If DMV schools don't open in the fall, are you moving?

[Anonymous]

1. Since when are 6,7 and 8 critical teaching years? Please point to existing science on that. There isn’t any. Kids lose years of school for a variety of reasons and they can still read as adults.

2. I do think kids learn better in person because of all the other externalities but again my son is learning to read through DL and a lot of YouTube videos.

It’s a pandemic. It’s not a snow storm, it’s not a teachers strike, it’s a pandemic. It’s a pandemic from an airborne disease.

We need to wait until it’s safe. And we are getting closer to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Since when are 6,7 and 8 critical teaching years? Please point to existing science on that. There isn’t any. Kids lose years of school for a variety of reasons and they can still read as adults.

2. I do think kids learn better in person because of all the other externalities but again my son is learning to read through DL and a lot of YouTube videos.

It’s a pandemic. It’s not a snow storm, it’s not a teachers strike, it’s a pandemic. It’s a pandemic from an airborne disease.

We need to wait until it’s safe. And we are getting closer to that.

If anything, transitioning to DL in 6th has been a great transition year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not moving. DCPS DL is going fine for our 3rd grader and 1st grader. 3rd grader is self sufficient. 1st grader just needs some prompts with technology. Both do a couple of hours of virtual tutoring per week with 3 of their friends. The kids love sleeping-in.

We do some targeted outdoor/masked/distanced meet-ups so they get socialization. When I say "targeted" only families that are taking Covid precautions very seriously. Several families we have avoided since early in the pandemic have already gotten Covid, but they pushed the boundaries, seemingly just because they really, really don't like this.

But don't get me wrong -- I can't wait for in-person, so long as it is safe. It just seems like school opening is being forced at the worst time of the pandemic -- highest numbers and vaccine right around the corner. And I hate to say it, but the loudest proponents of "open now" seem to be really, really struggling with their kids being home.

Do you consider the 'targeted' family to be taking COVID precautions very seriously if they are meeting with people (your family)? Not meant as a snarky question, but I woudltn'.

Not a snarky question at all! Thanks for being socially responsible and taking Covid-19 seriously.

Targeted =

1) No outside child care -- nannies, daycare, babysitters.
2) Both parents work from home.
3) Parents don't go to grocery store -- curbside pickup and delivery.
4) Only meet outside for the kids. No indoor stuff. Always masked. No dinners/drinks, just park playdates for the kids.


It's not risk free, but careful, I think.

It’s fine to go grocery shopping. It’s not fine to have play dates.

Different poster. I don't do either, but I must say, grocery deliveries are great, and I see grocery shopping as a really really bad idea, where the upside of getting a pack of butter on sale for $1.99 instead of $2.60 online is dwarfed by the very real risk of getting covid while shopping indoors with a bunch of strangers.
Meanwhile, I have empathy for those families who decide their kids really need an outdoor well-distanced and well-masked playdate with another family whose covid hygiene is as described by PP. The issue becomes that too few families' covid hygiene is actually as described by PP, hence why we don't do playdates.

You do realize that when you order your groceries, somebody else, someone probably more at risk for Covid and its potential consequences than you, still has to go to the store. So while you are protecting yourself, you are putting someone else at risk.

No.
I realize that the big picture consequence is that I am helping keep someone employed and I am letting the store be more of a space for staff to prepare orders thereby minimizing spread.

Instacart and Amazon Fresh staff shop more quickly and more efficiently than I would.

As someone who does all my shopping myself, I can assure you, those shoppers are not efficient at all. They barrell through the aisles, paying no attention to people's personal space, and they don't know what anything on people's lists are, nor where they can be found in the store. They make shopping for everybody else very very stressful.

+1. I have observed the same. The people who think ordering groceries through low-paid workers are helping anyone but themselves are fooling themselves. If anything, they are making grocery stores a riskier place for their neighbors.

