just tell me what to do - homeschooling

[basil]

Nevermind work which is the biggest cluster of everything ever...

Kids are out of school now, obviously. DH and I are working outside the house. Our nanny is now also taking care of my brother's two younger kids as well as our kids full time, which was not the position we hired her for, but she has stepped up which is a blessing, but it's not her best talent to be a teacher.

Teachers keep sending random emails at random times of day with things like a list of 10 links and instructions of "check these out and let me know what you think". I know they are struggling and not equipped for this and didn't get any more notice than I got. But I cannot do this. I cannot. Just give me 4 things for them each to do, preferably that they can actually do on their own. I don't have 3 hours to sit and look at all the great educational links and communicate those to the nanny, who is also trying to manage a screaming 3 year old and a baby. From work where I am actually working trying to make sure we are all still here in a few months. The music teachers are sending stuff and the dance class wants to have live classes on zoom so I have to try to set that up and I can't. It's too much and I want off.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Your kids are little. The work is optional. Let your nanny turn on some movies, play some board games and don’t stress!!!


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[Green_Tea]

I’m a teacher.

Pick ONE THING a day to do in addition to reading. Being read to counts as reading time. So - 15-30 min of reading in the AM and 15-30 min in the PM and one other thing, like math practice on IXL (or similar) for 20 min.

Teachers know and understand that parents have jobs. We are trying to balance requests from tiger parents with the needs of families in which both parents are on the front line. Don’t worry. Kids are always learning.

[petesgirl]

Good advice so far. Also, I’d let dance go for now unless it is a sanity saver. DS’s piano teacher wants to do FaceTime lessons and I just told her we are taking the next 3 weeks off instead. She will give me 2 pieces to work on each day with DS but I can’t deal with converting everything to online. I’m currently only doing the essentials— and a daily nap for me is one of them!

[PZMommy]

Chiming in as a teacher, we were not prepared for this. Last Thursday we were told to prepare a packet for 2 weeks of learning in case schools were to be closed. Somehow we were supposed to do this while still teaching our class. I teach kindergarten, so you know my students can just sit and read quietly for hours while I prepare a two week packet and then magically find time to use the one working copier in the office to make copies for my 24 students. We busted our butts to put something together, and then Friday midday we were told we would be closing for at least 2 weeks. We were rushed to leave at the end of the day.

By the middle of this week we were told that we will most likely not be returning for the rest of the year. We have nothing at home with us, and are unable to go to our schools to get anything. Meanwhile we are expected to teach our class, teach our personal kids, and try to scrounge for food, because all the shelves are empty here. It’s a mess!!

Just do what you can. Some parents are asking us for more work, and others are overwhelmed. We are trying to balance the needs of everyone, yet have absolutely no guidance or direction from the district. We are supposed to be getting an announcement on Monday. Half of our families have no computers or internet access so I have no clue how this distance learning will work. We are trying our best, and please know us teachers are overwhelmed as well.

[basil]

Chiming in as a teacher, we were not prepared for this. Last Thursday we were told to prepare a packet for 2 weeks of learning in case schools were to be closed. Somehow we were supposed to do this while still teaching our class. I teach kindergarten, so you know my students can just sit and read quietly for hours while I prepare a two week packet and then magically find time to use the one working copier in the office to make copies for my 24 students. We busted our butts to put something together, and then Friday midday we were told we would be closing for at least 2 weeks. We were rushed to leave at the end of the day.

By the middle of this week we were told that we will most likely not be returning for the rest of the year. We have nothing at home with us, and are unable to go to our schools to get anything. Meanwhile we are expected to teach our class, teach our personal kids, and try to scrounge for food, because all the shelves are empty here. It’s a mess!!

Just do what you can. Some parents are asking us for more work, and others are overwhelmed. We are trying to balance the needs of everyone, yet have absolutely no guidance or direction from the district. We are supposed to be getting an announcement on Monday. Half of our families have no computers or internet access so I have no clue how this distance learning will work. We are trying our best, and please know us teachers are overwhelmed as well.

I do know this. I promise! I am flying by the seat of my pants into unprecedented waters as well. I know they are just trying to help and provide something for the kids to do that isn't ^@&#$*^@$& Roblox or Youtube Kids. My job at the moment involves the drastic reorganization of a service and these crazy decisions of who will come in, who will get a procedure, and who will not based on my estimation of their risk of contracting COVID-19 from that and in the future..which affects my staff and my physicians getting it from them, and whether my staff gets paid. We aren't in the ER watching people struggle to breathe and deciding who gets a vent, but this is so not what I signed up for. There is no data. These are impossible decisions on a case by case basis. I am a surgeon, I know how to cut, I don't know how to do this!!!

But yeah, they came home last Friday with packets of work "just in case" then 3 hours later school is off for 3 weeks...who knows if longer. I do appreciate how hard it is to teach virtual kindergarten (I couldn't even do it in person), but I have been conditioned to think of missing an "assignment" as "failing" and it's awfully hard to let that go.

I just feel like such a failure when I get an email that says "sign onto Facebook at 2 pm for read out loud story hour with famous author!" and I can't. My son can read, I got him a bunch of Kindle books. But my daughter can't yet, and it's hard for her to get to things on her Chromebook without help. My son is helping her. He's writing stories about the Battle of Stalingrad that I don't want to read about. And tonight he wrote one where Harry Potter and Bigfoot teamed up and killed the coronavirus that just broke my heart.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I do appreciate how hard it is to teach virtual kindergarten (I couldn't even do it in person), but I have been conditioned to think of missing an "assignment" as "failing" and it's awfully hard to let that go.

.

Anyone who has read your posts over the years could guess that. It’s time to embrace that part of parenting where you just have to let it go. This is their journey and they will be ok!! You rightfully have much bigger things on you mind. This stuff truly isn’t necessary. If it’s compromising your already stretched sanity (and you basically say it is) then let it go! It is not failing to be smart enough to prioritize stuff!



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[jgenie]

Honestly, I would go online and purchase audiobooks for your kids. They can listen to books that are way ahead of their reading level and get so much out of them! Spend $50 and your nanny can rotate through them. You can most likely borrow some through your local library but to eliminate extra work for you I would buy them. Our favorites were in constant rotation here. We listened to audiobooks for YEARS in our house! Best of luck - we’re all trying to do the best we can!!

Our favorites:

A Bear Called Paddington read by Stephen Fry
Charlotte’s Web read by E.B. White himself
Trumpet of the Swan read by E.B. White himself
Magic Treehouse Books Mary Pope Osborne reads them herself - they’re wonderful! We borrowed these from our library.
Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face by Jack Prelutsky

[essnce629]

Your kids are little. The work is optional. Let your nanny turn on some movies, play some board games and don’t stress!!!


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Agree!

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[essnce629]

Pick ONE THING a day to do in addition to reading. Being read to counts as reading time. So - 15-30 min of reading in the AM and 15-30 min in the PM and one other thing, like math practice on IXL (or similar) for 20 min.

Sounds good to me! There's definitely the tiger parents out there. I got a text from a mom friend of mine today super angry that our teachers hadn't reached out and called each student in the class yet to talk to them personally! Since both our 5th grade teachers don't have kids she was like what else are they doing just sitting at home and getting paid! I was shocked. Kids have been out of school 5 days, cut them some slack and chill out!


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