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NEVERENDING ♾️ The NEVERENDING Raising Children Thread

We're about 3 weeks in and remote learning has actually been going pretty well. The technology seems to work as it should and the lesson plans seem to be much more thought out than they were in the spring. Our biggest problems have been the teachers not sticking to the schedule and our 10-year-old being pretty bull-headed and inflexible about that. I've tried to tell her that this is a good exercise for when she's older and not everything goes as it should and breaks get changed, meetings get moved, etc. The other problem is that the kids really don't get much in the way of breaks from the screen and their lunch is way too short for my tastes. My daughter is used to the schedule though so as long as we don't make a big deal out of it she seems to do well.

All that said, this is still definitely no substitute for live, in-person learning.

The plan was for the district to keep up all-virtual learning until at least early November, which is the start of the next marking period. However, the district was looking at data from a few surrounding districts that have in-person classes, as well as COVID data for the region in general, and voted last night to accelerate the timetable to return. The new plan is to start phasing in in-person elementary kids starting with K-1 on September 30th. 4-5 grade kids are scheduled to return October 14th. In person learning will be half days (either a.m. or p.m.) with English, Math, and Science done at school in the classrooms and music, art, phys ed, and social studies done virtually.

We have to decide by Monday whether we are going to elect to return to in-person or to stay entirely virtual. I think we're leaning towards sending her.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
We're about 3 weeks in and remote learning has actually been going pretty well. The technology seems to work as it should and the lesson plans seem to be much more thought out than they were in the spring. Our biggest problems have been the teachers not sticking to the schedule and our 10-year-old being pretty bull-headed and inflexible about that. I've tried to tell her that this is a good exercise for when she's older and not everything goes as it should and breaks get changed, meetings get moved, etc. The other problem is that the kids really don't get much in the way of breaks from the screen and their lunch is way too short for my tastes. My daughter is used to the schedule though so as long as we don't make a big deal out of it she seems to do well.

All that said, this is still definitely no substitute for live, in-person learning.

The plan was for the district to keep up all-virtual learning until at least early November, which is the start of the next marking period. However, the district was looking at data from a few surrounding districts that have in-person classes, as well as COVID data for the region in general, and voted last night to accelerate the timetable to return. The new plan is to start phasing in in-person elementary kids starting with K-1 on September 30th. 4-5 grade kids are scheduled to return October 14th. In person learning will be half days (either a.m. or p.m.) with English, Math, and Science done at school in the classrooms and music, art, phys ed, and social studies done virtually.

We have to decide by Monday whether we are going to elect to return to in-person or to stay entirely virtual. I think we're leaning towards sending her.
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Mine is back in the classroom. She attends 830-1215, comes home for lunch and a break until 130, then logs into Zoom for 30-40 minutes of instruction + online learning, followed up with regular homework. They wear masks in the classroom and take their breaks outside. This was the second week and so far so good. My kiddo is also stubborn and just does better in the classroom.
 
Mine are going back next month if the school has their stuff together. The oldest needs it and the youngest might do better with online. Kids, what're you gonna do?
 
Mine have been in school for three weeks now. No kids have gotten sick at our school, but a lot of other schools around us have not been as lucky. Masks all day and lots of rules, but kids actually follow rules (unlike adults). Seems to be going really well honestly. I appreciate the seriousness that our school system is pushing to a lot of parents who are whining and complaining and making this harder than it already is.
 
Mine is doing online and "attending" most classes for roughly 10-15 minutes. Then he's downstairs getting a snack or texting friends. He's getting mostly A's so far so it's difficult for us to be too critical.
 
Maister said:
Mine is doing online and "attending" most classes for roughly 10-15 minutes. Then he's downstairs getting a snack or texting friends. He's getting mostly A's so far so it's difficult for us to be too critical.
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When I think about how much of the day was actually wasted when I went to in-person school, I'm pretty sure the kids are going to be OK. Collectively, I'm pretty sure I spent more time on the bus, changing classes, waiting for classes to start, or in useless classes than I did learning actual things I needed to learn.
 
Maister said:
Mine is doing online and "attending" most classes for roughly 10-15 minutes. Then he's downstairs getting a snack or texting friends. He's getting mostly A's so far so it's difficult for us to be too critical.
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Agreed. :)
 
Still 3 days online (M, T, F) and 2 days on campus (W, Th).

However some students must be slacking a little bit because the school just sent out an email concerning the dress code for online and on campus classes.
 
Hink said:
Mine have been in school for three weeks now. No kids have gotten sick at our school, but a lot of other schools around us have not been as lucky. Masks all day and lots of rules, but kids actually follow rules (unlike adults). Seems to be going really well honestly. I appreciate the seriousness that our school system is pushing to a lot of parents who are whining and complaining and making this harder than it already is.
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We're in the third week now. No issues at our tiny school nor any of the other elementary schools in the area. My daughter really likes the half day format as she comes home at 12:15 and has a 1:15 break to eat lunch, play Roblox or Minecraft, etc. She logs into Zoom at 1:30 for 30 minutes where the teacher continues the days lessons or activities and sets them up for their 30 minutes of online software learning immediately after that. I generally let her do whatever until around 5:30 when we do homework.

High schools seem to have the larger problem but it's more linked to socialization outside of school, but that seems to comport with research that younger children are less likely to get and spread COVID.
 