You also have multiple people touching your products depending on how picks up, checks out the food/products and delivers. If you go to a grocery store at 8-9-10-11 they are generally pretty empty. I would consider it safer to go myself and less people handling the food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus/2021/01/523-students-407-staffers-positive-for-covid-in-massachusetts-schools-in-last-week.html

It's a pandemic, some students and staff are going to test positive here and there. But what's the alternative? A generation of poor kids are high risk of depression and other health issues, of failing to gain basic literacy and numeracy skills because they missed a critical window for acquiring them at age 6, 7 or 8? If most private schools can stay open, and most public school students attend at least two days a week all around the country, let's not abandon or responsibility to public elementary school students. Let's innovate and spend to teach the kids in person, however that works.

It's by 8 years old, if your child cannot read by 8 there needs to be some assessments conducted.
Teachers are not mental health workers, if your child needs that see one. If they need peer socialization, go to a park I see plenty of kids there.

I'm tired of the private school example, you know how many things private schools can do that public ones can't even WITHOUT a pandemic.

Again are you moving?

[Anonymous]

My 8 year-old needs school. She toughs DL out, but was a happier child and much better learner when she could attend school in-person. She plays outside with friends after school, but that doesn't make up for the fact that she often finds Microsoft Team instruction frustrating and uninspiring. We may have a have a hybrid spot at our DCPS EotP come February - we'll know in a few days.

If there's no DCPS school for her through the spring, and no full-time school into the fall, we plan for one parent to take a break from DC with grandparents in a fairly upscale small New England town in the fall, near to the homes of cousins their age. This is a no brainer because our two children like staying with their grandparents/cousins and don't like learning from home. My in-laws town is offering full-time public school right now, and has since Labor Day. Schools in their town put the odd class on hiatus, after a teacher or student tests positive, but they don't shut down the entire school or school system. The superintendent of schools and the school board have threatened to fire teachers who refuse to teach in person without medical documentation. The arrangement is working, that's New England for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 8 year-old needs school. She toughs DL out, but was a happier child and much better learner when she could attend school in-person. She plays outside with friends after school, but that doesn't make up for the fact that she often finds Microsoft Team instruction frustrating and uninspiring. We may have a have a hybrid spot at our DCPS EotP come February - we'll know in a few days.

If there's no DCPS school for her through the spring, and no full-time school into the fall, we plan for one parent to take a break from DC with grandparents in a fairly upscale small New England town in the fall, near to the homes of cousins their age. This is a no brainer because our two children like staying with their grandparents/cousins and don't like learning from home. My in-laws town is offering full-time public school right now, and has since Labor Day. Schools in their town put the odd class on hiatus, after a teacher or student tests positive, but they don't shut down the entire school or school system. The superintendent of schools and the school board have threatened to fire teachers who refuse to teach in person without medical documentation. The arrangement is working, that's New England for you.

This is New England for you https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus/2021/01/523-students-407-staffers-positive-for-covid-in-massachusetts-schools-in-last-week.html

Glad your in-laws are willing to be put at risk

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who takes an hour to grocery shop? I can walk from my house to the store, shop, checkout, and walk back home in under 20 minutes (and do it weekly). There’s no reason you can’t get in and out quickly if you’re prepared with a list and go when it’s not busy.

If you can buy $300+ of groceries and go to and from the store in 20 minutes, you need to be on Guy's grocery games! But all kidding aside, if going to the store is how you want to spend your COVID risk budget, you do you. It's fine.

With the new strains being ultra contagious, going inside places with other people becomes more risky. And I wouldn't focus on the other shoppers in the store (not crowded), but the store employees -- they are around everyone! There's a reason grocery store employees are near the top of the list for vaccination.

If you don't go in the store at all you are reducing risk for the employees and everyone else.

Hah! I actually would be amazing on Guy’s grocery games. Good idea, PP.

Like the other PP, I love nothing more than to wander the aisles of Wegmans or WF, but an unexpected consequence of the pandemic is that it has made me super efficient at shopping. I think that my heightened awareness of my surroundings also makes me pay more attention to the aisles and items and that makes it go faster too. Gone are the days when I can look at my phone to check a recipe.

