil for a single day.
I provided 100 pencil and still didn't have enough. 2 pencils per day was not uncommon.
Question if your school looks like it is going online, and it didn’t do a very good job in the spring, what are you planning? Our teachers union is making a case for it all to be online, which is what it is I guess. I’m thinking now that we will keep the enrolled so that the school doesn’t lose resources and then do supplemental stuff at home. And by we I mean the nanny I need to hire, because I have to teach in person. Anyone else thinking something similar?
Question if your school looks like it is going online, and it didn’t do a very good job in the spring, what are you planning? Our teachers union is making a case for it all to be online, which is what it is I guess. I’m thinking now that we will keep the enrolled so that the school doesn’t lose resources and then do supplemental stuff at home. And by we I mean the nanny I need to hire, because I have to teach in person. Anyone else thinking something similar?
If we do the distance learning support program, that’s all we’re doing. She will be on par with her peers in general and behind her peers that have parents putting in additional effort, but I don’t have the bandwidth (time or mental) to do more than that.
phdmomma- a friend is really uncomfortable sending her kids back. Her husband is a surgeon in a hospital and she runs a rehab facility for mostly elderly patients. They can’t afford to be any more exposed. She is hiring a teacher who has to social distance for her own health reasons to do in person instruction for an average school day. She wanted to know if I wanted to send DD to basically share a governess with her. I would probably consider it if she also had a first grader, but she has a middle schooler. DS really needs a fellow first grader.
So maybe you could find a teacher who can’t go back to an in school environment to help you? My bff is starting a virtual school because so many people are choosing virtual learning but are unhappy with public school offerings.
We aren’t doing anything extra. I wouldn’t say distance learning was honestly amazing for anyone. It was better than a lot but they still didn’t learn half the subjects. Now the state is saying 5 hours a day! Of distance learning and it’s graded. So yeah if they can’t learn it in 5 hours a day then whatever- I’m done.
We talked about learning pods today at work and I saw this article posted www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/education/the-learning-curve-the-dystopian-future-of-learning-pods/. I think this is my point. It would be great for example if DS could go in 5 days a week since he has an IEP or English as a second language students or those young students that can’t manage elearning (pre-k through 1st it 2nd). Don’t get me wrong I’m not judging the pod just the circumstances creating the need for them.
I’m not planning a pod yet since the plan is hybrid and I have a nanny already, but we all know how plans can fall apart in the time of Covid.
Post by sandandsea on Jul 16, 2020 22:15:30 GMT -5
We just found out we are starting fully online and will re-evaluate as the situation changes which basically means nothing will be done differently. Our district is large and clunky and slow. They will have the regular bell schedule and teachers will live stream teach the full day. So basically we are opting out. Hopefully we pass the testing for the private school and can go that route. They are on campus now and will be this fall. as they have space and resources to social distance. If we can’t get in, we will hire a tutor and hopefully pod with 5 other kids to split the cost and rotate houses because facilitating a full “live streaming” day of school while working is actually impossible.
k3am, sandandsea, waverly, mommyatty, I'm not opposed to virtual learning in general. But we got 45 minutes a day max for a 2nd grader in the spring. Even, including activities like "read for 15 minutes". Which doesn't seem like enough. I don't need 5 hours, but more than 45 minutes seems necessary. I bought some math workbooks for DS last spring and we worked through the better part of 3rd grade math, which he really liked and we would spend like 30 minutes reading Harry Potter together a day. I am failing to see how this online format work out for the incoming kindergartener. I checked with the private schools, most of them seem iffy about opening in person, and are waiting for the public school to make the call first. Aside for the one that is $15k per kid per year.
Thankfully, we live in a college town, so there is an abundance of education majors around, and my plan is to hire 1-2 of them part time, depending on what the school district decides.
We just found out we are starting fully online and will re-evaluate as the situation changes which basically means nothing will be done differently. Our district is large and clunky and slow. They will have the regular bell schedule and teachers will live stream teach the full day. So basically we are opting out. Hopefully we pass the testing for the private school and can go that route. They are on campus now and will be this fall. as they have space and resources to social distance. If we can’t get in, we will hire a tutor and hopefully pod with 5 other kids to split the cost and rotate houses because facilitating a full “live streaming” day of school while working is actually impossible.
This is our plan exactly. There’s no entrance exam for the private school we applied to today. Just hopefully they won’t care that we’re not catholic and my kids aren’t baptized. If it doesn’t work out for some reason, we’ll go the pod route. I’ll be spending $60k on school and childcare this year, and that’s without aftercare for two kids and best case scenario because it will cost even more if the private school also goes online and I have to hire someone to help with that.
I've been pushing our school hard for more time with teachers for distance learning in the lower school. In middle school, we ran a full day (9:30-3:00) with at least 2 synchronous classes a day and parents seemed to like the structure. My 5th grader (MS) did awesome with DL - she was occupied all day and learning. In the LS, they did one class meeting (45 minutes) that was mostly social and a little bit of math. Then they had one resource class (45 minutes) which was stupid - they ended up with Spanish once every two weeks.
