It was terrible for us last spring with my 5 and 7 year old so with a friend with two children the same age we hired a teacher for the four children for 16 hours a week. The children are in K and 1 and they seem to be thriving. The teacher set up an incredible little class room in her home. We will keep this going until virtual or hybrid is over because with my job I just didn’t have the time to sit with them. They miss their school friends but there is very little social interaction right now at the school.

I have 4th and 6th graders. My 6th grader needs no help. He is fine on his own.

My 4th grader needs help. He is getting a lot better though. At the end of the day, I click through all 10 of his folders to see if he has any assignments he hasn’t done or submitted. I delegated a science project to Dh. It was very involved, took a long time and required a video presentation to be uploaded. There was no way my 4th grader could do this by himself.

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I also think they should give them Mondays off. My friend’s school district gives each child two assignments per day that are a Must Do and two Could Do. You can do these asynchronous or log on and listen to class. All assignments need to be handed in by the Sunday of the assigned week. Much better, more flexibility.

All these different portals and apps and one thing and another. We’re done with it already. Especially with younger kids who need assistance.

I hope this is just kindergarten. 2 must do and 2 could do assignments per day?! REALLY?!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My goal for my older kids is just to get them to manage their own work the first semester. I don't care how they do, I need them just to learn to do it and double check that they've done it.

I had this goal too, but the teachers aren’t even facilitating that for the kids to be able to do.

Tell the teachers this, over and over.

Or let the kid fall fly on his face, over and over and tell the teacher this all is not working out well. At all.

The school needs to hear, over and over, how they are failing a large cohort of students for which virtual teaching is ineffective.

No, it's honestly much better than it was in the spring, partly because I have figured out how to organize it for them, and partly because the teachers have had more training/ practice. here are some of my tips:
1. Color coded folders for homeroom, science, art, etc. Folders of materials that follow the same color code.
2. Printed color-coded schedules for the kids that are pasted in front of their work space.
3. I created home screen icons for their iPads so that they can just use the icon to click on the respective links for homeroom meeting, PE, etc.
4. I have set alarms to go off 2 minutes before any synchronous session so that they can leave what they're doing and get back to their devices. 10 minutes before morning meeting to gather materials.
5. I blocked off time on my calendar, 20 minutes with each of two kids, to make sure they are caught up with assignments for each day, before the end of their "school day".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I was having these issues in the spring. I pulled them out of school and am homeschooling instead. It’s pretty easy to stay on top of it since I am in charge of it, there are no platforms, and it occurs around my schedule.
Bonus, grandparents and family can help out over FaceTime or zoom.

Same, PP. We have been homeschooling for a few weeks now and it is so much less stressful. We are trying out different curriculums and doing it on our schedule. Not perfect, but 95% less stress on the family as a whole, and they are learning.

The level of organization expected of elementary school students at our FCPS school (multiple transitions, breaks, links, assignments, plaforms) was in my opinion more than most college kids typically handle.

Are you keeping up with the school district's curriculum so they can reintegrate once the school is back open, or do you not plan on sending them back? I'm quite happy with DL for my kids (MCPS) but I'm sort of intrigued by the challenge of home schooling them. I just don't want them totally out of whack with their peers when they go back.

I’m keeping up with math. Other than that, not really.
What are you worried about them being out of whack with?

How to cope with the frustration? I am frustrated when the teacher e-mails that we are missing an assignment. This is 1st grade. This is not developmentally appropriate. On top of this the teacher my DD has is slightly depressed herself so it makes things worse. After listening to her teach that 1 +3 = 3 +1 over and over again I'm dead.

OMG, I had to respond to just this! DS, 1st, who is hardly an academic superstar, finally just broke down and blurted, 1+6=6+1 (equals 7), 2+5=5+2 (equals 7), and all the way down the line, and then said "so can I GO now!?" It is unbearable to watch on Zoom. (And I wanted to say, YES, yes, for the love of God...)

But to your point OP, basically my 1st & 3rd graders stay on top of things when my work is light, and everything goes to crap when work is busy (or there are a lot of inflexible meetings, etc.).

This whole thing makes me feel like I'm in some sort of "Waiting for Guffman" docu-satire.

Anonymous wrote:

I was having these issues in the spring. I pulled them out of school and am homeschooling instead. It’s pretty easy to stay on top of it since I am in charge of it, there are no platforms, and it occurs around my schedule.
Bonus, grandparents and family can help out over FaceTime or zoom.

Same, PP. We have been homeschooling for a few weeks now and it is so much less stressful. We are trying out different curriculums and doing it on our schedule. Not perfect, but 95% less stress on the family as a whole, and they are learning.

The level of organization expected of elementary school students at our FCPS school (multiple transitions, breaks, links, assignments, plaforms) was in my opinion more than most college kids typically handle.

Are you keeping up with the school district's curriculum so they can reintegrate once the school is back open, or do you not plan on sending them back? I'm quite happy with DL for my kids (MCPS) but I'm sort of intrigued by the challenge of home schooling them. I just don't want them totally out of whack with their peers when they go back.

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I also think they should give them Mondays off. My friend’s school district gives each child two assignments per day that are a Must Do and two Could Do. You can do these asynchronous or log on and listen to class. All assignments need to be handed in by the Sunday of the assigned week. Much better, more flexibility.

All these different portals and apps and one thing and another. We’re done with it already. Especially with younger kids who need assistance.

that is an excellent approach!