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This weekend are the last 2 soccer matches for The Girl's club team - ever. They are a U18 team this year and there has been a core of 7 players that have been together since they were U10 (+ a couple years of recreation soccer before that).

It will be bitter sweet to see the last match Sunday. There are a couple families we will remain friends with I'm sure, but others I'll really not see again. Same with the kids that we've seen grow up. Thinking of all the times we've kicked together on & off the field, at practice or just hanging out in the back yard.

Oh well, at least there will be HS soccer in the Spring (I Hope!)
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I bet you weren't aware that apparently my daughter is the only child ever on earth to have been assigned math homework and writing homework in the same day. Life is cruel!
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And my middle son is the only one in my state doing state assessment testing right now.

Oh the humanity!
 
While overall we've been happy with our local elementary school during the pandemic, communication from the actual district has been atrocious since about the middle of October... roughly the same time as a new superintendent took over. It's been especially worrisome when it takes them two or three days to announce changes (or affirm there were no changes to instructional schedules) after board meetings, so if you miss seeing the meeting live on the computer or TV you are stuck in a waiting game.

We also decided to move our preschooler into the preschool at the school district for 2021 but, again, communication from the district has been absolutely horrible. It's like pulling teeth to find out if they got our registration, what the curriculum is, what the daily schedule is, etc.

My wife has made numerous calls and emails to the school, the district administration, and the superintendent's office. The school principal and his secretary are quick to respond to what they can but the district not so much.

I remembered that the county superintendent, who oversees all the local districts, is on a board that I run and I've meet her a few times so I got fed up with the district enough that I went over their head to the county and sent her an email Friday afternoon. I felt a little guilty because I sent it from my work account but the county superintendent replied to me almost immediately that she was going to reach out personally to the district about our concerns and then about 20 minutes after that my wife got a phone call personally from the principal to let us know that a seat on the all-virtual school had "suddenly" opened up if we wanted (one of our concerns was that the district kept changing the guidelines for when it would be safe to have in-person instruction but we families weren't given the option to change our selection of hybrid or all virtual instruction). We thought about it more over the weekend and ultimately decided to stick with the hybrid (online in the a.m. and in-person in the p.m.) for our 5th grader but I'm still a little peeved that it was like pulling teeth just to get some basic answers from the district.

My wife was simultaneously impressed that it looks like I do actually have a bit of pull in these matters of local administration and pissed that they appeared to jump through some hoops for me but can barely even bother to respond to her questions with anything more than an email auto-reply.
 
All this college prep stuff!!!

The Girl is doing well with all her college applications & scholarship essays. This is so much more complicated then back in the old days when I went to school.

Looking at some FA information, I'm amazed at some of the range in interest rates for student loans. Here are 5 examples:
1.04% - 12.99%
1.25% - 12.59%
1.78% - 11.73%
2.46% - 13.57%
3.52% - 9.74%

Those high side ranges are very high.
 
dandy wrote in 5 things:
Itty Bitty is not handling well the selling of our house. Wah.


The Girl was 8 when we moved from the only house she eve knew. Although she was very excited about the new home & her new room, she was also very sad to leave that house. I even had to drive by it with her a couple times in the first few months, but after that no biggie.

She'll be fine in the long run, but near term, just give her a hug. There will be some homesickness with both of you me thinks.

I know its very different being a local move rather than an international one. I think the feelings will be similar though.
 
My 11yr old son is practicing to be a dad with the following that he came up with on the fly while we were playing frisbee yesterday afternoon:

Where's the best place to commit a crime?

On the roof of the police department.

You're above the law.

I'm rather proud of him, actually. :cool:
 
My oldest has gotten into Pokemon lately and she used some of her own money to buy some packs of cards on Amazon. This means I've also had to learn how to play Pokemon. I hate to admit it, but it's sort of fun (although the font size on the cards is absolutely miniscule so I've had to dig out our magnifying glass to be able to read them).
 
My son asked me to come to his counseling appointment yesterday, in part because he liked what I told him about the experience he got in his first full time job and wanted me to share it with the counselor, which I did.

The counselor observed that my son and I have very a strong personal relationship, something she said she doesn't often see between fathers and sons. Having had a very emotionally distant father, I was quite pleased with her taking time to comment about that.:)
 
Gedunker said:
My son asked me to come to his counseling appointment yesterday, in part because he liked what I told him about the experience he got in his first full time job and wanted me to share it with the counselor, which I did.

The counselor observed that my son and I have very a strong personal relationship, something she said she doesn't often see between fathers and sons. Having had a very emotionally distant father, I was quite pleased with her taking time to comment about that.:)
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How nice that your son wants to share those kinds of experiences. You seem to have a strong bond with both of your children.
 
I know we had a thread somewhere here around the topic of older parents, but...

My daughter's best friend has older parents. The girl just turned 11 last week and a couple years ago I did some math and figured out her dad was about 50 when when was born. They have an older son (he's 22 or 23 or so). Last week one day I went to go pick up our daughter over there and in the course of conversation with the mom (who likes to talk talk talk) she told me something along the lines of "I'm about to be 62, I want these kids out of the house!"

Later that evening my wife asked me what news/gossip I got from the mom when I was picking up our daughter and I told her I knew the mom's age and she didn't believe me. Who knows... maybe the daughter is actually adopted or maybe the mom had a baby very late but either way, I cannot imagine being about 70-years-old when my last is out of high school!

That's all. I just had to share some neighborhood gossip.
 
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