I do the MS schedule so I spent a lot of time talking to the LS scheduler about doing a morning meeting (30 minutes), a morning class with their teacher (45 minutes) and a resource class in the morning, a longer lunch break, then an assignment after lunch and an afternoon class where they went over the assignment. At least for 3rd and 4th graders, they can handle that schedule and I hope they take me up on it
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
erbear - that seems like a really good schedule for younger kids.
I loved the fact that the kids had an optional art class every week. My kids almost always participated- DD1 skipper once when she had a presentation immediately following the class. All you could here were giggles and fun. Sometimes DD2 would jump to a zoom call right after that and the kids would continue working and crafting and giggling. It helped so much.
The class seemed like total chaos to me, but the kids looked forward to it every week.
Post by traveltheworld on Jul 17, 2020 11:16:33 GMT -5
erbear, as a parent with a soon to be 3rd grader, your suggested schedule sounds perfect! When we did distance learning in the spring, we only got one 30 minute session with the teacher every week and that was the hardest. It was hard to keep DS engaged; so daily (or even 3 times a day) check in would be good.
erbear, that sounds head and shoulders above what we had last spring.
And the announcement came out today. We are all online until October 30th. The teacher union has asked for 14 consecutive days without new cases in the county.....we have achieved one day like this so far in months. And now I must find childcare. Because I am teaching in person at the university.
When we did distance learning in the spring, we usually had 1-2 prerecorded video a day (5-7 mins - these were perfect caliber for the kids) and one zoom social check in weekly (20 mins).
We also had district prepared videos that were 45-60 minutes that required a lot of "pause and do this" that made the videos take well upwards of an hour. These were also incredibly dry and boring and we ended up skipping them entirely most of the time.
Our districts plan for distance learning is keeping the same bell schedule, having 6 hours of online instructions from teachers live in their classrooms. It is.. underwhelming, to say the least. We were with our neighbor (a teacher) when the news came out. She found out the game plan the same time as parents did.
Our superintendent just sent another message to the school district. There will be two options for the fall: in-person or remote. The in-person option will be completely in the classroom as long as our county stays in the green phase. If our county goes yellow or there is an outbreak in the community, students will be put in a hybrid schedule for either in-person or remote learning (still not clear who gets assigned to what group). If the county goes red, all learning will be virtual. The district is working to make the remote option is more robust than it was in the spring. Each family has the option to switch options at certain points in the school year. More details are coming and will be shared at the next school board meeting at the end of the month.
At this point, I think we will choose the in-person option. We still haven't heard from DS2's preschool. It is located in a neighboring school district, so I think they may be waiting to see what they do.
The re-opening committee must have come up with their recommendation and the board voted remotely since it was announced today and the next board meeting is not until July 27.
I’m shocked y’all. Full time in person learning was announced. I would have bet you $100 that it would be hybrid.
On Wednesday, our governor (SC) held a big press conference stating his wishes were that districts offer parents the choice of 100% in person or 100% virtual programs. All of the work and planning of the state guidance committee and all district level guidance committees is now in question and up in the air. Totally a political/economic move and not at all taking health, safety, or science seriously. I was so pissed.
The district where I work hasn’t yet published their plans, but I have a sinking feeling it will follow the governor’s request (not mandate) and be all virtual or all 100% in person. That is not acceptable to me.
So now I’m second-guessing moving DD to my school and might keep her at the home school.
Our governor just shut down most of the schools in CA, including privates. They can only open when the county has been off the monitoring list for >14 days.
Our governor just shut down most of the schools in CA, including privates. They can only open when the county has been off the monitoring list for >14 days.
Our governor just shut down most of the schools in CA, including privates. They can only open when the county has been off the monitoring list for >14 days.
I'm not sure how that affects childcare centers.
A whole lot of kids are going to be very screwed.
Yep. Guess we’re going the pod route.
Yep. Time to form our pods and hire a teacher.
ETA. I need some time to soak this is as I’m Feeling super screwed. Ugh.
The uncertainty is awful for my anxiety levels, so we just selected synchronous virtual so have an idea of what to expect.
It's so hard when the requirements and the plans change each day. Our charter school is all over the state of Texas. We given 3 options all starting August 13th and had to decide by today. TEA originally said in-person was required, so that was option 3. Last night, as they were starting a parent webinar, one of the major counties said no in person school until September 8th, so the district was scambling to decide if all of the schools follow or just the ones in that county.
Today, TEA rolls back original requirements and says schools can be online for longer. I feel so bad for the superintendents and administrators that keep having to come up with plans, only to make announcements and then have to change when new requirements are announced.
Post by librarychica on Jul 17, 2020 18:10:50 GMT -5
Our county released its options. We have made our selections.
We are going asynchronous virtual for DD1, each kid picked a friend to see while my county loses its virus mind (thankfully my bff’s daughter Is DD1’s favorite and since she is the only not-my-parents person I trust to emergency babysit during pandemic and vice versa) from a short list of pre-approved friends. We will figure out DD2 (kindergarten age but virtual isn’t suitable for her) childcare if available maybe or she will be homeschooled but not solving that right now. H and I will work opposite schedules and my parents will take two days a week. Cost-benefit analysis evaluated. We have podded. Moving forward. Moving forward to the drive thru liquor store.