azucena
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Post by azucena on Mar 26, 2020 14:28:00 GMT -5
We started homeschooling today. It's been chaotic while everyone figures this out but the worst part is the group text that some parents put together. I just 100 texts during one hour work conference call. Trying to figure out everyone's numbers (hello look in the parent book), gripping that online schooling is too unorganized, too many emails, sharing pics, liking pics, commenting on the weather. FFS! I hate the world right now and I'm not tech savvy enough to figure out how to leave the group.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2020 15:39:49 GMT -5
We started homeschooling today. It's been chaotic while everyone figures this out but the worst part is the group text that some parents put together. I just 100 texts during one hour work conference call. Trying to figure out everyone's numbers (hello look in the parent book), gripping that online schooling is too unorganized, too many emails, sharing pics, liking pics, commenting on the weather. FFS! I hate the world right now and I'm not tech savvy enough to figure out how to leave the group. Yeah, screw that. There is zero reason I need to communicate with the other parents during this.
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gs11rmb
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Post by gs11rmb on Mar 26, 2020 15:51:04 GMT -5
I have been on a text with three other moms for the last couple of weeks and it has been great! Our kids are all in the same classes and we've been helping each other figure out the parts we don't understand. I will say I think a group with dozens of parents wouldn't be nearly as effective.
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azucena
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Post by azucena on Mar 26, 2020 16:15:55 GMT -5
We started homeschooling today. It's been chaotic while everyone figures this out but the worst part is the group text that some parents put together. I just 100 texts during one hour work conference call. Trying to figure out everyone's numbers (hello look in the parent book), gripping that online schooling is too unorganized, too many emails, sharing pics, liking pics, commenting on the weather. FFS! I hate the world right now and I'm not tech savvy enough to figure out how to leave the group. Yeah, screw that. There is zero reason I need to communicate with the other parents during this. someone teach me how to leave a group text on an android phone.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Mar 26, 2020 16:24:22 GMT -5
I haven't even remotely started home schooling my kids. Gwen said if they go back the teacher plans on having them do it all over again anyhow. I read to Abby (and she reads to me), she does math with me, we practice spelling not sure what else I am supposed to do for a kindergarten kid besides that. My kids are doomed. Just one more thing for me to have anxiety about. It's hard to do when DH and I are still expected to work 8 hours a day. I should get them on some sort of routine, especially if DH is going to be working from home part of the week.
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taz157
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Post by taz157 on Mar 26, 2020 16:36:53 GMT -5
FWIW Drama, I haven’t been homeschooling my kid either.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2020 16:41:52 GMT -5
Yeah, screw that. There is zero reason I need to communicate with the other parents during this. someone teach me how to leave a group text on an android phone. If you open the group chat are there three little dots in the upper right on your phone? On mine if you click on that it brings ups a menu of options. On the bottom there is a picture of a bell. If you click on it it shuts off notifications from that group. (If it's a shaded bell the notifications are on, if you click on it, the shading goes away and a cross mark goes through it)
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2020 16:46:56 GMT -5
This was posted on Carrot's school's Facebook page and is kind of my mantra right now.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2020 16:50:45 GMT -5
I'm "at work" all day and now my older son has started his online classes so from 9-1 Carrot is pretty much on his own. He comes into my room in the morning to do math sheets to "earn" time on his Switch, but it must be stuff he knows quite well already because he rarely asks me for help. Other than that I have him read for a while every day and call it good. We did sign up for Kahn Academy and he likes going in and doing coding lessons. Next week the distance learning starts, but his teacher said she kept it really light.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Mar 26, 2020 17:07:07 GMT -5
I haven't homeschooled my kids yet, and it's nearly end of week 2. I've barely monitored what they're supposed to do. I figure that, if I ever catch up with my job, I'll be able to take a break and look at that closer. I'm not worried about my kids academically at all. The first grader who I considered skipping a grade helped my dh cook last night. They combined 2 packets, so my husband asked him, what is 1 and a half cups plus one and a half cups? Kid answered, "that's 2 times one and a half, which is simply 3". I'm not sure I knew that myself until 4th grade. Is that when they start fractions? Maybe they should all do cooking classes instead.
