Parents of 5th graders - let’s talk

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If neurotypical children are still behind this long after the pandemic, what have you been doing the past couple years? At this point, it’s on you, the parent.

There are articles in education journals about how parents think their kids are okay, since they are back in school and have been now for years. But the kids aren't okay. Teachers see it but parents may not.

My kids were slipping, I noticed, and I worked with them. To expect teachers to fix everything from the pandemic is absurd. If parents aren’t noticing, I’m willing to bet the same parents are not engaged with their children’s school work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If neurotypical children are still behind this long after the pandemic, what have you been doing the past couple years? At this point, it’s on you, the parent.

There are articles in education journals about how parents think their kids are okay, since they are back in school and have been now for years. But the kids aren't okay. Teachers see it but parents may not.

My kids were slipping, I noticed, and I worked with them. To expect teachers to fix everything from the pandemic is absurd. If parents aren’t noticing, I’m willing to bet the same parents are not engaged with their children’s school work.

I have an 8th grader and a 5th grader. I can notice that my 5th grader's class is behind where my older DC's class was (actually the year before, since my 8th grader's 5th grade was virtual). I am an engaged parent. But I cannot move his class forward, I cannot fix that or "work with that".

You are one of those on this thread who is in denial. You see the posts by teachers saying they see the effects of the pandemic in most of their students and you think they are wrong. Why do you do that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If neurotypical children are still behind this long after the pandemic, what have you been doing the past couple years? At this point, it’s on you, the parent.

There are articles in education journals about how parents think their kids are okay, since they are back in school and have been now for years. But the kids aren't okay. Teachers see it but parents may not.

My kids were slipping, I noticed, and I worked with them. To expect teachers to fix everything from the pandemic is absurd. If parents aren’t noticing, I’m willing to bet the same parents are not engaged with their children’s school work.

I have an 8th grader and a 5th grader. I can notice that my 5th grader's class is behind where my older DC's class was (actually the year before, since my 8th grader's 5th grade was virtual). I am an engaged parent. But I cannot move his class forward, I cannot fix that or "work with that".

You are one of those on this thread who is in denial. You see the posts by teachers saying they see the effects of the pandemic in most of their students and you think they are wrong. Why do you do that?

You are the one in denial. Your kids are behind, you CAN work with that. But you expect the system to fix it instead of doing the work yourself. If you rely on the system alone, your kids won’t make up the time.

[Anonymous]

I have a fifth grader and absolutely yes the pandemic had a huge impact on DC, more than siblings. I suspect a lot of this varies from school to school and even teacher to teacher. We were at DCB and completely out of school for over a year, with a total 30 minutes a week of math instruction for our 2nd grader during the entire 2021-2022 year. We supplemented but they are still behind where they should be in math.
We also missed two seasons of little league (2020 never happened and 2021 was still pre-vaccine and I'm not sure if it happened or not) and that made a difference to DC for sure. They have put in work the last few years but there were just a lot of missed opportunities for social/team activities and I do think it's part of some current immaturity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kids are behind, it is because you abdicated your responsibilities during Covid. Of course parents needed to be more involved! I stayed on top of their schoolwork, plus they saw friends outside and stayed in their sports.

I feel like Covid is not a distant memory to us.

Well good for you. I was dealing with the death of three relatives and working full time while also supplementing schoolwork with my kids who were home much longer than other parts of the country. We were doing the best we could as parents. I'm not a trained teacher.

[Anonymous]

5th graders now, were in 1st grade when Covid started 🙄 We homeschooled and travelled to avoid the mess.

[Anonymous]

My kid who was in 1st grade in 2020 actually gained more confidence with the 1 and half year of zoom classes. COVID didn't affect my kids socially or emotionally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kids are behind, it is because you abdicated your responsibilities during Covid. Of course parents needed to be more involved! I stayed on top of their schoolwork, plus they saw friends outside and stayed in their sports.

I feel like Covid is not a distant memory to us.

