PK parents: two months in, what does DL look like for you?

[Anonymous]

I’m the PP on the 4 year old who draws funny DL art to vent. It’s fine. I’ve listened to DL for 4 year olds and it is literal torture to my ears too. I would never force it. She will learn differently on her own time. Her older sister hated DL last year too, but is doing great this year. Nothing to do with my parenting. It’s the kids developmental stage and personality. Strange you would think otherwise at this point, with everyone’s experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To all the PK parents out there: you have forgotten that PK is not compulsory. All the people complaining go away. You, the parent, are doing unimaginable harm to your child. Yes, you the parent, not the teacher, not DCPS, not anyone else, just you, so stop complaining. It makes me so sick. For those who say it is working, I love hearing all the good news about DL. Thank you for supporting your child's education.

Eye. Roll.

Obviously DL doesn’t work for the vast majority of this age cohort. Anyone with half a brain knows that. How is recognizing that and deciding to not force it on your kid is “doing unimaginable harm?” That is honestly one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. Hyperbolic much?

But deciding to continue to not invest in and prioritize in person learning is doing irreversible harm to kids, families, women, and the broader society now and in the future. That’s actually not hyperbolic at all and is 100% grounded in reality.

Also, 100% concur with others’ sentiments — GFY!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 4yo said he hates it so much that I should be sent to jail for making him attend each day so there's that. His teachers are doing the best they can.

Our kids would get along! My daughter’s art is drawing pictures of iPads while drawing a big “x” across them and saying “no school!” Over and over.

You realize you are the adult in this situation, right? I don’t understand why you are allowing that. She would probably be the same way in school. Except the teacher would have said “that’s not ok”. Doesn’t take a lot of skill to have a better attitude when things don’t go your way. In our home (no nanny, no pod) we tell our kid this is what it is and guess what? She’s learning a lot.

What concerns me THE most about going back to in person will be all of these horrifying behaviors/attitudes kids have picked up at home While DL because of their parents garbage attitude.

Your kids will be the ones disrupting the learning in the class with the crying and whining and being super delayed because you let them watch cartoons rather than ask them to pay attention during their 20 minute class. Seriously, get over it!!!

This generation of parents Will be the piece of work generation. In ten years when something doesn’t go their child’s way, they will probably blame DL Pk3.

You have no idea what you are talking about. My daughter loves school and always has. She hates DL and literally hides from it. She will crawl under her bed to avoid getting on a lesson. When she does get on a lesson, she literally shrinks out of view of the camera. And I don't blame her.

Her DL lessons are awful. Half the students join late, so the first have of any lesson is just the teacher interrupting herself to say hello to the new students and try to get them to mute/unmute or turn their cameras on. Half of the kids are doing DL without an adult, so they can't really participate (3 year olds don't know how to mute or unmute themselves), but the teacher is still trying (she wants to reach those kids).

People are having extremely disparate experiences with DL. This thread is a perfect example. Some parents are saying their PK kids are happy, others are miserable. Some of it is due to the kids personality and development (plus, at this age, some may have undiagnosed learning disabilities that could be greatly impacting their experience). It may also be due to the school, the teacher, the student cohort. Resources are huge.

The kids who are refusing to go on DL lessons are not being brats, they don't just need a good talking to. Being stricter is not necessarily the answer -- this is not normal school refusal. The DL they are being offered does not meet their learning needs. Full stop. And it's not a small problem. DCUM has a pretty well-resourced parent base, and look at all the issues people are talking about on here. Now think of all the kids with fewer resources, with fewer childcare options. There are at least 9 kids in our PK class who have never logged on, not once. DL isn't meeting their needs either.

Didn’t say the kids are brats. They are 3-4 years old but they are a product of the home environment. Negative whiny DCUM mommies and daddies who just can’t get any work done! Argh!!

There are kids who are getting nothing from DL but I assure you it’s because of extreme poverty and other horrible life circumstances. You have no idea. You can’t even begin to understand what the other side is going through.

Stop being negative. See the good in it- there is SOME glimmer of good. DCUM mommies are some of the most fortunate in the city- even if you have to help your kid while you are in some meeting of your own. If you are whining on this site- you probably have a job, you have food, you have a home and your health. Please stop with the woe is me. Feeding into your child’s misery doesn’t help anyone- especially your child. Your child is getting what they need- stop complaining. What do you think is going to happen when you send your child to school? A two hour nap and silent lunch? Sounds like a blast.

Have you ever heard of toxic positivity?

[Anonymous]

My PK child has been doing really well in DL. He still constantly asks when he can go to “real school” in a class. He did not get an in-person spot and since there is only one class in his school his teacher will be doing both simultaneously. This means the majority will be in person with a handful virtually. I know my kid is gonna be a mess when he sees his friends in an actual class and I really don’t know how I’m going to explain it. And I have a lot of doubts that the teacher will be able to focus on the DL kids when the majority of her class is in person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not working out for our PK3 kid. I have kind of given up. We do DL two days a week and our kid is in group care 2 days, and then we each take off one morning a week to be with her (we can usually muddle through the afternoon with lunch, nap-time, and taking turns with her, and still get in a half-day of work).