Still, I wish I didn't have to work so much. I feel horrible ignoring them most of the day because I have so much work to get done.
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lurkyloo
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Post by lurkyloo on Mar 26, 2020 18:09:55 GMT -5
I’ve tried to keep up with the assignments, because DS needs the practice. I’m pretty annoyed at how much they sent home. Heavily bribing with Switch time, fell behind on literacy the first week and can’t catch up because the base level is already 3 writing assignments a day. Zero stars, do not recommend.
Official distance learning starts next week. Not looking forward to it.
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NastyWoman
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Post by NastyWoman on Mar 26, 2020 18:35:06 GMT -5
I haven't even remotely started home schooling my kids. Gwen said if they go back the teacher plans on having them do it all over again anyhow. I read to Abby (and she reads to me), she does math with me, we practice spelling not sure what else I am supposed to do for a kindergarten kid besides that. My kids are doomed. Just one more thing for me to have anxiety about. It's hard to do when DH and I are still expected to work 8 hours a day.I should get them on some sort of routine, especially if DH is going to be working from home part of the week. No, they are absolutely not. A lot of kids won't be doing the home schooling properly and that will make it necessary for teachers to go back and teach the subject matter. Will they be behind of others who somehow manage to do all the work at home? Possibly, but I never stressed too much (no home schooling as is evidenced by the fact that they reached adulthood) but different schools, in different countries, with different schedules of teaching certain things posed their own challenge. I have always looked at it as who cares whether your kid walks at 12 months or not, unless there is something inherently wrong they will all learn to walk in their own time.
For many years I believed that DS2 mathematical ability was not quite as good as his brother's. But guess who presented a paper on some linear math research at an international math conference while a freshman in college. Right, that would be the "late walker" so to speak.
While this was a total mom brag (even if the info is like 19 years old) the real goal of this is that I want you to focus on the fact that their elementary school lessons being all on track is not going to determine how there lives will go. You are a good mom. Give yourself a break and recognize that. The kids will find their way!
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oped
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Post by oped on Mar 26, 2020 19:03:37 GMT -5
Can I tell you even homeschoolers are not doing the 'homeschool thing' 'properly' at this time... we are actually not usually isolationists... we have co ops and workshops and classes and are rarely home all day... we don't work from home or have spouses working from home... we go out to eat and don't cook 3 meals a day for everyone every day... etc. etc.
This is an unprecedented time. You do the best you can.
I will say, one of my homeschool mom friends who is the best (and said last friday that it was the longest week of her life) is doing spirit week this week and posting their pictures of 'wearing their favorite color' and 'crazy hair' etc. days and can I just say I think we as a nation need to be doing this... and posting all our pics somewhere to scroll through and make each other laugh. I think this would be more beneficial than worksheets at this point.
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mathsplosion
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Post by mathsplosion on Mar 26, 2020 19:14:45 GMT -5
Can I tell you even homeschoolers are not doing the 'homeschool thing' 'properly' at this time... we are actually not usually isolationists... we have co ops and workshops and classes and are rarely home all day... we don't work from home or have spouses working from home... we go out to eat and don't cook 3 meals a day for everyone every day... etc. etc. This is an unprecedented time. You do the best you can. I will say, one of my homeschool mom friends who is the best (and said last friday that it was the longest week of her life) is doing spirit week this week and posting their pictures of 'wearing their favorite color' and 'crazy hair' etc. days and can I just say I think we as a nation need to be doing this... and posting all our pics somewhere to scroll through and make each other laugh. I think this would be more beneficial than worksheets at this point. My school is doing this. It's been fun to look at what the kids are posting. And everyone, even the too-cool-for-school kids, is participating. And the kids are being as supportive of each other as they can right now. I've been telling my students and parents to give themselves some grace right now. I teach high school, but they are still scared, frustrated, stressed-out kids. And if they don't get to their math today, well, then they can get to it later and not worry about it. What I do want them to do every day is check in with me. I post a question for them to answer. Sometimes it's silly, sometimes it's serious, and sometimes it might even relate to math. But this way I can check on them and they can check on me. And we make each other smile with the answers. All this to say that you have to do the best you can. And that's whatever it looks like today, not like in a perfect world.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Mar 26, 2020 19:53:00 GMT -5
Gwen wanted me to paint with her. We have established that her artistic talent clearly did not come from my genetics.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Mar 26, 2020 20:07:54 GMT -5
One of my friends came up with spirit days for us working at home. It's been nice to see the pictures and have something fun to do. Tomorrow's a bit of a stretch for Friday, it's get dressed in something besides your exercise pants. Cruel on Friday!
