I’m extremely excited that our School District is offering a 100% virtual option for this coming school year (which they are set to begin around Mid August). I have signed ALL 3 of our school-aged kids up for this option. To us, it didn’t make any sense to have Liam virtual but his brothers going to school, possibly contracting Covid and bringing it home to Liam. So they’ll have a 100% virtual curriculum of things to keep them busy during the year so that they can stay safe and still get the education they need, and deserve.
Had our school district NOT offered this option, my wife and I had already decided that we would be doing “at home schooling” for the next year anyway…but this way will be much easier.
Tough on parents though since that means they also have to work from home. I hope all of the parents have that option! It is a new world for parenting, or maybe it is a return to the old methods!? Best wishes for you and your family @ClaudnDaye managing the virtual education!
For some families, but we’re fortunate that my wife runs her business from home and I am able to work fully remotely from home. We’ve always been very involved in our kids education (studying at nights, helping with projects, keeping on top of them about turning things in, tracking their grades, etc., etc.,) so this year there will just be more of all that. I feel sorry for any parents who may have our same health concerns for any of their kiddos who don’t have the same opportunities that we have with working from home, or who may not have schools who are offering 100% virtual options for the kids in their districts.
That is great you both are so involved with your kids’ education. Yes, with the kids learning from home, they will have access to you 24 hours a day for help, so fortunately, you both are all set!!
I’ve heard that many of the schools in NYC were not at all prepared for virtual classes. My neighbors grandkids did not even get homework assignments or provide lesson plans to the parents during the last few months of school. And of course, I am sure there are some kids without computers all together and unable to do virtual classes.
It took our school about a month to get a plan rolled out - COVID happened so suddenly in districts that this really was a new thing that nearly no school district had prepped for. The requirements in our school for the remainder of last year (about 2 months missed) were all optional. But the requirements for this coming school year are that if you are doing 100% virtual, you will have a definite curriculum and completing 100% of that curriculum is required.
Yes, I know we’re priveleged in my house in many ways, including all my kids having their own Desktop computers to get their work completed on (“Santa” delivered each of my kids their own computers (all in pieces - that we all built together on Christmas morning. They watched what I did, and did the same with their own computers.) Erin and I constantly remind each other how fortunate we are. If I lost my job, we would also be screwed since I am the main bread winner in our house. There are so many kids around the country who depend on traditional brick-and-mortar schools to even EAT RIGHT. Our country is far from the great nation many like to believe it to be. So many underpriveleged people with so much wealth at the top.
That is super! What a good daddy! Ingenious way to get the kids involved and learning by doing!
I don’t think NYC has yet decided on the new school year. It will be very tough if school is not in session. Most parents can’t be home with their kids, and kids need supervision, so it is tough all the way around.
That’s great, so glad to hear your district is doing that! Having options is good so people can do what works for them.
The Ministry of Education here has not come out with their plans about September yet. I am hoping it will be a hybrid model like they did in June. They are also talking about how to transition between in-person and remote instruction, if needed. There’s some talk of full in-class instruction, but we will see.
Cases here have remained low and steady for the past two months, even with many things re-opening, including schools. (I got contacted about my pre-scheduled July dentist appointment, but am not quite ready for that yet, even with the extensive precautions they are taking.) Hopefully people continue to remain vigilant over the summer and society can function semi-normally until we have a vaccine. I have yet to decide where my own comfort level lies in terms of interacting with available services if numbers remain as low as they have been so far.
The brick-and-mortar schools here, for those who choose to attend is going to be drastically different than kids are used too. They are only filling the school with 50% of the kids that they usually do. They will be alternating days that the kids will be attending. They will be social distancing and masks will be required and the brick-and-mortar instruction will be supplemented by virtual education on the days you aren’t in the school. I think our county has come up with great alternatives to keep the kids engaged and learning while still taking COVID seriously.
That’s basically how the schools functioned here in June. Instruction was part-time, staggered start and end times (as well as staggered recess and lunch times), everyone entering the building had to use hand sanitizer and get a temperature check, no sharing of food and students ate at their own desks, physical distancing markers on floors, teachers and students had to clean hands whenever transitioning between rooms and before/after eating, only one student allowed in the bathroom at a time, outdoor instruction provided whenever possible, parents and visitors not allowed in the school building, students sent to an isolation room and/or home if sick. Masks weren’t mandatory, but students and teachers could wear them if they wanted to. There was also an acknowledgement that maintaining physical distance is not always possible at all times. In June, there were two reported cases in teachers, but both were from outside close contacts, not linked to the school (the schools were shut down for the remainder of the year). As far as I’ve heard, no students have caught the virus from being in school here, but in Quebec (which was affected far, far worse than we ever were) there was an outbreak in a school.
@ClaudnDaye I’m glad they’re offering this. My guess is our district will offer some combo of distance/in-person schooling to comply with the governor’s guidelines on school safety. I’m not sure whether we’d send Samson; it really depends on what case counts are looking like at that time. Right now in California things are not looking great, so I’m not super optimistic. That’s despite us doing everything “right” for the first 3 months of the pandemic.
I feel very torn with distance learning; I felt like my kids did not make much progress doing stuff online and generally I would have preferred if they had sent home a packet, and had phone calls. My kids got epic zoom fatigue. If they are offering a mainly remote option, I may just get a tutor or homeschool my kids because it’s actually less work than figuring out how to turn in all this work online, making the kids listen to remote lessons, and the other stuff that went with online learning. They also said seeing their friends in online classes, but not being able to hang out in person, made them sad.