The DL is chaotic. It's frustrating because it's clear our daughter is really interested in learning her letters and in getting interaction with the teacher and other kids. But there is so much happening on the screen, it is so loud (SO much background noise from the other kid's mics) and there are constant technical issues. I still think she gets something out of it, because she will bring up the letter of the day and talk about it and practice writing it on her own when we aren't on DL. But the actual experience of doing the live lessons via DL feels tortuous. We have a bunch of lessons back to back and usually we just do the first one and then tap out. At that point, we all need a break and my kid needs to move around and talk. It feels really unkind to try and make her sit in front of a screen for long periods of time.

It doesn't feel sustainable. I'm not happy with her group care setting either -- I don't think she's getting much stimulation despite promises of music and art and nature walks. It was the best we could find that we could afford and had availability.

I would jump at in-person PK in a heartbeat. Our family will do whatever we need to do to make that option viable. My main focus right now is to try and keep my kid from hating school too much, so that she has an opportunity to go to actual school, she might actually enjoy it.

Communikids has a hybrid in person program that is part of the free DC OSSE preschool expansion. Maybe you could do that? I think they might still have spots. https://communikids.com/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 4yo said he hates it so much that I should be sent to jail for making him attend each day so there's that. His teachers are doing the best they can.

Our kids would get along! My daughter’s art is drawing pictures of iPads while drawing a big “x” across them and saying “no school!” Over and over.

You realize you are the adult in this situation, right? I don’t understand why you are allowing that. She would probably be the same way in school. Except the teacher would have said “that’s not ok”. Doesn’t take a lot of skill to have a better attitude when things don’t go your way. In our home (no nanny, no pod) we tell our kid this is what it is and guess what? She’s learning a lot.

What concerns me THE most about going back to in person will be all of these horrifying behaviors/attitudes kids have picked up at home While DL because of their parents garbage attitude.

Your kids will be the ones disrupting the learning in the class with the crying and whining and being super delayed because you let them watch cartoons rather than ask them to pay attention during their 20 minute class. Seriously, get over it!!!

This generation of parents Will be the piece of work generation. In ten years when something doesn’t go their child’s way, they will probably blame DL Pk3.

You have no idea what you are talking about. My daughter loves school and always has. She hates DL and literally hides from it. She will crawl under her bed to avoid getting on a lesson. When she does get on a lesson, she literally shrinks out of view of the camera. And I don't blame her.

Her DL lessons are awful. Half the students join late, so the first have of any lesson is just the teacher interrupting herself to say hello to the new students and try to get them to mute/unmute or turn their cameras on. Half of the kids are doing DL without an adult, so they can't really participate (3 year olds don't know how to mute or unmute themselves), but the teacher is still trying (she wants to reach those kids).

People are having extremely disparate experiences with DL. This thread is a perfect example. Some parents are saying their PK kids are happy, others are miserable. Some of it is due to the kids personality and development (plus, at this age, some may have undiagnosed learning disabilities that could be greatly impacting their experience). It may also be due to the school, the teacher, the student cohort. Resources are huge.

The kids who are refusing to go on DL lessons are not being brats, they don't just need a good talking to. Being stricter is not necessarily the answer -- this is not normal school refusal. The DL they are being offered does not meet their learning needs. Full stop. And it's not a small problem. DCUM has a pretty well-resourced parent base, and look at all the issues people are talking about on here. Now think of all the kids with fewer resources, with fewer childcare options. There are at least 9 kids in our PK class who have never logged on, not once. DL isn't meeting their needs either.

Didn’t say the kids are brats. They are 3-4 years old but they are a product of the home environment. Negative whiny DCUM mommies and daddies who just can’t get any work done! Argh!!

There are kids who are getting nothing from DL but I assure you it’s because of extreme poverty and other horrible life circumstances. You have no idea. You can’t even begin to understand what the other side is going through.

Stop being negative. See the good in it- there is SOME glimmer of good. DCUM mommies are some of the most fortunate in the city- even if you have to help your kid while you are in some meeting of your own. If you are whining on this site- you probably have a job, you have food, you have a home and your health. Please stop with the woe is me. Feeding into your child’s misery doesn’t help anyone- especially your child. Your child is getting what they need- stop complaining. What do you think is going to happen when you send your child to school? A two hour nap and silent lunch? Sounds like a blast.

Have you ever heard of toxic positivity?

Would you prefer I throw beer cans at my child’s iPad every time teams doesn’t work or at whatever else doesn’t go her way? Sounds like a good use of everyone’s time and energy. F* it. You guys are right. I’m handling this all wrong. It’s so disgusting that I thought perhaps making light of a crappy situation was a good idea. What was I thinking when I encouraged my kid to engage with her teacher and school work. And that one time, when I told her that her job was to learn from her teacher- Jesus. Sorry everyone. I’m so sorry.

[Anonymous]

I unenrolled from PK-3 last September and moved to an in-person private school. While this is certain a financial commitment, it's the best decision I made.