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raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Mar 26, 2020 20:19:23 GMT -5
Distance learning hasn't started for us yet. I have them read indepedently for an hour a day and play outside/walk/bike ride, and sime kind of chore to help ariund the house but those are our only goals. We've done a couple of the Mo Willems lunch doodles and the ocean institute facebook lives.
Even that is exhausting, and I technically have a non-working spouse home over half the week. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to hold everything together once there are actual academic goals. I'm not sure if it will be better or worse to move my office set up upstairs for the duration.
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giramomma
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Post by giramomma on Mar 26, 2020 23:04:21 GMT -5
Even that is exhausting, and I technically have a non-working spouse home over half the week. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to hold everything together once there are actual academic goals. I'm not sure if it will be better or worse to move my office set up upstairs for the duration. We found that the first week the teachers way overdid it. This week was much better. I also picked out the hardest assignment and we ground it out (with breaks) on Sunday. Took about 3 hours. Tomorrow, the peanut has to record herself reading her favorite passage from this week's story, taking a spelling test, and practicing some math. It's probably 45 minutes of work max, and she's done for the day. I'm not looking forward to Spring break, which is coming up next week for the girls. We've gotten into a decent enough routine. I'm afraid of what will happen if/when we lose it. We'll keep some things going..and try to work ahead. If your kiddos are school kids, I think it's a pretty easy transition. DD1 just goes and does her thing. The peanut associates being "off" at home. She also associates DH with minecraft. Both are the PITAs to overcome. The family dinners are nice, though. TBH, it's the first time I've really felt OK about having 4 children since I found out I was pregnant with Miss M, that will be 3 years ago in another month.
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azucena
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Post by azucena on Mar 27, 2020 8:06:12 GMT -5
I've told my sixth grader to do 3 hours of work per day based on what the teacher assigns and if it's not 3 hours worth then I'm planning to set her up with a spanish app since her aptitude is language.
Seems like my first grader's teacher sent home a packet of a week's worth of worksheets. Hoping she doesn't think I'm coming back for more. I split them up into days for DD and added in some of our own math and puzzle workbooks to get her to 1-2 hours of work since she has a long attention span.
Both kids are bored and looking fwd to schoolwork.
It was gorgeous here yesterday so after dinner we took our camping chairs over to the neighbors front yard and set up 10 feet away and had a very nice conversation while admiring their one month old son during his tummy and mat time. I highly recommend this - it felt much more normal and relaxing.
On the next nice night, DH is going to set up our projector on the garage door for a movie. We will make chalk boxes for two other families to sit in. Weird but way better than total isolation.
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ohmomto2boys
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Post by ohmomto2boys on Mar 27, 2020 8:19:43 GMT -5
Last day of a very boring spring break. We were supposed to go out of town (as we always do), but of course, that was cancelled. We have had some nice weather this week so we were able to get outside, ride bikes, take walks, go fishing, play basketball, etc. Back to school work Monday - both kids do their own thing and are only spending about an hour doing work and accomplishing all of their tasks. They are definitely not learning as much not being in the classroom. I really feel sorry for the teachers. They are going to have their hands full come August when the kids go back to school (if they don't go back this spring).
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Mar 27, 2020 8:36:02 GMT -5
We've got the kids checking on their existing Google Classrooms for assignments. Apparently there's a packet at C's school that I may still be able to get for him. But he's been using the assorted Math games and we've been forcing him to read. Or rather, DH and my Mom have been forcing him to read while I skip off to work, secure in knowing that I'm avoiding this headache as long as I can. Yeah, sucky mom/spouse here.
I downloaded Zoom on C's kindle last night. There's apparently some kind of Zoom call with his teacher at 10am today. C and DH are going to log in for that and see what's up.
