Homeschooling right now

[smilie]

I'm losing my mind... I'm not a teacher. I don't know how to teach. I'm still working full-time while trying to teach 5th grade math, science, social studies, ELA. My DD conveniently "can't remember" the lessons they learned in school from this year. None of it. SOMEONE SEND ME A DRINK!!! I'm becoming unraveled.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I'm not teaching, either. My daughter's teachers are.

 

[choirfarm]

I'm so sorry. Yeah homeschooling is not meant to be done by people working full time, especially since you are having to do what someone else picked out for you!! ( Caveat, a few full time people can homeschool, but that is an exception not a rule!). How much longer do you have? Here in Texas parents have about 3 weeks left.

 

[spiders]

My 1st grader has Zoom meetings 4x a week. My wife has mostly been taking care of the assignments afterwards so I don't really much to say other than I was doing some of the math recently. I don't understand why they changed the way you add. My 1st grader basically had to explain to me how she was adding 42+35 because it's an entirely different technique.

 

[smilie]

I'm not teaching, either. My daughters teachers are.

Her teachers are available for questions, from 1:30 - 2:00 during the day. And she can send them a message and wait for their reply. I get a lot of emails from different teachers saying they are sorry to keep adding on to what the parents have to do... I understand but it's not easy. For teachers, kids and parents. Just needed to vent, and not in front of my kid.

 

[MarkLT1]

Thankfully we are starting to hit our stride here. Our 5th grader has always been very independent and responsible, so this has been no problem at all with him. He gets his lessons each morning, works his way through them. Asks my wife or myself a question here and there, but for the most part is self sufficient.

Our first grader on the other hand... well, he is a first grader- being 100% independent and responsible with learning is not a reasonable expectation in the first place for his age. The first few weeks, it was an absolute chore, sitting with him for hours, trying to get through his writing and reading. My wife and I were absolutely pulling our hair out. Then I reached out to his teacher, and had a chat. Essentially, I said "I assume with 25 kids in your class, that you aren't spending hours of 1-on-1 time with each individual student. She laughed and said "no, and neither should you be. You need to let go a bit." I asked how we could guide him, and let him work independently at the same time. Her answer was:

With first graders, the toughest time-wise is reading/writing. The math activities are designed such that the kids can figure it out like a puzzle. The reading and writing, they need more assistance. So, I recommend that for writing, you explain the assignment, and have them try on their own for 20 minutes. At the end of 20 minutes, if they are still struggling, you can write out a few sample sentence starters for them to use, things like:

"Insects all have..."

For an assignment where they are answering questions about insects. She also said to let them spell words incorrectly and make mistakes. Then you can come back, and help them with some of the rough edges (not looking for perfection). This has been INCREDIBLE for us. Now when it comes to reading time, instead of it being my wife or myself sitting with him for 2 hours, to get him to write 3 simple sentences, we explain the lesson to him, have him go at it on his own for 20-30 minutes, then help him with a word here or there. It is now taking 3-5 minutes of helping per section, rather than 1-2 hours, AND he seems to be doing a lot better.

We've also employed similar measures with reading- letting go a bit, letting him make some mistakes, and then helping him out on the back end.

Hoping this might be helpful for others, as it has been a sanity saver for us.

 

[JimMIA]

My middle daughter is a Kindergarten teacher. I've taught a lot of college and professional courses, but I can't imagine teaching one day of Kindergarten in person.

Teaching Kindergarten online? Incomprehensible, but she's doing it and doing a super job!

 

[NYCgrrl]

I'm losing my mind... I'm not a teacher. I don't know how to teach. I'm still working full-time while trying to teach 5th grade math, science, social studies, ELA. My DD conveniently "can't remember" the lessons they learned in school from this year. None of it. SOMEONE SEND ME A DRINK!!! I'm becoming unraveled.

Here you are!

My 1st grader has Zoom meetings 4x a week. My wife has mostly been taking care of the assignments afterwards so I don't really much to say other than I was doing some of the math recently. I don't understand why they changed the way you add. My 1st grader basically had to explain to me how she was adding 42+35 because it's an entirely different technique.

I think it was changed to give younger children a better idea of the concepts of Algebra. In a cockeyed way it works I guess but of course I still remember the old ways - 2 of them as a matter of fact.
This too shall pass.

 

[brockash]

I'm losing my mind... I'm not a teacher. I don't know how to teach. I'm still working full-time while trying to teach 5th grade math, science, social studies, ELA. My DD conveniently "can't remember" the lessons they learned in school from this year. None of it. SOMEONE SEND ME A DRINK!!! I'm becoming unraveled.