Pp here. I agree with parent responsibility. I was on top of everything during the zoom classes. We did not meet anyone in person though. Kids went to the summer school to get back into the in person school mode.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think this is specific to 5th graders. It affected all kids of all ages, and all teachers and parents too which in turn affected the kids as well. My 3rd grader did virtual school for kindergarten and while he is doing fine now, a lot of his classmates are not—social and academic struggles that seem likely related to starting school virtually at such a critical time for social-emotional development that his cohort missed out on.

I think older kids were also very negatively affected, especially those in middle and high school during 2020-2021 school year…it affected us all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like every parent who has kids with issues attributes them to the lockdown; whatever the age. I don’t see how staying at home for a year can alter every generation of kids so much. And if it was lockdown, why is it your kid and not all the kids in your kid’s grade?

I think that when we are seeing immaturity and learning difficulties across age groups it has as much to do with parenting, copious screens at home, and copious screens in school. Many parents think they’re “on” their children’s behaviors, but they aren’t. They let many many MANY things go and favor their children instead of the good of the group. If we went back to the school days before smart boards in the classroom and chromebooks in every hand, we would see better behavior. If kids weren’t handed iPhones at the store and iPads at restaurants to keep them quiet they would be better off. I don’t think it was the lockdown, I think it was the shift in parenting that came with it and that hasn’t gone back.

As an elementary teacher (5th grade), it is 97% of the kids in that grade. The ones who weren't affected were the students who were exceptional before the lockdown (advanced for their age/grade).

The students I've had in my classroom the 2021-2022, 2022-2023, and 2023-2024 school years are one year behind, both academically and emotionally.

I have to pause and teach several 4th grade topics because last year in 4th grade the teacher had to pause and teach 3rd grade topics, etc. etc. etc. My sister teaches 3rd grade and she said this is the first year she hasn't had to shift her learning plans to incorporate a lot of 2nd grade topics that weren't mastered. In chatting with others, they are seeing the same. The only students on the correct track are those who started K 2022-2023 and after, whose learning was not at all disrupted because they were too young to be in school.

As a parent of a child who was in k in 2022-2023 school year, I can tell you this isn’t true. Kids in that group missed a year of preschool, which is critical social emotional learning and development. Most kids in that age group had only 1 year of preschool before starting k. I think they missed out too. Preschool is important, even the play based preschool programs are important to development. I’d say the only kids who didn’t have their learning disrupted by Covid shutdowns are the kids who are currently in K as they should’ve had at least 2 years preschool and have always had school in person unmasked.

[Anonymous]

My kids were not impacted academically, but it’s clear that the prolonged closures impacted them socially and continue to do so. There’s a whole generation of kids who are developmental and socially behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We caught leaning disability during covid. I had always asked teachers at every conference about possible ADHD and they said no. ADHD seemed so apparent when I observed online learning, so we got testing which confirmed it. I guess because my daughter's grades were fine and she wasn't throwing chairs, the teachers lumped her in with the "no problems" kids.

I do wonder if the frequent screen stimulation shrinking attention spans makes it much harder to distinguish between general distractability and true ADHD.

THIS 1000%. It's almost like screens have made the vast majority of people have ADHD-like behavior. So we give them speed so they can focus. The pandemic and screens rewired our brains and we're f'ed!

My son is going on a 10 day camping trip where there are zero screens allowed. I want to figure out a way to test his ability to focus before the trip and after.

[Anonymous]

Covid impacted all kids. Those with parents who realized they would need to do more to keep education and health on track did so and continued to do so once everything was reopened so as to get kids back on track. Those kids are fine. Even kids who didn’t have special needs identified in school early should have had them identified by now and will get on track with time and effort.

None of this is insurmountable if parents put in the time and effort with their kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Covid impacted all kids. Those with parents who realized they would need to do more to keep education and health on track did so and continued to do so once everything was reopened so as to get kids back on track. Those kids are fine. Even kids who didn’t have special needs identified in school early should have had them identified by now and will get on track with time and effort.

None of this is insurmountable if parents put in the time and effort with their kid.

Don't kid yourself. "Catching up" isn't a thing. And despite all the effort you put into your DC, you cannot fix missed experience and delayed maturity and development.

[Anonymous]

My 5th grader is definitely behind academically and emotionally, and I feel confident that if we hadn't hired tutors during 2nd grade, they would be even further behind than they are already are.