With K, I haven't even checked her school's FB page yet. We never got set up on her parent portal so I suspect we're missing out there. But she's getting work posted on her GC so she's probably not horribly off.
I'm essential services so I still go into work. DH is working from home so he's handling the kid day to day stuff.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Mar 27, 2020 8:41:22 GMT -5
My 7 yo has had 3 zoom meetings already. It's really been great. I can see how excited all the kids are to see each other. My 10 yo had a similar meeting on Google meet. It makes things feel va little more normal when they can see their teachers and friends.
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steph08
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Post by steph08 on Mar 27, 2020 8:47:56 GMT -5
Harper hasn't been given any school work - granted, she's in kindergarten. I don't know if they are doing different things for the other grades. I have printed off some math sheets (at her request), and I have her read books, but that's it. Mostly we just play games or play outside.
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azucena
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Post by azucena on Mar 27, 2020 9:09:09 GMT -5
IMO, math and reading should be the focus. Keep their math skills from fading and throw in a few new things to challenge them whatever learning level they are at. Then, read, read, read and read some more.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Mar 27, 2020 9:49:08 GMT -5
My coworker died laughing when I told her my plan to teach the kids science was to bring home 50 tubes, make them label them, then fill them with exact tiny amounts of fluid, stare at them for 3 hours and then move it all into 50 new tubes they had to label.
As a challenge I throw in a mislabeled tube requiring they start the whole process over.
And that's science girls.🤣
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Mar 27, 2020 10:05:17 GMT -5
My coworker died laughing when I told her my plan to teach the kids science was to bring home 50 tubes, make them label them, then fill them with exact tiny amounts of fluid, stare at them for 3 hours and then move it all into 50 new tubes they had to label. As a challenge I throw in a mislabeled tube requiring they start the whole process over. And that's science girls.🤣 That's the way to make them hate science, if I ever heard one! 😆
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Mar 27, 2020 10:08:36 GMT -5
My coworker died laughing when I told her my plan to teach the kids science was to bring home 50 tubes, make them label them, then fill them with exact tiny amounts of fluid, stare at them for 3 hours and then move it all into 50 new tubes they had to label. As a challenge I throw in a mislabeled tube requiring they start the whole process over. And that's science girls.🤣 That's the way to make them hate science, if I ever heard one! 😆 But it's true! I should throw in an empty tube and turn off the timer so they screw up incubation times if I want it to be really accurate If they can do all that and not go insane they may destined to be a scientist. 🤣
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Mar 27, 2020 10:15:37 GMT -5
That's the way to make them hate science, if I ever heard one! 😆 But it's true! I should throw in an empty tube and turn off the timer so they screw up incubation times if I want it to be really accurate If they can do all that and not go insane they may destined to be a scientist. 🤣 Oh, I believe you. I hated chemistry lab in college, because no matter how careful I was to measure everything accurately, I never got an acceptable answer. I was not sloppy with my measurements in the least. I followed all the ways to measure like they said to do (with the test tubes, scale), and it still frickin turned out wrong!
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Mar 27, 2020 10:23:33 GMT -5
A friend is posting pictures of his 4th grader's math problems in this escape room game. We are all failing.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Mar 27, 2020 10:24:09 GMT -5
But it's true! I should throw in an empty tube and turn off the timer so they screw up incubation times if I want it to be really accurate If they can do all that and not go insane they may destined to be a scientist. 🤣 Oh, I believe you. I hated chemistry lab in college, because no matter how careful I was to measure everything accurately, I never got an acceptable answer. I was not sloppy with my measurements in the least. I followed all the ways to measure like they said to do (with the test tubes, scale), and it still frickin turned out wrong! Yep. I was going to throw my gel across the room yesterday. Stupid assay as far as I can tell I did it properly but the gel said otherwise. I do think that kind of experience is important. So many kids think science is what you see on TV. You can take dirt off a shoe and get accurate DNA results in a single commercial break revealing who the killer is. It disenchants a lot of kids when they realize it doesn't work that way. Failure is an integral part of science. That being said there is excitement and beauty. I love it when I end up with a perfect section of brain on a slide. Then to see human microglia in there after being convinced for months the strain was a bust was amazing. But you have to get through all the mundane day to day crap and mistakes to get there.
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