Parents of 5th graders - let’s talk

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

I can't say what the status of other fifth graders are, but I disagree with PP who say that the loss of that 2nd grade year is immaterial. (I agree with those who say everyone was gone March-end of their first grade year).
I am a FP who had a then-4th grader and a middle schooler at home doing online learning that year, and then my next foster kid was in 2nd grade at the time, and the previous FP chose not to send them back to school in Feb. when schools reopened at lower capacity. We changed that immediately.
The middle schooler was bright and read for pleasure, but still, online class was not engaging her and she was not submitting work (her bio mom obviously was not able to support).
The second placement, at end of second grade, could not read vowel sounds correctly and could not read any consonant blends, and could not add 1 to a number with accuracy... you can imagine the uphill climb in 3rd grade!!
The 3rd grade teacher at her Title 1 school is probably one of the best teachers I have ever encountered. The math progress that year was astounding.
I don't think these kids will ever fully recover academically.

[Anonymous]

Why is this not in the elementary school forum?

[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.

What’s wrong with 5th graders having their own IPhone?

Most of the kids in DD’s class have them.

“Well, if her classmates have them, then 5th graders having iPhones MUST be a good idea!!”

Said no engaged parent ever.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't say what the status of other fifth graders are, but I disagree with PP who say that the loss of that 2nd grade year is immaterial. (I agree with those who say everyone was gone March-end of their first grade year).
I am a FP who had a then-4th grader and a middle schooler at home doing online learning that year, and then my next foster kid was in 2nd grade at the time, and the previous FP chose not to send them back to school in Feb. when schools reopened at lower capacity. We changed that immediately.
The middle schooler was bright and read for pleasure, but still, online class was not engaging her and she was not submitting work (her bio mom obviously was not able to support).
The second placement, at end of second grade, could not read vowel sounds correctly and could not read any consonant blends, and could not add 1 to a number with accuracy... you can imagine the uphill climb in 3rd grade!!
The 3rd grade teacher at her Title 1 school is probably one of the best teachers I have ever encountered. The math progress that year was astounding.
I don't think these kids will ever fully recover academically.

I believe this especially because kids who were in 1st grade when Covid hit likely experienced a huge amount of learning loss from what they'd been working on in 1st. It is very easy for me to believe that a kid who had been a beginning reader right when Covid happened would essentially lose most of their literacy knowledge when they switched to online school -- likely the end of 1st was a total loss because March-May of 2020 was a lot of people trying to get computers set up in their homes and teachers learning the software for the first time. For many kids, learning basically stopped on the day Covid closed schools.

Kids in older grades could more easily get back on track via online learning in fall 2020, as they had more experience with learning and were more likely to be able to adapt. But for a 1st grader who basically lost a lot of their 1st grade literacy, and had only 6.5 months of elementary education under their belt, I could see them just never getting back up to speed.

I think kids who had parents at home who had the resources/capacity to work closely with them 1:1 could overcome that, but that's really not most families. My family was able to do that but only because I was able to go PT for the Covid year and because DH and I were both working remotely. Pretending that was the norm instead of a privileged situation for us would be ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see fewer effects in my 5th grader’s class than in my 8th grader’s class.

I've heard this from other parents with kids those ages. It sounds like math and social development were both heavily impacted.

totally agree. I have 5th and 8th right now.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for this immediate PP. I wished so much that the school systems could have just admitted that a year's worth of learning was lost, and not expect children to make that up and also get the current year's work done, too.

[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.