I try to get in and get out quickly. If you haven’t been into a store since March, I can see how it would seem like the employees would be risky but with the plexiglass partitions and way fewer people in the stores, it’s much easier to keep a very safe distance. Not trying to convince you to change since pickup seems to be working for you, but if you do have to go in, it’s not so bad as long as you choose a slow time.

Great point, we all spend our risk budgets on different things.

[Anonymous]

At the moment, my wife and I divide the shopping. One of us goes once a week and usually in the early morning to avoid others. We have the money and we are able, so we don't feel like paying someone else to put their lives in danger.

[Anonymous]

Or Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Georgia
New York
Texas
Vermont
New Hampshire
Maine

I could go on.... you sound misinformed and ignorant.


Come again? https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus/2021/01/523-students-407-staffers-positive-for-covid-in-massachusetts-schools-in-last-week.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 8 year-old needs school. She toughs DL out, but was a happier child and much better learner when she could attend school in-person. She plays outside with friends after school, but that doesn't make up for the fact that she often finds Microsoft Team instruction frustrating and uninspiring. We may have a have a hybrid spot at our DCPS EotP come February - we'll know in a few days.

If there's no DCPS school for her through the spring, and no full-time school into the fall, we plan for one parent to take a break from DC with grandparents in a fairly upscale small New England town in the fall, near to the homes of cousins their age. This is a no brainer because our two children like staying with their grandparents/cousins and don't like learning from home. My in-laws town is offering full-time public school right now, and has since Labor Day. Schools in their town put the odd class on hiatus, after a teacher or student tests positive, but they don't shut down the entire school or school system. The superintendent of schools and the school board have threatened to fire teachers who refuse to teach in person without medical documentation. The arrangement is working, that's New England for you.

She doesn’t need in person you want in person. Easier for you.

[Anonymous]

You are correct to point out that we can all survive without in-person instruction. But we can do better by our family than DL in the fall if necessary. I don't think DL is fair to any of us, especially my intense younger child, and I'm tired of pretending that it's working for her. Her older sister, a 5th grader, has done better with learning remotely. The 8 year-old is too young and doesn't seem to have the right personality for it. We're fed up with WTU intransigence and never planned to stay in DCPS for middle school anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not moving. DCPS DL is going fine for our 3rd grader and 1st grader. 3rd grader is self sufficient. 1st grader just needs some prompts with technology. Both do a couple of hours of virtual tutoring per week with 3 of their friends. The kids love sleeping-in.

We do some targeted outdoor/masked/distanced meet-ups so they get socialization. When I say "targeted" only families that are taking Covid precautions very seriously. Several families we have avoided since early in the pandemic have already gotten Covid, but they pushed the boundaries, seemingly just because they really, really don't like this.

But don't get me wrong -- I can't wait for in-person, so long as it is safe. It just seems like school opening is being forced at the worst time of the pandemic -- highest numbers and vaccine right around the corner. And I hate to say it, but the loudest proponents of "open now" seem to be really, really struggling with their kids being home.

Do you consider the 'targeted' family to be taking COVID precautions very seriously if they are meeting with people (your family)? Not meant as a snarky question, but I woudltn'.

Not a snarky question at all! Thanks for being socially responsible and taking Covid-19 seriously.

Targeted =

1) No outside child care -- nannies, daycare, babysitters.
2) Both parents work from home.
3) Parents don't go to grocery store -- curbside pickup and delivery.
4) Only meet outside for the kids. No indoor stuff. Always masked. No dinners/drinks, just park playdates for the kids.


It's not risk free, but careful, I think.

It’s fine to go grocery shopping. It’s not fine to have play dates.

Says you. She came to a different conclusion. Grocery shopping is indoors. We know indoor activities are much more dangerous than outdoor and as the pandemic drags on it gets harder to keep distance in the grocery as so many people seem to have given up. For me, it’s also a risk/benefit analysis. I can order groceries and I may not get everything I want but I can love with that. I can’t live with my child not having any in person social interaction for a year or longer. So I don’t know that an outdoor playdate is safer than the grocery store but for me the benefit is about 100x what shopping inside is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 8 year-old needs school. She toughs DL out, but was a happier child and much better learner when she could attend school in-person. She plays outside with friends after school, but that doesn't make up for the fact that she often finds Microsoft Team instruction frustrating and uninspiring. We may have a have a hybrid spot at our DCPS EotP come February - we'll know in a few days.

