First Week

 

 

I thought Friday's post would be a 'home schooling' report OR how we survived the week.

We decided to do virtual learning for a number of reasons... One is we feel the lil one will benefit from being in her class even virtually.  (our school is live streaming the classes - so if/when we decide to send her back to school - she will be in the exact same class she has been learning from at home) Second is safety obviously - we do not trust the 'safety health' policies in place...... for example our Premier has now ruled that one cannot gather in groups of more than 10 indoors - yet the classrooms are groups of at least 20!!  AND Finally - I am a RETIRED teacher ... and retired for a reason - I'm old!!  virtual learning just made so much sense ... she'll be on the same page as everyone else - learning the same things at the same level....... and I can lend a helping hand if she gets stuck.  

Soooooooooo how did the first week go???

Instead of having her in the living room (like in March) or in the kitchen (which was my first thought - until I realized I wouldn't be able to work in the kitchen when she was in class) I set up a learning center in her bedroom......... 

As the teacher posts work sheets I print them and put them on the corner of her desk.. I have taught her to add the due date to her calendar that hangs over her desk so she can do some time management.

We bought 4 duo tangs - different colours for each subject - that are in the silver file holder....... pencils beside it.. scribble paper beside that........ everything in easy reach. Every day after school finishes I photograph all her worksheets / writing and post it to the 'assignments' page of Teams.  The teacher then can mark it and send comments back to the lil one.

 This distance learning has some definite advantages to in class learning...... mainly in our case.. I can listen / watch and make notes of areas that need work.... like french.  The lil one is that good kid ... quiet kid.. the one who sits in the back of the class and can avoid being called on.  First day of french I double checked her work and was shocked she had NO idea what the vocabulary words meant - or how to pronounce them.  Math class had been about 'place values' and she was clueless.  Now I review her work with her at the end of the day - and if there are areas she has not understood it becomes 'homework'.  'Mother' had agreed to do french work with her over the weekends so I made a list of words she can't pronounce properly and is struggling to remember what they mean......... hopefully 'Mother' will actually do the 'homework' and help out. (please please let me be pleasantly surprised!)

Were there glitches ?? Oh hell yes.  One day I could hear the teacher telling the lil one her mike must be muted cause she couldn't hear her.  I went in and tried to figure out why the mike wasn't working........ landed up grabbing her father's computer and doing a switch in mid stream... Turns out it wasn't our computer at all!  The day before at the end of the day the teacher had muted the virtual kids' mikes ...... and forgot!  The teacher puts up the assignments willy nilly that need to be printed .  It would make it so much easier for us parents if she picked one time and uploaded the work every day at the same time......... it stresses me ya know - not knowing when new assignments have been uploaded.  It would also be nice if the teacher could figure out how to upload in PDF so we can print from the screen.  As it is .. I have to download the file to my pc .. and then print it.  GAH!

OH and I am expected to teach gym.  This week I found a 30 minute yoga video for kids and the lil one did that ..... and loved it.  I think I will look for a dance class video and maybe an aerobics video. 

All in all the first week has gone well.  I am not nearly as stressed or tired as I was in March - June.  AND knowing the lil one is safe makes it all worthwhile - especially as I read about cases of covid popping up in schools and even some schools having to close for 14 days.

Life is good when we have survived week one of homeschooling.