I can work a full day this summer because my kids play pretty self-sufficiently and Mitch and I have staggered schedules. But during the school day, it was impossible to get a full day’s work in.
I’m taking the long view. Nothing else is important to me. I don’t want to chance death to get my kids in brick and mortar schools and risk them not being around till I’m Grandpa to them. Any short term sacrifice I have to make to keep my family alive is a small price to pay imo. They may suffer socially, they may suffer a bit by missing their friends, they may not get the best tutelage that a certified teacher could offer them but they will be alive today, tomorrow and when I’m an old man. Their mother and i have graduate degrees so we’ll do with what we have until there is a vaccine and i have a good feeling about their chances at mingling in crowds again.
What I hate most is that we cannot control the idiots. I can ask my kids to be as safe as they can but all it takes is one kid with idiot parents saying “it’s a hoax” (aka the school bullies) to get my kids sick, because they lack the good sense of a turnip. There are too many people out there asking the zombies to eat them… We won’t be those people.
We plan to weather this storm - however long it takes.
Our district is offering traditional school (masks required) and e-learning from home.
I’m sending my kids back to school.
The reason is this: I closed my backyard to all of our neighbor friends for two months. Our yard is the common hangout for everyone near us bc of our toys, popsicles, and swing set. When I reopened our yard and let my boys play with the other kids, their emotional health Dramatically improved. I didn’t realize the extent to which they were struggling with the lockdown until this change. Their newly developed sleep issues disappeared immediately. Their happiness is off the charts.
I’m glad most everyone has options.
If I hadn’t seen this emotional change with my own eyes for my specific children, I would have gone with e-learning for next year. But they need, and most people need, social interaction.
Much of life and much of diabetes is risk mitigation. I respect everyone’s choice for their own family. And with risk mitigation in mind, I’m making a different choice than I previously anticipated that I’d make going forward.
I have a colleague who sent her kids back to school when they re-opened to optional in-person instruction in June because of this exact reason. Her kids were really struggling with the lack of direct social contact. And even though they had to stay distanced at school, just seeing their friends and teachers in person made them SO much happier.
And I agree completely about risk mitigation, too. That’s what the next year or two will be all about. And what life is about in general, too. Everyone’s comfort level will be different, and will likely change based on local conditions. There are upcoming events that I will have no choice but to attend in person (medical appointments and possibly moving), so at some point I will have to get up the courage to venture out a bit myself (with strict precautions, of course).
I’m extremely introverted, and although I’m coping just fine, after four months solid living alone and not leaving my apartment building, even I am craving for some actual in-person human contact and scenery that isn’t my four walls. And, so far at least, Canada is demonstrating that it is possible to go about one’s daily life safely if strict precautions are followed. If we manage to keep that up over the next two months, I may even be comfortable going back to work, but we’ll see.
It’s times like these I’m very happy that we have 8 people in my house. When I was growing up, my family was very religious and we were allowed no “worldly” friends (anytime not in our religion) - so my 8 siblings and I grew up socializing only with each other, but man did we have a blast doing it. Glad for my large family during Covid. I know people who are either alone, or don’t have large families must be craving social interaction.
We will all do what makes us comfortable and I wish you guys luck!
For those of you parents here who have type 1, what are you thinking for school in the fall for your kids? If you are sending them how are you planning to mitigate risk of them transmitting the virus within your household? I have one child (age 16) at a large public high school and am very concerned about the potential for her to pick up the virus (even though our district is being thoughtful about preparing for a possible return to in-school learning). My other child (age 10) is at a relatively small private school, which is also being thoughtful about preparations, but also has the benefit of already small class sizes and lots of extra physical space to utilize. That said, I am also worried about her picking up the virus. Neither of the schools have published plans/options for the fall yet. Both are doing fairly well in the strict isolation that we’ve been under, but have also been happy on the few occasions they’ve been able to have physically distanced visits with friends. I am just trying to get my thoughts in order to make what will have to be a quick decision on what to do. Hoping everyone is well - Jessica
Our son has T1D and he is going back to school, our school however is doing some pretty interesting stuff, although not all the plans have been finalized. It seems that we are heading down a path where the kids are being given the recommended amount of space, engineers are working on airflow, and they are going to minimize all movement in the school, so kids will only go in every other day, and the kids will be grouped so only the teachers need to move for most period switches, and the only other movement will be to the lunch room. So even though my son is going to a large high school, he probably will only have contact with 15-30 kids each day and of course everyone will be masked. The only thing we haven’t seen is how they will handle all of his AP classes (5) that he is signed up for one of which is AP ceramics which is going to require access to a specific space.
It’s a good option for those for whom it works. Unfortunately neither my wife or I can work from home so we’re facing tough decisions if this area can’t get ahead of this situation. I have enough paid leave until the end of 2020… then what? Early retirement? I always said I wanted to retire very early but pictured it being a little more on my own terms.
Our school district tried to do online learning when they closed schools early… it was a total fail. Granted they didn’t have much time to actually prepare for it and make it work, so maybe by now they’ll have a lot of kinks worked out…last spring it was completely ineffective in our district though
Best wishes for you and your family 
When I was growing up, my family was very religious and we were allowed no “worldly” friends (anytime not in our religion) - so my 8 siblings and I grew up socializing only with each other, but man did we have a blast doing it. Glad for my large family during Covid. I know people who are either alone, or don’t have large families must be craving social interaction.