Are they grading it? Most around here are not and as someone who works at an elementary school; I really wouldn't stress over it. Especially if they're not grading it (which in my opinion they shouldn't be especially for ES - just too many different factors for kiddos) just make sure she's reading, ask her questions about it, maybe on the weekend do some math doing fun activities like baking or a craft project and just let her do what she can. Take this time to teach life skills and let the teachers catch them up next year. I hate to hear how stressful this stuff is for kids and parents. School wasn't made this way for a reason...I'm sure in the grand scheme of things she'll be okay with every lil thing completed.

 

[MarkLT1]

I hate to hear how stressful this stuff is for kids and parents. School wasn't made this way for a reason...I'm sure in the grand scheme of things she'll be okay with every lil thing completed.

Absolutely. In fact, this was another thought from our first grader's teacher. She essentially said "If he doesn't learn another thing for the rest of the school year, he will be just fine. Really, we want them to just keep their minds active, keep practicing the skills they already have, and above all, feel safe and secure with their families with all that is going on." To that end, she said "if there are some assignments that just wont work on a given day... skip them. If there are some days that there is simply too much work going on, and you can't attend to school.. skip it. Give him some books, have him build with legos, explore out in the yard, etc.. just keep his mind active.. it doesn't matter WHAT they're learning at this point.. just that they are doing some sort of learning, which doesn't need to be some formal school stuff."

 

[smilie]

Are they grading it? Most around here are not and as someone who works at an elementary school; I really wouldn't stress over it. Especially if they're not grading it (which in my opinion they shouldn't be especially for ES - just too many different factors for kiddos) just make sure she's reading, ask her questions about it, maybe on the weekend do some math doing fun activities like baking or a craft project and just let her do what she can. Take this time to teach life skills and let the teachers catch them up next year. I hate to hear how stressful this stuff is for kids and parents. School wasn't made this way for a reason...I'm sure in the grand scheme of things she'll be okay with every lil thing completed.

Yes, I got an email yesterday reminding us to get everything in on time because they are putting grades in this week. And I have to do her Progress Monitoring this week as well. Which I hate to do all of this because she's not getting the full schooling that she should be. I really don't think they should be graded on this stuff. But what are you going to do?

 

[NYCgrrl]

I'm losing my mind... I'm not a teacher. I don't know how to teach. I'm still working full-time while trying to teach 5th grade math, science, social studies, ELA. My DD conveniently "can't remember" the lessons they learned in school from this year. None of it. SOMEONE SEND ME A DRINK!!! I'm becoming unraveled.

If you really want to know where she is in 5th grade math have her sit down and do the Khan Academy website's class that grades you with each concept/lesson. You'll find out quickly what she's up to in RL.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Her teachers are available for questions, from 1:30 - 2:00 during the day. And she can send them a message and wait for their reply. I get a lot of emails from different teachers saying they are sorry to keep adding on to what the parents have to do... I understand but it's not easy. For teachers, kids and parents. Just needed to vent, and not in front of my kid.

Half an hour a day for questions? That is insane.

 

[smilie]

Half an hour a day for questions? That is insane.

That's what I thought. And once a week they have a 20 minute zoom meeting.

 

[FigmentFinder]

I'm not teaching, either. My daughters teachers are.

It really depends on how your school is handling this. I hear of some people having zoom meetings with teachers and being able to reach them constantly with questions. This isn't the case for everyone. My daughter is only given websites to work on, no live lessons. The only contact I get is to let me know what she hasn't accomplished by 1:16; the teachers are working a half day schedule. I feel like I am homeschooling with online curriculum that I didn't choose. Sometimes my daughter and I spend quite a bit of time figuring out exactly how to enter the answers so the program marks them correct. I dislike one of the match programs (IXL math) very much and would have never chosen to work on that. So I feel like I am doing the teaching and not the teachers. I think it's very variable right now depending on how this is being handled in each individual school district.

My daughter is in third grade and while she can work independently, some of the lessons we are having technical issues figuring out what the program is asking for. I am working full time at home, so it's difficult to trouble shoot her lessons while still fulfilling what is needed for my job. She didn't even use all these programs at school, so she's not familiar with them either.

My school is grading the work and still giving report cards on it. So completing everything is not optional. I'm getting extremely frustrated with e-mails at less than 1:30 telling me what not done. Some of them almost appear rude to me, but I do know it's hard to convey tone through e-mail. We're in NJ, so we'll be doing this through June.

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

I hear you. . This has got to be one of the hardest things I've ever done. I have been working outside the house except for 2.5 weeks in quarantine due to DH testing positive.