If there's no DCPS school for her through the spring, and no full-time school into the fall, we plan for one parent to take a break from DC with grandparents in a fairly upscale small New England town in the fall, near to the homes of cousins their age. This is a no brainer because our two children like staying with their grandparents/cousins and don't like learning from home. My in-laws town is offering full-time public school right now, and has since Labor Day. Schools in their town put the odd class on hiatus, after a teacher or student tests positive, but they don't shut down the entire school or school system. The superintendent of schools and the school board have threatened to fire teachers who refuse to teach in person without medical documentation. The arrangement is working, that's New England for you.

I'm so jealous that you have this option. Good for the superintendent - that's what real leadership looks like. Teachers with certified medical issues can remain virtual. The rest of teachers can decide they don't want their jobs, but they don't get to decide that children don't get to go to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not moving. DCPS DL is going fine for our 3rd grader and 1st grader. 3rd grader is self sufficient. 1st grader just needs some prompts with technology. Both do a couple of hours of virtual tutoring per week with 3 of their friends. The kids love sleeping-in.

We do some targeted outdoor/masked/distanced meet-ups so they get socialization. When I say "targeted" only families that are taking Covid precautions very seriously. Several families we have avoided since early in the pandemic have already gotten Covid, but they pushed the boundaries, seemingly just because they really, really don't like this.

But don't get me wrong -- I can't wait for in-person, so long as it is safe. It just seems like school opening is being forced at the worst time of the pandemic -- highest numbers and vaccine right around the corner. And I hate to say it, but the loudest proponents of "open now" seem to be really, really struggling with their kids being home.

Do you consider the 'targeted' family to be taking COVID precautions very seriously if they are meeting with people (your family)? Not meant as a snarky question, but I woudltn'.

Not a snarky question at all! Thanks for being socially responsible and taking Covid-19 seriously.

Targeted =

1) No outside child care -- nannies, daycare, babysitters.
2) Both parents work from home.
3) Parents don't go to grocery store -- curbside pickup and delivery.
4) Only meet outside for the kids. No indoor stuff. Always masked. No dinners/drinks, just park playdates for the kids.


It's not risk free, but careful, I think.

It’s fine to go grocery shopping. It’s not fine to have play dates.

Says you. She came to a different conclusion. Grocery shopping is indoors. We know indoor activities are much more dangerous than outdoor and as the pandemic drags on it gets harder to keep distance in the grocery as so many people seem to have given up. For me, it’s also a risk/benefit analysis. I can order groceries and I may not get everything I want but I can love with that. I can’t live with my child not having any in person social interaction for a year or longer. So I don’t know that an outdoor playdate is safer than the grocery store but for me the benefit is about 100x what shopping inside is.

I actually think outdoor play date is safer than grocery shopping. Definitely if the kids wear masks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 8 year-old needs school. She toughs DL out, but was a happier child and much better learner when she could attend school in-person. She plays outside with friends after school, but that doesn't make up for the fact that she often finds Microsoft Team instruction frustrating and uninspiring. We may have a have a hybrid spot at our DCPS EotP come February - we'll know in a few days.

If there's no DCPS school for her through the spring, and no full-time school into the fall, we plan for one parent to take a break from DC with grandparents in a fairly upscale small New England town in the fall, near to the homes of cousins their age. This is a no brainer because our two children like staying with their grandparents/cousins and don't like learning from home. My in-laws town is offering full-time public school right now, and has since Labor Day. Schools in their town put the odd class on hiatus, after a teacher or student tests positive, but they don't shut down the entire school or school system. The superintendent of schools and the school board have threatened to fire teachers who refuse to teach in person without medical documentation. The arrangement is working, that's New England for you.

She doesn’t need in person you want in person. Easier for you.

NP. Shut up already. You don't know her or her kid, and you are in no position to judge what her kid needs or not. Repulsive.