remote learning demands unreasonable for families

[Anonymous]

With kids your children's ages I would focus on the third grader's work(as it works for you) and not sweat the K stuff. Read with the K, do fun math oriented games at home (look online for teacher resources for pre K-1st grade games/hands on learning), sing songs, do puzzles, build with blocks; follow a routine that works for YOU that gives structure to their days(IMPORTANT!)
And give them lots of hugs and remember to smile when they are around.
They will be just fine even if the school gets annoyed at you. No long term damage done as long as mom and dad are calm and focused on family and well-being above all through all of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With kids your children's ages I would focus on the third grader's work(as it works for you) and not sweat the K stuff. Read with the K, do fun math oriented games at home (look online for teacher resources for pre K-1st grade games/hands on learning), sing songs, do puzzles, build with blocks; follow a routine that works for YOU that gives structure to their days(IMPORTANT!)
And give them lots of hugs and remember to smile when they are around.
They will be just fine even if the school gets annoyed at you. No long term damage done as long as mom and dad are calm and focused on family and well-being above all through all of this.

+1

We have some friends with kids at similar ages, and in the spring their Kindergartner would abandon all his Zoom sessions and just sit next to his sister and watch hers. The school can't do anything about it as long as both kids have a log-in or other communication during the day, they are marked present. And the Kindergartner probably gets as much out of sitting with his sister as he would out of being on his own Zoom, if not more because he's getting some social interaction.

But I feel you, OP. I bounce between trying not to think about what this fall is going to look like and laying awake in the middle of the night crying because I don't think I can do it. The last time I felt this way was when my daughter was born and we couldn't find a daycare spot anywhere and I wound up having to take a bunch of unpaid leave from work (which they were NOT happy about) until we got off a waitlist. I remember being up at 2am feeding her and realizing that there was no way to meet all my obligations to everyone who expected something of me and just melting down. I got through it, obviously, but that sense of overwhelm and helplessness is very familiar now. This country is in a childcare crisis, we have been for decades, and the burden is falling on mothers. That's it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just do the best you can with your kids. It’s going to suck.

However - I’ve already heard reports from other areas that have gone back to school (parts of the south that have started with distance learning and Indiana starts really early as well) that have said that the teachers are making really unreasonable demands of students. The talking out of both sides of their mouth on the “sorry this isn’t ideal, everyone just try your best and here is my list of 100 unreasonable demands and if you’re even 10 minutes late don’t bother signing into my zoom” nonsense. Parents need to push back HARD on that. Principals, superintendents, school boards, and the news media all need to know.

Agree! Parents have to be vocal it’s not ok. The more you suck it up and try to do hoops, the more they think it’s ok.

I pulled my kids out temporarily to homeschool. I’m not doing virtual.

[Anonymous]

Contact your school board rep and let them know the plan is not okay. They need to hear from more parents (and not just the teachers groups).

[Anonymous]

I want a national gap year.

Just let kids play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know the Children's Action Screen Time Network is providing resources for families and educators to push back on all the EdTech and screen time, should anyone have time to start mailing stuff around to school boards, superintendents, and principals.

https://screentimenetwork.org/resource/screens-schools-action-kit

Love this. Is anyone aware of any other sane voices/reasonable education solutions out there? I am interested in further political engagement on this, but don't even know where to start. The fact that we are where are is still mind boggling to me. Or better yet, examples of PS systems somewhere, anywhere in this country that are doing this better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Contact your school board rep and let them know the plan is not okay. They need to hear from more parents (and not just the teachers groups).

OP here. This is what I may end up doing this week. I'm already thinking of putting our younger child into private school. I think a big issue is that parents are not saying much. We want to support the teachers but the teachers are also not pushing back. If I were a K-6 teacher I would be fighting this and talking to my union.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Contact your school board rep and let them know the plan is not okay. They need to hear from more parents (and not just the teachers groups).

OP here. This is what I may end up doing this week. I'm already thinking of putting our younger child into private school. I think a big issue is that parents are not saying much. We want to support the teachers but the teachers are also not pushing back. If I were a K-6 teacher I would be fighting this and talking to my union.

And, as parents, I think we are just expected to cooperate because our kids are OUR kids, after all. At the end of the day, though, why do we have to agree to something we're not comfortable with? Now I have to put my two little kids in front of devices all day and watch the younger one struggle with his because this is what the district decided works (for the district, not for the kids).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I want a national gap year.

Just let kids play.

I don’t. Way too much backslide for the elementary school kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want a national gap year.

Just let kids play.

I don’t. Way too much backslide for the elementary school kids.

Is there a reason they can't learn those things a year later? Maybe we have universal summer school for a few years to make up the time? This is a serious question. I think it would save kids and parents a lot of misery this year, and have some good equity implications, if we ALL agreed to change the schedules and standards for kids this year and in the future instead of trying to stick to the pre-pandemic expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents did nothing but complain that their teachers were never available in the spring -- that there wasn't any live instruction.

Now you get it and you STILL complain. Just withdraw your child if its such a hassle.

This. People complained when there was not enough live instruction in DL and are now complaining that there is too much. Workbooks and textbooks are not coming back, no funding and getting the same ones for everyone is a serious contract issue etc. for kids that little, sign into whatvwr live pieces woth the teacher work for you and skip the rest.
No one thinks this is easy or really doable with parent working and w supervising kids at the same time.

I didn’t hear anyone argue that they thought the DL day should literally follow the in person 8:30-3 schedule. This clearly responds to the motivation of the schools, not the parents.

The law mandates the number of hours of instruction each child must receive. Teachers can only try to work within the law.