We have to turn in all of my 3rd grader's work tomorrow. He has 2 subjects that he has just absolutely refused to do for the past 2 weeks - as in, I tell him to go do it and he just goes and takes a nap. I could care less at this point. I just want to be done. Him falling asleep is how he deals with stress, he just shuts down and out he goes.

The regular school work wasn't so bad - he blew right through the math, grammar, spelling and geography work. Literature and the 2 enrichment subjects had an obscene workload to begin with, then the teacher added 2 projects that required research, a written paragraph, a diorama and a model of venus (that had to be exactly 2 inches across). She'd better keep in mind that we were quarantined and had no way to get to a store to get craft supplies when she grades them. She also gave them a 4 page front and back test in one of the enrichment subjects that I finally gave in and told him he could use his book to finish it and still ended up with him in tears after trying to finish it for 2 hours.

I've tried to cut the teacher some slack, she's supposed to be on maternity leave. However, she promises Zoom meetings then cancels them, gives out the weekly assignments then waits until the last minute (which means we've already completed them ) to tell us that she put the wrong page numbers in for something, and I just really really think that those project and the 2 extra subjects just should have been dropped altogether.

Sorry, long rant. I always thought I'd like to homeschool this kid if given the chance. These last few weeks have cured me of that idea.

 

[SaintsManiac]

That's what I thought. And once a week they have a 20 minute zoom meeting.

We have a "hello Zoom" meeting once a week just so everyone can see each other, but the teachers have been available all day. Heck my kid's math teacher responded to me at 10pm last night! I was expecting a reply this morning.

I am sorry they aren't being more available to you. That really sucks.

 

[smilie]

It really depends on how your school is handling this. I hear of some people having zoom meetings with teachers and being able to reach them constantly with questions. This isn't the case for everyone. My daughter is only given websites to work on, no live lessons. The only contact I get is to let me know what she hasn't accomplished by 1:16; the teachers are working a half day schedule. I feel like I am homeschooling with online curriculum that I didn't choose. Sometimes my daughter and I spend quite a bit of time figuring out exactly how to enter the answers so the program marks them correct. I dislike one of the match programs (IXL math) very much and would have never chosen to work on that. So I feel like I am doing the teaching and not the teachers. I think it's very variable right now depending on how this is being handled in each individual school district.

My daughter is in third grade and while she can work independently, some of the lessons we are having technical issues figuring out what the program is asking for. I am working full time at home, so it's difficult to trouble shoot her lessons while still fulfilling what is needed for my job. She didn't even use all these programs at school, so she's not familiar with them either.

My school is grading the work and still giving report cards on it. So completing everything is not optional. I'm getting extremely frustrated with e-mails at less than 1:30 telling me what not done. Some of them almost appear rude to me, but I do know it's hard to convey tone through e-mail. We're in NJ, so we'll be doing this through June.

This 100%. I'm right there with you. We have over a month left and it's getting more and more difficult. Each week it's like they institute a new change on how they're doing it too. So it is getting more and more confusing and frustrating, especially for DD.

 

[FigmentFinder]

This 100%. I'm right there with you. We have over a month left and it's getting more and more difficult. Each week it's like they institute a new change on how they're doing it too. So it is getting more and more confusing and frustrating, especially for DD.

I don't know how long your school took to plan your distance learning plan. But ours closed Friday the 14th for one day to plan lessons. Then on Sunday told us we were starting the next day. So I feel like the arrangements were very quickly done. I wonder if other districts that closed for a week to plan and took spring break to plan have better plans.

Last year they spent all of second grade learning to write cursive. I wish our school had taught typing. It's very hard for a child to type full essays without being able to keyboard. I hate seeing the memes from people about how kids aren't taught cursive any longer. I keep wondering why my school spent so much time on an antiquated skill that my child can't even use right now.

Currently drinking diet coke and eyeing the bottle of Malibu. Since we have finished for the day.

 

[smilie]

I don't know how long your school took to plan your distance learning plan. But ours closed Friday the 14th for one day to plan lessons. Then on Sunday told us we were starting the next day. So I feel like the arrangements were very quickly done. I wonder if other districts that closed for a week to plan and took spring break to plan have better plans.

Last year they spent all of second grade learning to write cursive. I wish our school had taught typing. It's very hard for a child to type full essays without being able to keyboard. I hate seeing the memes from people about how kids aren't taught cursive any longer. I keep wondering why my school spent so much time on an antiquated skill that my child can't even use right now.

Currently drinking diet coke and eyeing the bottle of Malibu. Since we have finished for the day.

They were just like you, 2 days closed then "here's your lesson plans" take them and go! Every week is a new challenge added on to it.

I envy you with the Malibu! Lol... I'm at work and can't take part. But after the day we're having today, there's a giant bottle of wine in my future tonight!!